Cadair Berwyn

About Cadair Berwyn

Cadair Berwyn, also recorded as Cader Berwyn or Craig Uchaf, is the highest point of the Berwyn range, the highest in north-east Wales and the highest significant summit in the country outside the National Parks.

It sits on the main north–south ridge of the Berwyns. The eastern side falls away in steep drops and crags: Craig Berwyn north of the summit, Craig y Llyn to the south. Craig y Llyn forms the headwall of a cwm, and it is presumably to this that cadair — chair in Welsh — refers. Cadair Bronwen lies further north along the ridge, while southwards it continues to Moel Sych, the dry hill.

Cadair Berwyn and Foel Cedig to the west are the two Marilyns of the range, whose undulating plateau also holds many other summits above 2,000 feet, a number of them Nuttalls.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Cadair Berwyn (CC BY-SA 4.0). Heights, prominence and grid references come from the Database of British & Irish Hills, not from Wikipedia.

Access rights here

General position for Wales — local byelaws, seasonal restrictions and closures can override it. Full details: access rights in Wales · check another location.

Daylight at this summit today

Sunrise

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Sunset

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Daylight

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Civil twilight ends

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Computed astronomically for 52.881, -3.381. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is rocky outcrop. On broad or flat summits the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method

obvious summit/Trimble GeoXH 6000

Record revised

23-Oct-23

Drop measured from

SJ016305 · 485 m

Classification history: Higher than Moel Sych (hill 2089) which was formerly thought to be the historic Denbighshire County Top. Summit surveyed as 832.0 m. Dropped from Trail 100 list Jan 2020.

Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.

The Cadair Berwyn group

13 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with Cadair Berwyn as the independent hill at its head.

Twelve highest shown, of 13 in the group.

Grouping is by prominence alone: a summit belongs to the nearest higher Marilyn it connects to without a deeper intervening col. Over a large massif that can gather hills no one would walk in a single day, and which few would describe as parts of the same mountain — it is a measure of independence, not a suggested route.

Nearest listed peaks