The Carneddau (lit. "the cairns"; Carneddau is a Welsh plural form, and is sometimes anglicised to Carnedds) are a group of mountains in Snowdonia, Wales. They include the largest contiguous areas of high ground (over 2,500 or 3,000 feet (910 m) high) in Wales and England, as well as six or seven of the highest peaks in the country—the Fourteen Peaks. The range also encloses a number of lakes such as Llyn Cowlyd and Llyn Eigiau, and the Aber Falls waterfalls. It is delimited by the Irish Sea to the north, the Conwy valley to the east, and by the A5 road from Betws-y-Coed to Bethesda to the south and west. The area covers nearly 200 square kilometres, about 10% of the area of Snowdonia.
Three day wild-camping trip in the Carneddau. Started from Capel Curig day 1 and climbed to Carnedd Llwelyn then dropped down to the NE toward Foel Grach for a wild camp by the lake at Ffynnon Lyyffant. Day 2 started with a climb back up to ridge and then a long circular route to take the northern peaks of the carneddau - this was more of a quality hill day as opposed to mountains. The route ended back at the same wild camp as Day 1. The weather for the first two days was generally good with some cloud on the peaks. Day 3 was very different as the cloud dropped and visibility was very poor with heavy rain at times. Route was to climb back up to Carnedd Lywelyn and down via Carnedd Dafyd and Pen Yr Ole Wen - navigation was by map and compass until we dropped below the cloud. Initial plan had been to include Y Elen in the final day but decided to miss this one out. Other notable incident was friend slipped and fell on decent of Pen Yr Ole Wen. He was okay except for gash on eye. Patched him up and took to Bangor A&E for check. All good!
