Rhododendrons and Copper Mines, a walk in the Beddgelert hills

There are numerous places in Snowdonia that I have yet to explore and walks that have been on my 'ticklist' since moving here three years ago.  One of these is to walk along the Aberglaslyn Pass footpath.  Each time I passed it on the way to climbing at Tremadog I told myself... 'you must go and see what the footpath is like'.  Last week I finally went and took it in as part of a circular walk around the hills SE of Beddgelert.

To use as little fuel as possible (it's already quite a long drive from where I live) I parked up just down the road from Llyn Dinas.  From here I wandered along the river bank on the far side and up through the Sygun Copper Mine.  

Evidence of copper mining in the Bronze age on the Great Orme and Anglesey makes it one of the oldest mining types to take place in Snowdonia.  This shouldn't really surprise us given that Bronze is a combination of copper and tin.  The tin was added to the copper to make stronger and more durable tools and weapons.

Sygun Copper mine opened during the Industrial Revolution and ran until 1903 when imports of cheaper foreign copper and reduced copper resources in the mine made it worthless to keep open.  Interestingly now it is cheaper to recycle copper than to extract it.  

On the hills near Mynydd Sygyn

 After passing through the mine I kept along the right of way, a suprisingly good footpath and took in the small highest knolls of just over 300m and the 298m spot height.  The name of this hill is Mynydd Sygyn, and if you google it it seems suprisingly popular not least for bad weather walking but also for people getting lost!  I have put a mental note down that it would be a great place to run navigation training courses.  From here I descended the path NW towards Beddgelert.  Once you pass the stone wall the path is alot more apparent and you can follow it steeply into the village.

Cleared Rhododendron

Upon descending these hills the changes in the predominant vegetation are obvious.  From grass and heather covered upland you enter 'Rhododendron land'.

The sign letting people know what they are doing to the Rhododendron growing here

The origins of Rhododendron growing wild here are believed to have been from gardens and estates in the 19th century, when the impacts of it spreading were not know.  These include:

• 'lost' native flora due to the reduced light at ground level
• the poisonous nature of it to animals both wild and farmed
• loss of sheep grazing areas and footpaths
• a more positive one - some tourists come to see the flowers in bloom

The first attempts at eradication in the park were in the 1970s and the latest project is a five year minimum long program to eradicate the plant from this area.  It began in 2012 and by the autumn of 2013 around 280ha had been treated.  Although it is an ambitious project it has the support of numerous local landowners, the Gwynedd county council and the National Trust.  The Snowdonia National Park Authority have an excellent pdf that was produced in 2008 if you would like to find out more about Rhododendron in the park.  It is titled 'Rhododendron in Snowdonia and a strategy for its control' prepared by Peter Jackson. http://www.eryri-npa.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/68600/Rhododendron-Strategy-Final.pdf

A distribution map from the report mentioned above

If all of this makes you feel rather angry, or you have some spare energy, why not volunteer to go 'Rhododendron bashing' with the Snowdonia Society!  http://www.snowdonia-society.org.uk/index2.php?id=15

One of the bridges beside the Glaslyn

The path continues in an alpine like fashion

 From the center of Beddgelert I headed south along the river bank towards the Pass of Aberglasyn, the section I had been wanting to do for such a long time.  Initially the path is as uneventful as the river, well paved, flat and full of people out for a lunchtime stroll.  Half way along it turned into a rocky path and the river, despite the low water levels, had turned into a mess of whitewater and rocks.  I could now see clearly why this had been the seen of many accidents and why there were the odd staples drilled into the side.  The further along the path you walked the more alpine like the terrain seemed.  The blue green river along with the fir trees almost had me convinced that I had returned to Switzerland!  

The path gets a bit more spicy!

At the road bridge my circular route continued NE towards Cwm Bychan and Bwlch y Sygun.  This valley is beautiful and despite the grazing sheep has a remarkable number of trees growing in it, some of which are huge.

Trees, old and new, growing in the valley

Further up you pass more reminants of the old copper mine, which I will have to go back and photograph in better light conditions.  The spoil heaps here are also surprisingly copper coloured.

Remnants of the Copper mine workings

Instead of retracing my intial route from the layby I went down the zig-zaggy path that leads to directly to the footbridge at the western end of Llyn Dinas.

Although a short walk, it was fantastic and so full of old and modern history that I couldn't wait to get home and research the future Rhododendron plans.  It struck me as funny that my first memory of coming across these plants was thinking how beautiful they were when seeing them trekking in Nepal as a kid; and now, here, I see them as a troublesome unwanted invasive species that we should eliminate.