First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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The Afon Disgynfa rushed toward the 200-ft cliff, gathered into a bulge of glass-clear water at the very rim, then hurled itself headlong into space. Prone on a spur of beaten earth beside the cliff, I watched the cascade drop away as if drawn down by strong unseen hands. Then I raised my gaze to take in the view down the U-shaped valley into which the river was tumbling: grazing meadows and many small farms between towering hillsides and naked rock crags. Up here at the top of Pistyll Rhaeadr, the tallest waterfall in Wales, everything – mossy rocks, slippery stones, lichen-encrusted larch and hazel boughs – spoke of the damp, clean air of the surrounding Berwyn Hills, and of the all-pervading influence of the moistly exhaling fall.
Down on the footbridge at the base of the cliff, the waterfall itself was all the view one needed. It came hissing lazily out of the mist-whitened sky in lacy skeins, toppling gracefully into a half-way basin before bounding out through a natural bridge of polished black rock and crashing on down towards the spray-shrouded pool at the bottom. Is there a more stupendous and humbling spectacle in all Wales than this mighty cataract seen from below when furious with recent rainfall?
I lingered a long time on the bridge, till eyes and ears were sated with the movement and noise of falling water. Then I reluctantly turned my back and followed a path between mossy trees scarred with ancient penknife carvings of lovers’ names. Out on the hillside the path dropped between house-high boulders – perhaps hurled here by giants, though other sources suggest they may have fallen from the sharp ramparts of Craig y Mwn, the Mine Rock cliffs far above. Craig y Mwn was well named: here in times past quarrymen dug out slate and miners delved for lead and silver, leaving levels, tramway trackbeds and spoil heaps to litter the mountain.
The path threaded the hillsides where newborn lambs tottered after their blue-rumped mothers, plaintively bleating in shaky little voices. Smoke whirled from the wind-whipped chimneys of Tan-y-graig, where the farm dogs gave me a tongue-lashing from the ends of their chains. I stopped for a word with the farmer at Tyn-y-wern – the cost of feed, the price of lambs, the hard winter of 1982 when Pistyll Rhaeadr froze solid and daring souls went ice-climbing up its face. Fondling the head of Nell the ancient sheepdog of Tyn-y-wern, I leaned on the farmyard gate and sniffed woodsmoke, silage and wet grass, the essence of spring in the Berwyns, with the distant murmur of the great fall for a relish.
Start & finish: Pistyll Rhaeadr car park, SY10 0BZ – near Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant (OS ref 075294)
Getting there: A5 from Shrewsbury towards Oswestry; B4396 to Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant; ‘Waterfall’ (4 miles) signed on right in village
Walk (3 miles, moderate grade with one steep climb/descent, OS Explorer 255): From car park, down road to end (074295); right behind public lavatories, up signed path (yellow arrows) that zigzags steeply uphill. At top, track continues to arrow pointing right through gate (fingerpost) to top of waterfall (073295). NB Please take great care! Slippery rocks, unfenced 200-ft drop!) Return same way to foot of fall; cross by footbridge; follow path through trees, over fields, across mining spoil to Tan-y-graig (081285) and road at Tyn-y-wern (085287). Left to car park.
NB – Online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk
Lunch: Tan-y-Pistyll Café (01691-780392; www.pistyllrhaeadr.co.uk)
Accommodation: Wynnstay Arms, Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant (01691-780210; www.wynnstay-arms-hotel.com) – simple, comfortable, very friendly and helpful
More info: Llangollen TIC (01978-860828); www.visitwales.co.uk