Foel Grach

About Foel Grach

Foel Grach sits on the broad ridge that runs north from Carnedd Llewelyn towards Carnedd Gwenllian (once known as Y Garnedd Uchaf) and Foel-fras, in the heart of the Carneddau. It ranks as the eighth-highest summit in both Snowdonia and Wales, and forms one of the tops on the Welsh 3000s round.

The summit itself is broad, with high grassy slopes, and snow lies noticeably deeper here than on the neighbouring peaks. An emergency refuge stands a little below the top. When the air is clear the view reaches across the sea to the Isle of Man, and occasionally as far as the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Foel Grach (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 53.174, -3.963. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is cairn. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method

Abney level/Leica RX1250

Record revised

13-Dec-17

Drop measured from

SH 6889 6532 · 933.8 m

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

Long-distance paths past this hill

One waymarked long-distance route runs within 2.5 km of the summit — useful if you are linking this hill into a longer walk, or want a made path for the approach.

Route lines © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); distance from the summit computed by OpenFell.

Which hill this one belongs to

Foel Grach is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to Carnedd Llewelyn (1,064 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 934 m.

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