Gallery Notes - Rhinog: Roughest North Wales
To keep secrecy about one's favourite places is certainly selfishness, but to enthuse about them loudly must accelerate their degradation - and we may live to see them lose the virtues for which we valued them.
- Harold Drasdo, 1980, in Wilson and Gilbert, The Big Walks, p212
Not a high range - Y Lethr reaches only 756m - the Rhinog is nevertheless a wilderness in every sense, rough and broken north of the smaller Rhinog peak, Rhinog Fach, softer yet still unfrequented to the south. Its east-west aspect, provides unrivalled views over the Irish Sea, the Dwyryd estuary to the north, the Mawddach and Cadair Idris to the south, or inland to the Arenigs near Bala. And seeking shelter in the wild cwms of Hywel or Perfeddau provides comfort in the roughness.
There is a different vibe here, and no other mountain range makes me feel quite like the Rhinogs. Limestone blocks and clefts filled with heather on this almost trackless tract of ancient rockland prevent speedy travel, and that is surely a virtue, for there is much to enjoy on every turn, such as the myriad small llynnau tucked away in rocky hollows, and herds of feral goats.
Treasure the Rhinog please, and keep it close to your chest so that the solitude may remain with those of us of like mind and spirit.
