{"id":20868,"date":"2022-11-01T10:32:31","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T09:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.countryfile.com\/?p=21120"},"modified":"2022-11-01T11:13:16","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T10:13:16","slug":"walk-cwm-idwal-gwynedd","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/rss_feed\/walk-cwm-idwal-gwynedd\/","title":{"rendered":"Walk: Cwm Idwal, Gwynedd"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Julie Brominicks\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 01 November 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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The jagged peaks that soar over Cwm Idwal dwarf the Arctic-alpine plants that grow on the slopes around its waters. To appreciate them fully, you have to crouch down or dangle over them to see their colourful petals\u00a0 hunkered on ledges or in crevices\u00a0 \u2013 it\u2019s here that they thrive, feeding on minerals that leach through the rock.<\/p>\n

These miniature Ice Age relics have outlived the mammoths, surviving in an environment that is neither far enough north to be considered Arctic nor high enough to be alpine. Accustomed elsewhere to cold snowy winters, here\u00a0the climate is unpredictable and predominantly wet,\u00a0with ill-defined seasons.<\/p>\n

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Llyn Idwal and the peak of Pen yr Ole Wen in the distance, Snowdonia National Park\/Credit: Getty<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The months of March, April and May, like the rest, are often wind-whipped, veiled in cloud and doused in rain. It is the flowering of these special Arctic-alpines that distinguish spring from the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

The first to flower is purple saxifrage. Even when snow lies late into the season, Saxifraga oppositifolia<\/i> prospers, growing\u00a0 in fragrant cushions on the basalt rocks around the streams that flow into the llyn.<\/p>\n

Discover more Snowdonia walks<\/h4>\n