Swallow Falls(RHAEADR
EWYNNOL) This waterfall on the Afon Llugwy has become a familiar
natural celebrity over the past 100 years and has featured on
film, postcard and canvas. While its principal viewpoints are
situated on the south bank of the Llugwy with the convenience
of ample parking along the A5 and within the hotel car park,
it is observed far more dramatically if approached on foot along
the northern bank.
Here, one follows a narrow, tortuous path - part hewed out of
the rock face with grey. fissured, threatening crags overhanging
part of the route on the one hand and a forbidding abyss clothed
with stunted trees on the other. Spectacular and dramatic, this
approach path was at one time in the care of Betws-y-Coed council
workmen who took pride in maintaining its condition. Unless
there has been a heavy rainfall the summer months do not always
present the viewer with the most exhilarating aspect of this
famous waterfall - one needs a November or March flood when
the water cascades over the dark, indented, weather-scarred
rocks in a foaming, spewing onrush of unrestrained energy. |
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