More guidebooks to help you get the most from your visit to the Mawddach Estuary
Military Mawddach Guide
Looking today at this rural idyll of scattered hill farms, small villages and market
towns set around the Mawddach Estuary, it is easy to imagine that life has continued much as it always has, far away from the European theatres of war and separate from the world’s troubles.
The truth however is that this area has had strong and lasting links with the military throughout the 20th Century, many of which have had a dramatic impact on the inhabitants and their surroundings. In the earliest days of the Century, troops trained for the Boer war in the Bronaber Artillery Ranges above Trawsfynydd, and the sparsely populated hills and moorland have subsequently provided the rugged terrain and space to train aircrew, assault troops and artillery teams. Few villages escaped the personal costs of the Great War, and in the Second World War (WWII), the threat of invasion also loomed large. Coastal defences and inland ‘Stop Lines’ of tanks traps and pillboxes still mark the hasty preparation for defence, and a scattering of anti-aircraft training ranges at Tonfanau and RAF Llanbedr trained men how to meet the air-raids with force. As the tides of WWII started to turn in favour of the Allies, a different set of camps arose.

In anticipation of the Normandy Landings, The Royal Marine Training Group Wales set up camps Burma, Iceland, Gibraltar and Matapan to train Royal Marines in the art of beach assaults, while the Amphibious school at Tywyn trained those
responsible in maintaining the supply lines of such landing. Sites like Ynyslas went
from defensive to offensive with the top secret development of Rocketry.
Beyond WWII many of the Airfields, Ranges and Army Camps maintained a training role into the latter years of the century, and the valleys and ridgelines still provide an important training-ground for the RAF Pilots from Valley on Anglesey.
Despite the hastiness of preparations, many of these military bases and installations can still be found on the ground, along with memorials to the men and women who gave their lives whilst serving in bases like these.
To help you explore this important aspect of the area’s history, a guide of more than 50 pages long, with details of more than 50 sites of interest and over 90 links to further information, is available in a PDF format The sites detailed in this guide are marked on an accompanying Google Map entry and many sites can be seen in detail using the Street View facility.
The downloadable Military Mawddach pdf guide costs just £3.50.

The Mawddach Way Long distance walk guide
A three day circular footpath walk around the Mawddach Estuary
Total Distance 49.8 km | Highest Point 346m | Total Height Climbed 2226m | Est
Time 15-18 hours.
The Mawddach Way is a 50km walk which uses existing footpaths and permissive
paths to make a circuit of the hills either side of the estuary, passing through woodland, pasture and open country. The ideal location for a walking holiday in
Wales.

A detailed guide to the Mawddach Way is available as a PDF download. It contains more than 50 pages of route description, photographs, historical detail and background information to enhance your experience of this circular walk around the scenic Mawddach Estuary.
Although the tranquil setting and spectacular views may seem to be in keeping with the scattered remains of prehistoric settlement, they belie an altogether noisier and dirtier history of industrial exploitation and military use, and each remnant of the past provides plenty of interest to keep the walker entertained along the way. The route of the Mawddach Way conceptually starts at the popular seaside resort of Barmouth (though it can be joined at any point), and takes in the ancient settlements of Llanelltyd and Dolgellau. The small villages of Taicynhaeaf and Penmaenpool, being either side of the first bridging point of the estuary beyond Barmouth and lying on key bus routes, make obvious staging points in the journey.

The route was laid out with a three-day trip in mind and the guide book reflects those three stages. Of course there will be those who wish to do it in two, and it is not beyond the realms of possibility to walk it in a single day. Arguably this walk is more about the journey than the speed, and we would encourage you to take as much time as you can to savour it
The Mawddach Way, a rewarding and beautiful undertaking for all walkers, offers an accessible challenge to those who are new to long distance routes. By opting for walking the route from a single base, a small day-pack may be all that is required to be carried. Additionally, although offering at times a sense of real remoteness, the route is never more than a couple of kilometres from road access, so meeting up with your support crew is easy, and days can be cut shorter as required.
The downloadable Mawddach Way e-book costs £4.99 in pdf format.
Mawddach Big 8 Cycle Route
National Cycle Network Route-8, known as the Lôn Las Cymru, runs over 400 km
(250 miles) between Holyhead on Anglesey and Cardiff or Chepstow, and is
reckoned to be one of the toughest routes of all the Network.
In its original form, the way-marked trail offered a number of route alternatives along its length, and as the heart of a number of decision points, the town of Dolgellau had Route-8 markers leaving in four different directions. The two Route-8s (or should that be Routes-8) heading north from Dolgellau converged just east of Porthmadog, and those heading south met at Machynlleth.
Fortunately wisdom has prevailed, and this confusing situation has been remedied by the renaming of the trail running through Trawsfynydd/Dolgellau/Tywyn as Route 82. Either way, this leaves Dolgellau on the Mawddach estuary at the centre of a cycleway-drawn number 8, the 160 km long ‘Mawddach Big 8’ (MB-8).
The MB-8 makes use of quiet back-roads and tracks, although there are a few forays onto busier roads. The tracks, although rough in places, involve no technical mountain biking and with care should be passable on a hybrid bike or tourer. The roughest of these is probably the Ffordd Ddu on the South Loop. Having said all that, this is not a route for the faint-hearted, as the distance alone will testify; each of the routes leaving Dolgellau to the north or south is graded as strenuous, and each loop of the MB-8 consists of two of them! Add in over 4,500m of climb along the way, and the scale of the challenge starts to take shape.
For a rider to be considered an MB-8 elite, the journey should be done as two back to back 1-day rides, the North Loop and the South Loop. Double-Loopers will do them back to back on the same day. Of course, mere mortals are also welcome, and are encouraged to break up the journey as required.
Dolgellau, at the meeting point of the two loops, is a logical starting point, although Penmaenpool, Barmouth or indeed anywhere along the Mawddach estuary would make an excellent base for tackling the challenge. The estuary boasts a wide range of bike-friendly accommodation to suit all pockets, as well as some seriously good places to eat and drink. As the route constantly dips in and out of small villages, there are shops and pubs along the way that will be glad to help refuel weary legs

The route is way-marked with blue and red National Cycle Network Route-8 and 82 signs but we recommend you carry suitable maps as a back-up. The North Loop is covered by OS Landranger Map 124, while the Southern Loop is on OS Landranger 135.
Alternatively, Sustrans offer a 1:100K Route 8 North map which includes the entire MB-8 and more.
Those of a strictly road-biking persuasion (or even in a car) can follow the loop formed by the A 496 and A 470 to the north, and A 493 and A 470 to the south. Be warned that these narrow roads can be very busy in the holiday season. The A-road route is slightly shorter at just over 150 km, with just over 4000 m of climb. Don’t try doing the actual Route-8 in a car; bits are on tracks not open to traffic, many of the roads are very narrow and steep, and the whole thing was originally laid out to give cyclists a relatively traffic free experience.
The Mawddach Big-8 guide book in either printed booklet or electronic .pdf file is
available which contains further route details, background information and historical detail.
The downloadable Mawddach Big 8 e-book costs £3.99 in pdf format.
The paper version of the Mawddach Big 8 guide book costs £8.99 inc. UK P&P