WHERE IS IT?: North West Wales. Alongside the A4212 Trawsfynydd to Bala road.

Map.

PUT-INS/ TAKE-OUTS: Using OS Outdoor Leisure 18 Snowdonia (Harlech and
Bala Areas).

Put in next to small lay-by with a postbox in it at GR 743362 or slightly further upstream at Pont Dolydd Prysor.

Take out river left between the A470 and Trawsfynydd village bridge. There is a small track down to the river.

APPROX LENGTH: 6 km.

TIME NEEDED: 2 hours.

ACCESS SITUATION: Unknown. We had no problems.

WATER LEVEL INDICATORS: Should look brown and not scrapey at the put in. If it looks fast flowing it is probably quite high.

GRADING: Grade II with several grade III rapids. Two drops that could reach IV in high water.

MAJOR HAZARDS/ FALLS: Tree down across one rapid (see description) and some overhanging trees.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: From the start there is fast easy water for about a kilometre.

The river then starts to narrow and the first grade III drop appears, shortly after the river bends to the right and a bridge (which is downstream of the drop) appears. It is two foot natural broken weir and has a number of possible lines.

The river then eases back to fast moving riffles and waves before a noticeable narrowing and some trees on river left indicate the arrival of the next grade III rapid.

(This rapid was blocked by a tree Feb 05. The tree could be lifted out of the way from the bank but made lining up for the rapid harder)

This is a series of boulders followed by a narrow chute on river left which spits out into a mini gorge.

100m after this is the largest drop on the river. This is a small fall with a number of lines at low level. In high water many of the lines converge and the river left route would be safest.

Easy water leads on for a couple of kilometres until a few natural rock steps, the biggest about 1m are encountered. A large stone building on river left marks a double weir with potentially power stoppers at a high level.

It is a pleasant paddle from here to the end.

(This description of the river is a medium low level, at higher level, many of the drops would be stiff at the grade and the weirs could have power stoppers on them)

OTHER NOTES: If you are with a group that is comfortable on grade II/III then this river is well worth a look. Other similar rivers in the area include the Llyfni, Lower
Tryweryn and the Dwyfach.

CONTRIBUTED BY: Sam Moore (sammoore@bigfoot.com).

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