Tyrau Mawr - a little known viewpoint

Most of you will not have heard of Tyrau Mawr (otherwise known as Craig-las). You could consider it to be just an outlier of Cader Idris. However, it holds its own significant position on that huge wall that towers over the southern side of the Mawddach Estuary. I first discovered this as a viewpoint when crossing the whole of the Cader Idris range from east to west, a walk that I wrote about in a previous newsletter.

On the summit ridge you are well aware of a continuous drop to the north. As you approach the edge you get a great view down on the gorgeous Cregennen Lakes. At sunset in summer, looking from this mountain top towards the sun you see several layers – Cregennen Lakes, with the mouth of the Mawddach Estuary behind, then the southern Rhinogs with Tremadog Bay behind this, then the Llŷn Peninsula with an orange sun (hopefully) above this. It is also good to look along the escarpment with Craig-y-llyn to the west and the main bulk of Cader Idris to the east.

If you like a challenging walk, then I highly recommend crossing Cader from east to west from the A487 to Braich Ddu – 7 summits in all. If you are confident in the mountains after dark, then I recommend being on Tyrau Mawr, or Craig-y-llyn for sunset. For a more reasonable walk, park by Creggenen Lakes and do a circuit over Craig-y-llyn and Tyrau Mawr.