Tal y Fan, Snowdonia

Tal y Fan doesn't receive much love, and were it a couple of feet shorter in stature it would receive a little less.  It is an easy mountain to climb, especially from the south where most able-bodied folk could reach the top and return to their car in a couple of hours.  To really enjoy this lowly peak, however, it should be tackled from the north where a portal whisks you back to a time when these lonely foothills were teeming with human inhabitants.

6000 years ago neolithic man populated this area and it is littered with their artefacts, of which Y Meini Hirion (The Druid's Circle) is the most impressive and atmospheric.  Later, the Romans arrived, driving their road through Bwlch y Ddeufaen.  In more recent times Tal y Fan and its immediate surroundings have become the domain of the hillwalker but they are few and far between.

Up to the 2001 ft summit the views are of high mountains, the Conwy Valley and mile upon mile of the north Wales coast.  Returning via Cefn Maen Amor and Llyn yr Wrach (Lake of the Witch), the feeling of deep time persists until, back at Sychnant, the spell is broken.