Hi people and pooches. Joe the Cocker here reporting about a hike that I did with my human dad last winter. My human always seems to drag me into the hills when the weather is iffy. On this occasion, it was blowing a hooley. Forty miles per hour winds with 60 mph gusts. It was cold as well, probably around 2 degrees celsius. It’s fortunate that I have grown a nice warm winter coat. We were staying in a lovely stone cottage in the centre of Dolgellau, North Wales. It was a short drive to Cregennan Lakes with some of the route being along a single track road into the hills. Ffordd ddu, Black Road, is a lovely moutain pass with gates to drive through, blind summits, and fantastic views.
We parked in the National Trust car park, which sits at approximately 800ft, next to the larger of the two lakes. The route that we, more or less, followed was a 4 mile easy/moderate hike in the area. Llynnau Cregennan is an SSSI, a site of specific scientific interest. Its name derives from the Welsh word ‘crog-gangen’, meaning ‘hanging branch’. In the 12th century, convicted criminals were hanged from a large oak tree in the area.
After turning left along the road and up a slight incline, we headed east along a footpath on the northern shore of the first lake. I was itching to explore the area and to have a good sniff around. There were a few even-toad ungulates, sheep to me and you, roaming around so I had to be kept on my lead. I don’t bother sheep, but my human said that its where they live and we should respect their space. Boring!
The annoying one started singing ‘Deep Forbidden Lake’ by Neil Young. What’s worse is that he was trying to sing it in Neil Young’s voice. It was excrutiating! He can destroy any song ever written.
We hiked under the shadow of Pared y Cefn-hir, the hill on our left, until we came to a right turn heading towards the second lake. This was where the route became boggy and muddy. I loved it, splashing through the squelching vague path. My human tried tippy-toeing, but the mud was soon shin deep and filling his boots. Hilarious!
We spotted quite a few neolithic standing stones as we walked in the area. There are plenty of neolithic and bronze age remains in the area, and if it hadn’t been so boggy, we would have ventured further to check them out.
Evidence of the amount of rain that had fallen recently can be seen in the photograph above, taken at the boathouse on the smaller lake. To pass through the gate, my human ended up with squelching socks. He does complain a lot. My paws were already squelching, and do you hear me complain? I think not!
We followed the path through even more boggy areas until we reached the road. We walked away from the car park area for a mile or so, passing through a couple of gates on route. At one gate, my human was fascinated by the sounds that were made by the wind singing through the metalwork. We turned back to walk the road back to the car as we kept a close eye on the rain showers scooting across the hills.
We didn’t see another soul on our little hike. I don’t suppose that would happen in the summer months as this is a really popular area. We prefer it like this. We must be really antisocial!
I have included a link below to the route that we based our walk on. Till next time!
https://explore.osmaps.com/route/16269600/Cregennan-Lakes-walk-4-miles
Joe the Cocker's Hikes 