Coed y Brenin Forest Park - Forest Garden, near Dolgellau

What's here

Accessible trail
Parking (free)
Parking (blue badge holders)
Picnic area
Walking trail

Welcome

The forest garden is within Coed y Brenin Forest Park.

It is home to trees from all over the world. There are fascinating facts about some of these trees on special signs in the garden.

There is an additional small car park for the use of disabled visitors only with access to the accessible trail.

Walking trails

The easy walking trail is waymarked from the main car park.

The accessible trail is waymarked from the car park for disabled visitors.

Forest Garden Discovery Trail

Highlights: Experience trees from all over the world and discover fascinating facts about them.
Distance: ½ mile, 0.6 kilometres
Grade: easy
Trail description: From the main car park follow the green waymarkers down to the bridge over the Afon Babi.

Visit the viewpoint and then meander along the series of informal paths looking out for the tree-fact posts and folklore audio stores.

The garden is criss-crossed with a series of 1m wide formal and informal paths, some steep and uneven.

There are no steps or stiles.

More information: walk card, tree-fact posts and wind-up audio stories

Forest Garden Accessible Trail

Highlights: Experience trees from all over the world and discover fascinating facts about them.
Distance: ¼ mile, 300m
Grade: accessible
Trail description: follow the blue waymarkers from the accessible car park over the bridge and through the lower part of the forest garden.

At the viewpoint, overlooking the waterfall, listen to the story of Pont Llam yr Ewig (Bridge of the Stag’s leap).

The accessible trail is a flat well-surfaced 2m wide path suitable for wheelchairs with resting places at least every 100m.

There are no steps or stiles.

More information: walk card, tree-fact posts and wind-up audio stories

Exploring Coed y Brenin Forest Park

Coed y Brenin Forest Park offers visitors the total woodland experience within Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park.

There are a range of waymarked trails to cater for all tastes and fitness levels in the forest park. These include world-class mountain bike trails, family walks, running trails, geocaching and orienteering routes.

As well as the trails that start here at Forest Garden, the main car parks with facilities for visitors within Coed y Brenin Forest Park are:

Coed y Brenin Forest Park Visitor Centre - the gateway to the forest park and the starting point for a range of walking, running and mountain biking trails. There is also a café and bike shop
Pont Cae’n-y-coed – start of the rugged Volcano Trail
Tyddyn Gwladys – a picnic site by the rolling Mawddach river and gateway to the Waterfalls and Goldmines walk
Glasdir – a picnic site with walk through an old copper mine and an accessible trail to a viewpoint above the mine workings
Pont Ty'n-y-groes – riverside picnic area and gateway to an accessible riverside walk and a rugged mountain trail with great views over Eryri (Snowdonia)

Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park

Coed y Brenin Forest Park is set in Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park.

Eryri is the largest National Park in Wales and is home to picturesque towns and villages and the highest mountain in Wales.

It is looked after by the Eryri National Park Authority.

For more information about visiting Eryri go to the Eryri National Park Authority website.

National Forest for Wales

Coed y Brenin Forest Park forms part of the National Forest for Wales.

The National Forest will:

create areas of new woodland
enhance existing woodlands
restore Wales’ irreplaceable ancient woodlands

It will form a connected ecological network running throughout Wales, bringing social, economic and environmental benefits.

Parts of the network will eventually form a trail running the length and breadth of Wales, so anyone can access it wherever they live.

For more information go to the National Forest for Wales website.

Visiting safely

We want you to return home safely after your visit here.

You are responsible for your own safety as well as the safety of any children and animals with you during your visit.

For advice and tips to help you plan your visit here go to Visiting our places safely.

Changes to visitor facilities

See the top of this webpage for details of any planned closures or other changes to visitor facilities here.

For your safety, always follow instructions from staff and signs including those for trail diversions or closures.

We may divert or close trails whilst we undertake maintenance work or other operations and we may need to close other visitor facilities temporarily.

In extreme weather, we may close facilities at short notice due to the risk of injury to visitors and staff.

Accessibility information

The accessible Forest Garden trail starts from the small car park for use by disabled visitors only.

How to get here

Location

The Forest Garden car parks are off the A470, near the village of Ganllwyd.

It is in the county of Gwynedd.

The OS grid reference for the car parks is SH 744 225.

Directions to Forest Garden car park

From the south: Take the A470 north from Dolgellau. About 200 metres after passing the Tyn y Groes Hotel, turn right following the brown tourist signs to Ty'n y Groes. Follow the tarmac road past the Ty’n y Groes picnic site for just over one kilometre. At a crossroads just after the Glasdir car park turn left uphill. Turn right at the next cross roads and cross a small bridge (Pont Llam yr Ewig). The car park for disabled visitors is on the left and the main car park is another 150 metres up the hill on the left.

From the north: Take the A470 south towards Dolgellau. After passing through Ganllwyd village, turn left following the brown tourist signs to Ty'n y Groes. Follow the tarmac road past the Ty’n y Groes picnic site for just over one kilometre. At a crossroads just after the Glasdir car park turn left uphill. Turn right at the next cross roads and cross a small bridge (Pont Llam yr Ewig).The car park for disabled visitors is on the left and the main car park is another 150 metres up the hill on the left.