Best Day Walks in Snowdonia

Snowdonia is one of Britain's great mountain regions. Formed by ice and fire, these 'alps' of North Wales soar to a serrated skyline of rocky pyramids and ridges. Climbers have come here since the days of the early pioneers, but this is fine walking country too. John Gillham, who created the critically-acclaimed and comprehensive four-volume Pictorial Guides to the Mountains of Snowdonia for Frances Lincoln, has this time turned his attention to circular walks, suitable for families. Each of the 30 walks in the book has been graded from 1 to 5 for both technical difficulty and strenuousness. None of the walks contains any difficult or exposed scrambling, and the itineraries range from an easy-paced walk on the foothills above Bala to a steep rocky assault on Tryfan. By starting on the easier routes and working up through the grades, the book provides a good introduction for families and newcomers to mountain walking. Equally there are enough splendid outings in high mountain scenery to satisfy the most enthusiastic mountain lover.

Author Biography

John Gillham has been a full-time writer, illustrator and photographer since 1989, after working as an assistant quantity surveyor and in the aerospace industry. Born in Bournemouth in 1947, John maintains strong links to Wales through his mother's family, a family that included the renowned Welsh tenor, Ivor Emmanuel. These days the author lives with his wife Nicola in Hoddlesden, a village in the West Pennine Moors. Gillham's first book, Snowdonia to the Gower (Diadem) was described as one of the classic books on Wales. Gillham's work has regularly been published in magazines such as Trail, Dalesman and TGO (The Great Outdoors), where for several years he had his own series 'Way to Go'. He has contributed walking articles and written books for AA publications, including AA Guide to 50 Walks in North Wales and the AA Leisure Guide to Wales. In 2001 he was awarded an Outdoor Writers Guild Award for Excellence for the book Coast to Coasting (David and Charles), which he illustrated and co-wrote with Ronald Turnbull.