Scrambling in Devil's Kitchen, Snowdonia

Whether you call it Devil's Kitchen or Twll Du (which means Black Hole in Welsh), the name immediately gives you an impression of this other-wordly, gigantic and even intimidating rock formation. It's a colossal crack in the rock between two high Snowdonia mountains, Y Garn and Glyder Fawr. The name of this deep crack comes from the steam that often rises from there, as if from a chimney, which according to a legend meant that the Devil is cooking here. 

A few hundred metres below Devil's Kitchen lies Llyn Idwal, a stunning deep blue lake whose shoreline offers a gentle and beautiful circular walk in the nature of Snowdonia. The scramble up to Devil's Kitchen is more serious though, passing through a boulder field and becoming quite steep at places. Read below for tips on how to tackle this route that offers magnificent views of the Devil's Kitchen waterfall, Llyn Idwal, and the mountains of Snowdonia.

Devil's kitchen

Llyn Idwal

How to get there  

There is a bus stop at Ogwen cottage where the trail begins. To get there, you can take bus number S6 from Bangor, or bus S1 from Llanberis to Pen Y Pas and then change to S6 there. See here for the bus timetables.

If coming by car, Ogwen Car Park is the nearest one, located just next to the bus stop.

What's the weather like?

The weather around Devil's Kitchen can change very suddenly -- when we went, it was a good weather around Llyn Idwal, but it started raining on the slopes near Devil's Kitchen. Do check the weather, as the rocky route can get slippery in wet weather and would be a difficult undertaking in fog.   

How long does it take?

We spent about 3 hours on this route. What takes by far the longest amount of time is the scramble up to Devil's Kitchen and back. The part of the route around Lake Idwal instead is flat and is an easy stroll that only takes around one hour. If you have more energy for scrambling after reaching the base of Devil's Kitchen, you can extend the hike by climbing either Y Garn (947 m) or Glyder Fawr (1001 m). Climbing either one requires more scrambling and about doubles the distance.

 

Click here for a detailed description.

Things to know

There is a café and info point at the beginning of the trail where you can grab something to eat.

Along the way you'll see The Idwal Slabs, a hundred-metre plus steep rock slope on the side of a mountain that is a favourite among rock climbers. In fact, Edmund Hillary used these slabs to train for his conquest of Mount Everest.

There is a pebble beach on the northern shore of Llyn Idwal if you fancy a swim in crystal clear water at the end of the walk.

Idwal Slabs

The route

The route begins next to Ogwen Cottage and is clearly marked and well maintained by the National Trust, apart from the scrambling section to Devil's Kitchen. At the very beginning of the trail there's a nice viewpoint where you can see the peak of each of the summits in this area through a ''lens''. The path crosses a river after about 100 metres of walking. After another 200 metres or so you should turn right and then continue straight ahead for about half a kilometre to reach the beautiful shoreline of Llyn Idwal. Here already you can see the goal in sight: Devil's Kitchen is the crack you'll see behind the opposite side of the lake. Then start circling around the river in a clockwise direction.

 

After about 1 kilometre, you'll reach the majestic Idwal Slabs that extend well over a hundred metres above you on the slopes of Glyder Fawr. After this, continue straight ahead on the path (turning left takes you around Llyn Idwal without climbing Devil's Kitchen), which now starts to ascend. There is still a good paved surface on the trail, a kind of stone staircase.

After a few hundred meters on this path, you'll cross a river along a narrow bridge. The views towards Llyn Idwal start to open: you can already see the whole lake from this height. But you'll get even better views higher up on the trail.

 

About 200 metres forward, the trail turns left and starts getting steeper and rockier and becomes a scramble through a boulder field. You're now only a couple of hundred metres from the bottom of Devil's Kitchen, although it will likely feel more due to the slowness of the scramble up. At the end of the boulder field you are at the turning point of the trail. Admire the view in each direction: Devil's Kitchen and the waterfall that runs through it in front of you; the steep slopes of Glyder Fawr on your right, and a magnificent aerial view of  Llyn Idwal, which looks small from your location 200 metres above it (600 m from the sea level).

Now you have few options: you can cross the river through Devil's Kitchen and descend along its opposite shore (as we did), or you can head back the same way you came to Idwal Slabs and then complete the circle around Llyn Idwal and back to Ogwen cottage (the path is much clearer on this side of the river), or if you're hungry for more climbing, you can continue up to Glyder Fawr. In the rest of the description we assume you take the first option.

Head right at the turning point of the trail and then follow the river that flows through Devil's Kitchen. After a hundred metres or so on this trail you'll actually get a more direct view of the crack than from the turning point of the trail. The scramble down is again through the boulder fields, but on this side the path is much harder to find (we lost it a few times). But the direction is clear: you want to go down towards Llyn Idwal, and you'll just have to find a safe way there. Be careful when crossing the river and while following its shores as the stones here are slippery.

 

A few hundred metres later the trail again becomes a proper stone paved path which you can just continue straight for the final part of descent, and when you reach Llyn Idwal, you continue straight on the same paved path to complete the circular walk around it. After a kilometre you'll reach the same path on the northern shore of the lake that led from Ogwen cottage to the lake. Traversing it back, you reach the place you started.