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.
I took my wife, Jenny, to North Wales and led her on a few walks, this was one of them. From our campsite, Gwern Gof Isaf, we walked west past Llyn Ogwen to Ogwen Cottage. We then started to ascend Pen Yr Ole Wen; Jenny was very nervous during the ascent as she was not used to walking up such a gradient. The areas of scree/ loose rock caused her particular concern but I was able to guide and support her up and past them quite easily. From the summit of Pen Yr Ole Wen we carried on to Carnedd Dafydd, this was much easier going! From Carnedd Dafydd we walked to Carnedd Llewelyn following a well marked path. From Carnedd Llewelyn we walked east then south-east to go along the blunt ridge of Bwlch Eryl Farchog; we dropped off the southern side of this to join a track that took us straight back to the campsite.
