Yr Aran, Snowdonia

Start: Leave the car park at Nantgwynant, cross the road and go up the stone steps to join the Watkin Path. This rises through oak woodland, with glimpses to the meadows at the end of Llyn Gwynant, passes through a gate and swings left to climb alongside the waterfalls above the farm at Hafod-y-llan. The broad path is pitched with stone in places and crosses an old incline which once served the nearby former quarries. Go through a gate and continue uphill, with tumbling cascades on the right, until the path levels out by a small newly-installed hydro dam.

Leave the main path and turn left, uphill for 300m, on a good path that soon crosses a mining track supported on an old embankment. Continue uphill on a zigzag path, past old workings and one or two ruins, to reach flatter ground on the north side of a sturdy stone wall.

Go right for 500m, with the wall on the left, and gradually climb to start of the rocky spur below Yr Aran. A gap in the wall leads to a rough path that runs along the south side of the ridge to the top of Yr Aran . The view from the summit looks north up the long southern ridge of Snowdon - which leads straight to the summit - and down into the great mountain bowl known as Cwm Tregalan. To the south, the Moelwyns fill the skyline beyond the prominent peak of Cnicht and, to the west, Moel Hebog rises above Beddgelert.

From the summit, walk back down to the wall and turn left on a rocky path that descends next to the wall, past a pool, and drops down to Bwlch Cwm Llan, by a small lake and old mining spoil. Turn right at a gap in the wall, follow a faint path through outcrops and continue south-east below the crags of Y Geuallt. Fork left after 700m, with a small stream on the right, and walk down to the track.

Turn right for 350m and then go left (on a path used earlier in the walk) to return to the top of the waterfalls. Now turn left, cross the bridge over the river and keep on the Watkin Path for 400m to visit the upstanding Gladstone Rock, where a plaque commemorates a speech given here in 1892 by the 83-year-old Prime Minister, William Gladstone. He came here to open the path built by entrepreneur Edward Watkin - who also developed early ideas for a Channel Tunnel.

Return to the waterfalls, past the ruins of a quarry manager’s house and some traditional slate fencing, and retrace your steps back to the start.