Scenic Place in Conwy

The Fairy Glen on the River Conwy near Betws-y-Coed in the Conwy Valley is a short but exceptionally beautiful wooded gorge where the river descends through a series of rapids, pools and small falls in a setting of ancient sessile oak woodland and moss-covered rock that creates one of the most atmospheric and most intimate natural landscapes in Snowdonia. The glen is reached by a short woodland path from the road near Fairy Glen Farm and the combination of the enclosed gorge, the clear water and the quality of the ancient woodland creates a nature experience of great delicacy and beauty. The sessile oak woodland of the Fairy Glen is one of the finest examples of Atlantic oakwood in the Conwy Valley, the ancient trees draped in ferns and mosses in the moist sheltered conditions of the gorge creating the characteristic western British oceanic woodland of exceptional botanical richness. The woodland floor supports a diverse community of woodland plants including wood sorrel, wood anemone and various ferns, and the combination of the tree canopy and the understorey creates layers of habitat for the woodland birds of the Snowdonia valleys. The name Fairy Glen reflects the Victorian Romantic response to this kind of sheltered, mossy, rushing-stream landscape, which appeared to those nineteenth-century visitors to provide the ideal habitat for the supernatural fairy beings of Celtic tradition. Many similar wooded gorges across Wales and Scotland bear the same name, but the Conwy example is among the finest and most accessible.

Tryfan is widely regarded as one of the finest mountains in Wales and arguably in Britain, a dramatic peak of Ordovician volcanic rock rising to 917 metres above the Ogwen Valley in Snowdonia National Park with a character and personality quite unlike any other Welsh mountain. Unlike most of Snowdonia's major peaks, which can be ascended on straightforward paths by walkers of moderate experience, Tryfan demands genuine scrambling on all of its main ridges, and the final approach to the summit involves hands-on rock scrambling that gives it a mountaineering quality unusual for a mountain of this height. The mountain's profile from the A5 road below is immediately compelling: a jagged, pointed ridge of grey and orange rhyolite rising steeply above the boggy floor of the Nant Ffrancon valley with none of the rounded, heathery summits characteristic of many Welsh hills. The rock architecture of the three buttresses that divide the east face into a series of steep, terraced faces provides some of the finest ridge scrambling in Wales on the North Ridge, which follows the crest of the mountain from the valley floor to the summit with continuous interest and occasional exposure. The summit of Tryfan is marked by two upright stone columns known as Adam and Eve, approximately two metres high, positioned close enough together that an athletic leap from one to the other is technically possible. This jump, which grants the jumper the Freedom of Tryfan according to local tradition, requires sufficient space to land, secure rock underfoot and a very good head for heights, as the drop from the summit rocks is considerable in every direction. Most visitors find that admiring Adam and Eve from a respectful distance is entirely satisfying. The Glyderau ridge connecting Tryfan to Glyder Fach and Glyder Fawr provides one of the finest mountain days in Wales, combining the Tryfan ascent with the extraordinary summit plateau of the Glyder range, strewn with angular rocks and dominated by the famous Cantilever stone.