A Welsh adventure- Pistyll y Llyn

Deep within the Cambrian mountains, far away from the crowds 'terrorizing' Aber Falls and Pistyll Rhaeadr, there is a beautiful, majestic waterfall which absolutely dwarfs both of them in size. 

There is a lot of incorrect information about Pistyll Rhaeadr on the internet, which many claim is Wales's tallest waterfall. This waterfall, whilst an impressive 73 meters high (with the largest drop being 40 meters), is absolutely dwarfed by Pistyll y Llyn, which falls a combined height of 160 meters over several stages including one massive drop at 91 meters tall, and Maesglase Falls, which falls for 160-180 meters practically vertically off its mountain. I visited Pistyll y Llyn during my trip, but unfortunately had no time for Maesglase. Today marked an exhausting bike ride all over the place and up a steep mountain, and this would also be the first time I would sleep in the wild, in a small tent (which I inevitably assembled incorrectly!). Aside from Pistyll y Llyn, I would be targeting Cors Dyfi with their breeding ospreys, Cors Fochno, a massive raised bog with an incredibly rare orchid present, and of course the waterfall itself. 

The reserve at Cors Dyfi turned out to be the best place to watch ospreys I have ever seen or heard about. It was a thousand times better than Lyndon Center at Rutland Water. I had exceptional, close, prolonged views of the osprey family at their nest in the bog, all the while the reserve wardens would tell me about them. Although I had conveniently left my camera over 300 kilometers away at home, a phone was enough. This was the only reserve I had yet visited which had extremely expensive spotting scopes available for use. For free. There were 3 young birds in their nest, together with their mother. All in spectacular raised bog scenery. 

Satisfied, I left to deal with the next destination on my agenda- Cors Fochno. Incredibly, in 2019, a colony of Irish lady tresses was discovered here. This is a spectacularly rare orchid in Great Britain, and to my knowledge this is so far its only known location. Also to my knowledge, this year there were only 5 plants here. This would make this orchid rarer or as rare as the red helleborine in Great Britain. I soon got there and found the colony. The orchids were poorly developed and very small, but one of them was at least partially in flower. 

Having satisfied myself with this incredible rarity, I moved on to explore the swamp. Cors Fochno is the largest near-natural raised bog near the sea in the UK. Although I could not access the completely pristine core area out in the distance, I could still admire the recovering swamp, which seems to have suffered from peat extraction in the past. It looked like an enormous sea. 

Cotton-grass was everywhere, and so was round-leafed sundew, both very unique bog plants :)

What other secrets the bog held I had no time for, but I felt that this habitat, especially a certain area I had noticed, had the potential for the bog orchid. Nevetheless, on the climbout towards Pistyll y Llyn, I stopped to admire the bog from a high vantage point, at which point its true enormity became apparent. 

As I needed to get to Pistyll y Llyn before it got dark, I embarked on an exhausting ascent on my bike up the mountains, constantly getting distracted by the lovely flushes and cascades I was encountering, which gave way to a beautiful waterfall near the top of the mountain. 

Above the waterfall was a huge flush, and above all of that near some ruins were a few lovely springs. From here the road got exponentially worse in quality, and I walked a significant part of the remaining way to Llyn Penrhaeadr, the lake from which an outflowing stream becomes Pistyll y Llyn. The lake was beautiful, but I noticed with extreme disappointment that the outflow was regulated by a weir. I now understood why so many people were complaining about low water flow at the waterfall. 

The abundant rainfall had turned everything wet in my path. I now entered a beautiful spruce woodland, which made me feel as if I was in Switzerland rather than the UK. It was enchantingly beautiful and, even better, the smell of spruce was just incredible. To make it even better for me, a real spruce bog had formed in one place of the forest as I searched for a good area to place my 'Eagle's Nest' in, which I then found on the edge of the forest, in a shallow depression. 

Having taken care of that, I emerged from the forest and walked the 100 or so meters through incredibly challenging bogland to the waterfall. I was now looking down at Pistyll y Llyn from above. Specifically, the absolutely monstrous 91-meter tall cliffside slide which forms the main part of the waterfall, as well as the cascades above it. 

This path culminated at a bench with surprisingly good 4G connectivity here. However, the path, I felt, was extremely dangerous to follow, as it came awfully close to the cliffs lining the waterfall. With the light waning, I settled in for the night. 

I woke up extremely early, desiring to get to the waterfall as quickly as possible. 

My haste was due to the fact that someone had turned Pistyll y Llyn's valley into a shooting estate. Although the falls themselves were on protected SSSI land, the boundary came awfully close to the waterfall. Too close for comfort. Having packed up, I enjoyed the beautiful woodland for some more time before emerging on the other side of it, and, after an exhausting trek down an extremely steep mountain, came face to face with Pistyll y Llyn. 

This waterfall was truly gigantic, easily far taller than Aber Falls (although incomparably less voluminous), and was audible from quite a distance. There was a path leading to it from the bridge, but one which quickly became bogged down in a huge amount of ferns. I was able to bypass the lowest cascade in my attempt to get as close as possible to the 91-meter high main section, but was unable to get all the way to the plunge pool because the ladders and marked trails gave way to slippery rocks, fern jungles and very sharp ascents. In wetter conditions certainly not a good idea. 

The waterfall was breathtakingly beautiful, and I enjoyed it for some time before I moved off. As I slowly receded from the waterfall, I took the image I wanted to take for a long time, ever since I heard about it. 

I moved quickly through the valley, trying to avoid the shooting estate, and periodically turning to take photos of the beautiful cascade. Some photos show a second waterfall to the right of the main plunge, but I only saw a slight trickle in that area when I investigated yesterday. 

Finally past the shooting estate, I hit the road, which has a sign pointing the direction to the waterfall (mind you, right through the shooting estate), and took one last look at the waterfall before I sped downhill. 

Upon my arrival into Machynlleth, I briefly considered going for Maesglase Falls, but unfortunately had no time for it. I will, however, return to it, perhaps in wetter conditions, as Maesglase Falls is very seasonal. In short, a lovely venture- I am very surprised at how this majestic waterfall, easily more impressive than Pistyll Rhaeadr, is so unknown!