Explore Wales days out & weekends · walked first-hand
Llyn Gwynant, Nant Gwynant
Eryri (Snowdonia) · Quick reference

Llyn Gwynant

Photo via Wikimedia Commons — licence & author.

Paddle beneath Snowdon

This is a quick reference, not a full walked guide. The facts below — location, parking, grid reference and access — are maintained from our dataset, but we haven't published our own first-hand write-up of Llyn Gwynant yet. Know it well? Help us get it right.

A jewel of a lake in the Nant Gwynant valley with Yr Wyddfa rising straight from its head — the most cinematic paddleboard launch in Wales, made for dawn starts and golden evenings when the light pours down the valley. A lakeside campsite lets you make a weekend of it (a small day-launch fee applies at their beach), and the Watkin Path up Snowdon begins nearby. Midges can be fierce on a still evening — bring repellent.

Getting there

Llyn Gwynant is in Nant Gwynant, Eryri (Snowdonia). It's roughly 15 min (4.1 miles) from Beddgelert , and within reach of Capel Curig (20 min) and Llanberis (21 min).

The nearest parking: Llyn Gwynant campsite (launch fee) or lay-bys on A498. Grid reference SH 652 507 — works on any OS map and doesn't need a phone signal.

Good to know

Campsite day-launch fee applies at their beach; early evening light down the valley is unreal.

On the map

View Llyn Gwynant on OpenStreetMap ↗, or open it in the Explore Wales trip planner to add it to a day out with drive times and offline maps.

Staying over?

Beddgelert makes a relaxed base for exploring the area — worth staying over to catch an early start or a golden-hour finish.

Browse places to stay near Beddgelert ↗ opens Booking.com — needs signal

Nearby places

Make Llyn Gwynant part of a day out

Add it to a trip in the free Explore Wales planner — chained drive times, weather, campsite suggestions, and offline maps for when the signal drops.

Open the trip planner