Roman Steps & Cwm Bychan
Photo via Wikimedia Commons — licence & author.
Medieval packhorse trail through wild Rhinogs
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 Roman Steps & Cwm Bychan yet. Know it well? Help us get it right.
A flight of ancient stone steps — a medieval packhorse trail, despite the Roman name — climbing from the lovely Llyn Cwm Bychan into the Rhinogydd, the wildest, rockiest and quietest mountains in Wales, where feral goats outnumber walkers. An out-and-back to the pass at Bwlch Tyddiad makes a half-day. The single-track drive in from Llanbedr is slow and gorgeous, and part of the experience. There's a small parking charge at the lake.
Getting there
Roman Steps & Cwm Bychan is in Rhinogydd, Eryri (Snowdonia). It's roughly 13 min (3.4 miles) from Harlech , and within reach of Dolgellau (29 min) and Criccieth (29 min).
The nearest parking: Farm car park at Cwm Bychan lake (honesty box). Grid reference SH 636 301 — works on any OS map and doesn't need a phone signal.
Good to know
Out-and-back to Bwlch Tyddiad is half a day; the drive in from Llanbedr is single-track and gorgeous.
On the map
View Roman Steps & Cwm Bychan 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?
Harlech 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 Harlech ↗ opens Booking.com — needs signalNearby places
Make Roman Steps & Cwm Bychan 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.