Cadair Idris
Cadair Idris, known in Welsh as the Chair of Idris, is one of the most dramatic and most atmospheric mountains in Wales, a great ridge of volcanic rocks rising to 893 metres in the southern Snowdonia National Park whose combination of the precipitous northern face dropping to the glacial lake of Llyn Cau, the extraordinary views from the summit plateau and the rich body of legend associated with the mountain create one of the most compelling mountain walking experiences in Britain. The mountain is the second most climbed in Wales after Snowdon and provides walking routes of significant variety and challenge.
The summit plateau of Cadair Idris, the Penygadair ridge, provides views of exceptional range encompassing the Cambrian Mountains to the east, the Llŷn Peninsula to the north, Cardigan Bay to the west and the Brecon Beacons to the south, one of the most comprehensive panoramas available from any mountain summit in Wales. The view north from the summit down to the glacial lake of Llyn Cau, enclosed within the great corrie carved by the last Ice Age glacier, is one of the finest cliff and lake views in Wales.
The legend that those who spend a night on the summit will either die, go mad or awaken as a poet is one of the most celebrated and most repeated in Welsh mountain mythology, and the folk tradition of the giant Idris sitting on the mountain with the sky as his observatory adds a dimension of imaginative richness to an already dramatic landscape.