Stonestrider

Seek and Find The Sacred


August 23, 2016

Pen-Y-Pass

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Snowdon Range (FILEminimizer)Location: Gwynedd, Snowdonia/Wales

Note About 10 miles south east of Mount Snowdon , tucked behind rocky passes and elevated clear-water lakes, is the wonderfully serene  and scenic ‘Pen-Y-Pass’. With wide trails wrapping around massive mossy basins and jagged rocky caverns, this cinematic trail will carry you all the way to the peak of Snowdon if you so choose, following a north westerly course.DSCF1727 (1) (FILEminimizer) Along the way waterfalls cut the mountainsides and streams trickle in the distance. This is a classic Celtic scene, with a minimal amount of forestry, but a wonderful collage of every shade of green imaginable.Penny (1) Reeds drift in the wind, blended with moss and grass on huge knolls and hills that roll, and roll again, in every distant direction. In the heights above cut-boulders and grand shafts of granite slice dramatic angles into the peaks.Henge Home (FILEminimizer) In the valley below, for those who have the eyes to see, are ancient Celtic alters dug into the landscape; Circular stone Cairns with centerpieces that are so old they seem to be almost consumed by the earth, sitting eternally in wait to be rediscovered.Full Celtic Alter with Cut stone supports Wales (FILEminimizer) Circular stone alters with centering fixtures of very similar style exist in the forest of Foxboro Massachusetts, although there,  they are covered by an ocean of foliage, and equally hard to decipherCeltic Alter cut stones (FILEminimizer)Celtic Alter! (2)best (1) (FILEminimizer) (An example of the circular alter is shown below, white granite and quartz stones covered by the classic red/orange leaves of New England trails/Please click on photos to look closer). Another wonderful feature of Pen-Y-Pass are the old stone dwellings, most likely of the medieval period, that have been long since abandoned by herdsman and farmers for lack of resources in the valley. The hills of this landscape are huge, gathering-alter-1024x768 (1)gathering-alter-2-1024x768with entire sections quarried out and abandoned. Some portions of the quarrying look to have been carried out perhaps no more than five hundred years ago, with less growth upon it, while other massive stones are completely grown over with moss, as if it were done perhaps thousands of years ago. Perhaps Pen-Y-Pass’s most shining quality is the feeling there. The air, when the weather is agreeable, is comfortably cool and clear. Everything you see: mountain, lake, hill, valley, look to be cut from the sky by a diamond. There is an echo in the soft and subtle movements of rams, water, and distant trailblazers.lake22 (FILEminimizer) The car-park for this trail is just off the A4086 highway. If you ever come through this valley, do yourself a fantastic  favor and plan at least one day to walk the timeless Celtic trail at Pen-Y-Pass, it just shouldn’t be missed.dwelling (FILEminimizer)

 

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