We spent a long Bank Holiday weekend (Friday to Monday) exploring the north side of Gwynedd, North Wales.
This amount of time gave us the opportunity to do some fantastic walks, but we could have easily stayed for much longer. Sadly the great British weather did disrupt our plans on one day, but we easily managed to come up with a different activity to keep us busy.
Day 1
Having arrived at the car park late on the Friday morning we started our weekend searching for the 'Lonely Tree'.
This was pretty easy to find with the help of google maps, but when we went it was incredibly flooded. This meant that the mound it was on was completely submerged under the water and we couldn't get quite as close as we would have liked to.
Going on a Friday was a good choice as there were fewer people than we would expect there to be on a weekend. There were however still lots of people swimming, canoeing and in the village itself.
After visiting the tree, we walked up to the public toilets before heading back on ourselves towards Dolbadarn Castle.
Following the main road alongside Llyn Padarn and Llyn Peris there were some brilliant views over Dinorwic Quarry.
Exploring here was our first hike of the weekend and it turned out to also be our favourite. This was partly because of how easy it was to turn off the navigation and just explore, but mostly because of the fantastic views!
We followed the AllTrails route until we reached the row of houses (barracks ruins) and
from here we just followed our noses and explored.
There were plenty of ruins to explore and lots of views over Llanberis, Llyn Peris & Llyn Padarn.
As we headed back towards the main path we could see some mountain goats in the distance and there were plenty more paths to be explored. We followed the path east for a short while and a gap in the fence allowed us to climb higher for some more amazing views.
We then retraced our steps (west) to visit the main viewpoint. This was a lot busier than other areas of the quarry that we visited, no doubt due to the ease of getting there.
On our way back down near the barracks we met a herd of mountain goats with HUGE horns. The goats didn't seem at all fazed that we were there and they paid no attention to Flossie at all. Flossie on the other hand was terrified of the goats and she tripped Ady up whilst trying to run away from them in a mad panic! 🤕🤣
Once back at the bottom we headed back towards Llyn Pardarn, making a slight detour into Llanberis to buy a holiday fridge magnet (we get one for every holiday). We also managed to treat ourselves to an ice cream, before getting back in the car to go and find our Airbnb.
Our Airbnb was in Y Felinheli and was strategically chosen for it's proximity to both the Isle of Anglesey and Llanberis. We arrived a bit too early to check in, so we had a little walk across the waterfront and headed to the Garddfon Inn for a quick drink. We ended up visiting this lovely pub for a quick drink to recover after each of our hikes.
Checking-in to the Airbnb was relatively easy (lockbox) and the flat was well equipped with everything we needed.
We cooked our evening meal and settled down for the evening, getting an early night to prepare for the day ahead.
Day 2
We got up early on Day 2 to head out for a hike.
It was about a 15 minute drive from our Airbnb to the car park.
Once parked, the start of the walk was walking up a busy main road. This wasn't ideal with a dog, however we feel that it was better to do it in the morning as traffic was lighter.
Once off the road the hike up was rewarding with views, waterfalls and streams.
We were very tired once we had finished this hike, so we went back to the Airbnb (via the pub 😝) to cook our evening meal and rest ready for the day ahead.
Day 3
On Day 3, unfortunately the weather was not our friend, and we decided that it would be best to abandon our original plans.
We instead opted for the 'safer option' of sticking to lower ground and inland. First we did a short walk from Menai Bridge to Britannia Bridge, on the Gwynedd side of the river.
Next, we drove over the Menai bridge to complete the Belgian Promenade walk.
We then drove over to the Lord Nelson Viewpoint, briefly pulling over into this layby to get another view of the Menai Bridge.
After this we drove back to the Airbnb to pack as we were checking-out the next day.
Day 4
On Day 4 we decided to change our plans once again, this time completing one of the walks that we had planned to do the day before.
This was a great walk, and we particularly enjoyed the views of the lighthouse, but we later discovered that this could have been done via a much shorter walk (which may have been helpful given that we needed to travel home).
Overall this was a great short break - if we could guarantee good weather, we would 100% return for a much longer trip!
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