Panorama Walk and a lot more!

Today we decided to explore the hills above Barmouth and extend one of our favourite walks (to the Panorama view point). We set off from  Morfa Mawddach Station car park and walked over Barmouth Bridge and down the hill towards Barmouth , then veered off to the right and up a steep set of stone steps which eventually levelled off to an undulating path but gave us amazing views over the harbour, bridge and south towards Fairbourne and Llwyngwril in the distance.

The path went past a house with large garden on the right and shortly afterwards we turned left and uphill to where we could see posts with yellow markers on the hill above. We followed this path , going past a bunkhouse until we reached a narrow road, on which we turned left and headed on up hill again.

We continued on up this road which became a track winding around the contours of the hill , going past an isolated but habited cottage and found that we were now on the Ardudwy Trail. Before long we were able to look out northwards  and westwards over Cardigan Bay and the beaches north of Barmouth and beyond to the Llyn Peninsula.

Eventually we reached a T Junction of paths where we turned right and followed a rather boggy path in places until we reached the crown of a hill overlooking a lovely looking valley to the north of Bontddu. We continued on down towards a rather ugly mast and emerged out on a quiet road , where we turned right and carried on downhill for about a mile until we came to the path going towards the Panorama Viewpoint. Of course we couldn't get this close without going up to the viewpoint, despite the rather ominous dark clouds that were gathering in the hills over the estuary. We managed to have coffee and a snack at the viewpoint before deciding that the clouds were heading our way so we headed back to the road, down through Orielton Woods and back across the bridge to the car park.

In all the walk was about 6 and a half miles long, and with a couple of stops for coffee and nourishment, took about 3 hours in all.

The route took in all sorts of terrain, woodland, moorland , stone steps and of course flat wooden bridge, with fantastic views in all directions. If inclined there's  always the opportunity to make a detour into Barmouth for a swift pint or more on the way back.

See http://pentrebach.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/lots-of-lovely-walks-from-llwyngwril.html and

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1484363661516317584#editor/target=post;postID=729663906500598295;onPublishedMenu=template;onClosedMenu=template;postNum=18;src=postname

for 11 more walks not far from Llwyngwril.