At Yr Wyddfa's western foot
Rhyd Ddu
A quarry-built village between two lakes, with mountain paths, heritage steam trains and a strong Welsh literary story.
- Best for
- Mountain walking, heritage rail and lake landscapes
- Choose
- A summit path or the multi-use Lôn Gwyrfai
- Don't miss
- The floating turf island of Llyn y Dywarchen
Photo: Roger Davies · CC BY-SA 2.0 · cropped
The Fox verdict
A small village with big routes
Rhyd Ddu places a railway station, two classic Yr Wyddfa paths and the Lôn Gwyrfai beside a village of quarrying and literary history.
The appeal is concentrated rather than sprawling: choose a mountain route, travel by Welsh Highland Railway, spend time beside Llyn Cwellyn or Llyn y Dywarchen, then return to the village's only pub. The old slate landscape and the story of poet T. H. Parry-Williams give the setting a character beyond its trailheads.
Where to go
Places in Rhyd Ddu
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesRhyd Ddu Path
The quieter west-side route to Yr Wyddfa follows an old slate-quarry track before climbing to the Llechog ridge and Bwlch Main; it was used for the first official ascent in 1639.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around six hours
- Locality
- starts at the Rhyd Ddu car park
- Access
- The route ascends steeply over rocky ground and follows the narrow Bwlch Main.
Lôn Gwyrfai
A traffic-free multi-use path open to walkers, cyclists and horse riders, offering a lower-level alternative to the summit routes.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around three hours
- Locality
- between Rhyd Ddu and Beddgelert
Llyn Cwellyn
A 215-acre reservoir on the Afon Gwyrfai with a natural population of Arctic char and brown trout; otters are seen at the Castell Cidwm end.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- north-west of Rhyd Ddu
- Access
- Fishing is identified in the brief as available via the Cwellyn Arms.
Food & drink
1 place
Cwellyn Arms
A family-run traditional inn with a 40-seat restaurant, homemade food, real-fire lounges and up to nine real ales; its signature dessert is the Baked Snowdon.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 75 minutes
- Locality
- in Rhyd Ddu
- Access
- Dogs are welcome in the bar area and the two real-fire lounges.
Walks & outdoors
1 placeSnowdon Ranger Path
Thought to be the oldest of the six classic routes to the summit, this Llyn Cwellyn approach is described in the brief as easier and less dramatic than the Rhyd Ddu Path.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around six hours
- Locality
- at the Snowdon Ranger youth hostel on the shore of Llyn Cwellyn, just north of the village
History & heritage
1 place
Rhyd Ddu Station
The village station first opened in 1881 for slate traffic; Welsh Highland Railway steam trains now run through Rhyd Ddu again.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 60 minutes
- Locality
- in Rhyd Ddu
Things to do
1 placeLlyn y Dywarchen
A small lake known for its floating turf island, recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis in 1188 and tested by Edmund Halley, who swam out to it in 1698.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- between Rhyd Ddu and Drws-y-Coed
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Three ways to explore Rhyd Ddu
Signature outings
Order the Baked Snowdon
Try the Cwellyn Arms' signature take on baked Alaska after choosing from its homemade food and real ales.
Take the heritage train
Board a Welsh Highland Railway steam train at Rhyd Ddu Station on the Caernarfon–Porthmadog narrow-gauge heritage line.
Find the floating island
Choose a low-level family walk around Llyn y Dywarchen, whose floating turf island was first recorded in 1188.
The village story
Rhyd Ddu Village Guide
The original Travel Fox story of Rhyd Ddu's only pub, mountain paths, two lakes, steam railway and celebrated village poet.
The Village's Only Pub
The Cwellyn Arms is the only pub in Rhyd Ddu, a distinction its regulars don't overstate. "Best pub in Rhyd Ddu — and only pub in Rydd Ddu. Dog friendly," is how one TripAdvisor reviewer put it, and that about covers it.
It has been under the same ownership for over forty years, run now by Graham with Julie Bamber as general manager. The 40-seat restaurant has underfloor heating, a log-burning stove, and food cooked fresh on the premises from local suppliers. The menu names dishes rather than categories: slow-cooked local pork belly with red cabbage and risotto cakes, bangers and mash in Cabernet Sauvignon red onion gravy, duck breast with slow-roasted carrots and prunes, wild mushroom and smoked mozzarella lasagne. The signature dessert is the Baked Snowdon, a take on baked Alaska that one diner rated among the best they'd had. Up to nine real ales rotate through, most of them from local micro-breweries.
Fireside Rooms and Sparse Provisions
Two lounges have real fires, and dogs are welcome in both. Outside, the seating looks towards Snowdon, which the pub sits directly beneath. The same owners run a campsite half a mile away called Snowdon Base Camp, overlooking Llyn Cwellyn.
That's the extent of the village's provisions. There are no shops, butchers or delis; Beddgelert, four miles south, is the nearest place to buy anything.
Paths Between Mountain and Lakes
Most people come here to walk. The Rhyd Ddu Path is the quietest of the routes up Snowdon and the least touristy, starting at the village car park, climbing gently along an old slate-quarry track, then narrowing over rock along the Bwlch Main to the summit. It carried the first official ascent of Snowdon in 1639. Just north, the Snowdon Ranger Path begins at a youth hostel on the shore of Llyn Cwellyn and is thought to be the oldest of the six classic routes up. If the mountain feels like too much, the Lôn Gwyrfai runs four and a half traffic-free miles along the valley to Beddgelert, open to walkers, cyclists and horse riders alike.
The village sits in a pass between two lakes. Llyn Cwellyn, the larger, is a 215-acre reservoir over 120 feet deep, one of the few Welsh lakes with a natural population of Arctic char — torgoch, "red belly," in Welsh — and otters are seen at its Castell Cidwm end. The smaller Llyn y Dywarchen has a genuine floating turf island, first recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis in 1188, who described shepherds watching their grazing cattle carried across the water on it. The astronomer Edmund Halley swam out to it in 1698 to confirm that it floated.
Slate, Steam and a Village Poet
Rhyd Ddu was built to house slate quarrymen. Its station opened in 1881, and within a few years the railway company renamed it "Snowdon" to lure tourists towards the mountain; the name reverted in 1934. The Welsh Highland Railway's steam trains run through the village again now, and the Snowdon Sherpa buses stop on the A4085 outside.
The poet T. H. Parry-Williams was born here, at the schoolhouse, and became the first person to win both the Chair and the Crown at the same National Eisteddfod. His motorbike was registered KC 16.
Stay around Snowdonia
Make a longer stay of it
Travel Fox holiday homes around Snowdonia, linked directly to their property pages.
Caernarfon
Orchard Cottage and Hot Tubs
- Sleeps 25
- 8 bedrooms
Caernarfon
Katie's Cottage & Hot Tub - Snowdon 20mins drive
- Sleeps 9
- 3 bedrooms
Waunfawr
Lakeside Lodge
- Sleeps 6
- 2 bedrooms
Llanberis
Glyn Afon: At the foot of Mount Snowdon!
- Sleeps 16
- 9 bedrooms
Aberdaron
Plas Newydd with Swimming Pool
- Sleeps 16
- 7 bedrooms
A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Photography credits & licences
Third-party photographs are credited to their named creators and reused under the linked Creative Commons licence or public-domain dedication. Travel Fox stores an optimised local copy; the file-specific changes and any browser-applied display crop are disclosed below. Reused photographs link both to the Wikimedia Commons source record and to the declared source image; Travel Fox's own photographs carry no such record and are marked as ours. These image licences do not cover Travel Fox text, branding or page design.
- File:Cwellyn Arms at Rhyd-Ddu - geograph.org.uk - 2562821.jpg — photograph by Roger Davies; Cwellyn Arms at Rhyd-Ddu by Roger Davies. Source record on Wikimedia Commons. Declared source image. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0. File changes: Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons, resized to a maximum 1920px edge and encoded as an optimised JPEG. Display changes: Displayed with responsive CSS cropping.
- File:Rhyd Ddu Station - geograph.org.uk - 3007563.jpg — photograph by Mat Fascione; Rhyd Ddu Station by Mat Fascione. Source record on Wikimedia Commons. Declared source image. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0. File changes: Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons, resized to a maximum 1920px edge and encoded as an optimised JPEG. Display changes: Displayed with responsive CSS cropping.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- Cwellyn Arms — snowdoninn.co.uk other published source
- Rhyd Ddu Path — eryri.gov.wales statutory register or public authority
- Snowdon Ranger Path — eryri.llyw.cymru other published source
- Lôn Gwyrfai — eryri.gov.wales statutory register or public authority
- Llyn Cwellyn — sac.jncc.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Llyn y Dywarchen — eryri.llyw.cymru other published source
- Rhyd Ddu Station — festrail.co.uk other published source