The Penmaen-bach Arete – a guide to the grade 3 scramble in Snowdonia (Eryri)
- lottieinthewild
- Sep 9, 2025
- 3 min read
A small but mighty grade 3 scramble overlooking the A55 North Wales Expressway. You might’ve seen it driving home after a weekend in the mountains, the sharp ridgeline just before you enter the middle Conwy tunnel that’s just crying out to be climbed! Don’t let the proximity to the A55 put you off, it’s well worth it. It’s short and sweet, the perfect gap filler if you’re looking for an hours adventure!
Disclaimer: I’m not a mountain leader, and this is all my personal opinion. Grade 3 scrambles can be difficult, please take precautions and don’t climb anything you’re not comfortable with.
Contents
Difficulty: moderate
Distance: 2.5 miles / 4km
Duration: 1-2hrs
Highest point: Penmaen-bach 803ft / 245m
Total elevation gain: 803ft / 245m
Start/finish: Glan yr Afon road lay-by
When to climb
This scramble is perfect at sunset. The sun sets directly behind you over Anglesey and the ridgeline glows orange! Otherwise, any sustained dry weather with low wind.
How long does it take
This really is a short and sweet scramble. As Penmaen-bach is only 245m high, you can be up and down in less than an hour if you choose.
Route Description
Start on the Glan yr Afon road, there’s a large lay-by (///beards.winemaker.mile) right by the exit from the A55. If you’re travelling westbound this is J16A. There is no eastbound exit here, you’ll need to take J16 at the roundabout instead.
Head up the road away from the A55 until you come to the entrance to Lyons Pendyffryn Hall caravan park. You’ll pass a few entrances to the caravan park along the way, but you want to wait for the main one. Head up the driveway and follow the main track round behind the large clubhouse and keep going until you come to a car park. Don’t worry about walking through, it’s definitely the right way.
Head directly through the car park and follow the track to the back field, in the far lefthand corner there’s a stile into the woodland. Follow this path now with the fields on your left and the hillside to your right. After a few minutes the hillside to your right will disappear and you’ll be standing at the bottom of the arete. It’s clearly noticeable with the sheer edge on the left and the rest of the hillside sweeping round with large scree slopes.
Start the climb on good solid rock and keep going all the way up. It’s fairly exposed on the left but it’s blocky climbing and there’s plenty of places to stop and some good wide ledges too. Don’t forget to look behind you at the main view over the sea!
About halfway up the main arete is a good plateau then a wall of rock. This is probably what gives it the grade as it’s steep and you’ll really need to step high to scramble up. There are good hand holds if you look for them. At the bottom of this wall section, start at the left, after gaining the first big step it get’s a lot easier and the gradient returns to what it was.
Eventually this peters out onto a grassy section with a large boulder. Behind the boulder is a short section of scree and a great slabby rock. Climb this slab to the rocks above then follow pretty much any of the small paths to the summit of Penmaen-bach. Look out for wild ponies, sometimes they make their way this far over!
From the summit head south (away from the sea!) you should see an obvious path next to the walled field. Go to this, but don’t follow the wall uphill, instead follow the path through the dip back towards the caravan park. There are several paths down but take the first one on your right. It looks a little like a gully to start with and can be hard to notice if the bracken is high. The path itself is good though, but you may need to bushwhack your way through.
Eventually you’ll pass through a gate back into the woodland by the caravan park. Retrace your way through the caravan park to the road and lay-by.
While not a technically difficult climb, this route is fairly exposed on the lefthand side. There’s the one climby section in the middle which I think is the reason this scramble is given the grade that it is. The route and climbing itself is fairly straightforward.
Where to start and finish
Glan yr Afon road layby - what3words beards.winemaker.mile
GPX file
Thanks for reading!
Comments