Elan valley bothy

Hi

does anyone have a good two day  loop taking in the claerddu bothy in elan valley?

nothing too brutal, as thinking of going up this weekend to do a bothy bikepack with my 9 year old

or any other suggestions stopping at a proper remote bothy

cheers

We called past the claerddu bothy a month or two ago. It wasn’t int best of shape tbh, and if the lamb ‘sleeping,’ in the outhouse is still there it will be fair stinking. I was quite glad we’d camped elsewhere. The singletrack bridleway descent from llyn egnant westwards was pretty fun and enjoyed by my 9 yo.

Claerddu is owned by the Elan Valley Trust, part of DwrCymru/WelshWater. Their contact details are here: T: 01597 810449 | E: info@elanvalleytrust.org . They have always been most helpful when I’ve contacted them so give them a call re: ‘sleeping’ livestock. I think that it is them that have been known to bring in massive supplies of firewood in the past too but don’t quote me on this.

Have you been to Claerddu previously? There’s no obvious access track from the tarmac. Approaching from the east, once at the tarmac (having negotiated the ford, about 1.5 km beforehand) continue down on the tarmac lane over two definite rises. The second of these is approx. 400m from the roadhead, turn right/ northish here and stick to the higher part of the ridge. Very soon you will come across a good track to the bothy.

The simplest route would be to use the cyclepaths up from Rhayader to Caban Coch reservoir, lanes to Claerwen dam and then the gravel track around the reservoir. There’s a ford (above) to be dealt with but the forecast is dry between now and the weekend so it should be OK. Return the same way is best tbh, calling in at the trails you passed at Nantgwyllt chapel. https://www.mbr.co.uk/news/elan-valley-mountain-bike-trails-409821 You can access the top of the trails from Ciloerwynt if you fancy a bonus climb. Likewise, if splish splas is your thing the track paralleling the Clerwen downstream from the dam is a hoot.

The Monk’s Trod over Clawdd Du is a total horror show. Miles of upland bike swallowing bog best left well alone.

The Nant Egnant down to Pontrhydfenigaid is wonderful but its a bit of a schlepp back up whichever way you do it.

There are a few geocaches in the area too.

Not sure what your looking for route wise but you could head over from rhayader as above, drop down Nant egnant and loop back on ncn 81 plus a bit of off road in the NW corner to avoid the B road (although the road is fine) add in as much off road as you want on the elan side. See the routes on their website.

We did it as part of a 3 day Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth trip. The run down to Aber is nice , and nearly all downhill. You could perhaps do welshpool to Aber.

There’s a nice write-up here:

Yes Men: Mid Wales Bothy Bikepacking Weekender

I did it with Hoppy jr at a similar age but we just rode in from Claerwen stopped overnight then rode back along the gravel track around the reservoir. He just ran feral around the bothy and surrounding hills for the rest of the time. There are various places to park up between Rhayder and Claerwen to extend it but anything beyond an out and back gets quite challenging quite quickly especially for younger ones.

As it’s easily accessible the Aber scallies do use it a fair bit, when we were there they were fairly chill but it’s not that remote.

Nant Rhys is quite more remote without being too difficult to access.

@nealc

BBC News – Body in reservoir still unidentified two weeks on
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2d732nggyo