Dolgellau (pronounced DOLLGETHLY) is located in Mid Wales, in the county of Snowdonia. It’s about a half hour drive from Barmouth on the coast, or half an hour the other way takes you to Bala which is inland. It’s a quaint little market town, which is pleasant to walk around for an hour. There are plenty of shops, post offices, banks etc and a mile up the road is a large Supermarket. It’s the surrounding scenery, which really grabs you about the area. The beautiful rolling mountains really take your breath away. The area is famous for its walks and Mountain Bike trails. As well as for its lakes for fishing a boating.
Dolgellau is brilliantly situated as a base from which to travel. Whichever way you go, there is plenty to do, and exploring the local area is just nice in itself ! To get to Mid Wales / Dolgellau will obviously vary depending on where you’re coming from. From the Midlands, we took the M6 North, off at Junction 10A, then the M54, A5 then A458 and the A470 takes you straight into Mid Wales. The area is very well signposted.
Torrent Walk Camp Site is situated about a mile or so just before Dolgellau, just off the main A470, and was thankfully well sign posted. The scenic views around the site are really nice, and it’s a pleasant looking ‘small’ site. The camping field is attached to a Bed & Breakfast called ‘Dolgun Uchaf.’ The site is very well laid out, and there is plenty of room for each pitch. All camping units are accepted i.e. Tents, Trailer Tents, Touring Caravans or Motorhomes. Electric Hook Up is available at extra cost. There are two gravel roads, which run down both fields, and consequently, dust being ‘churned up’ became a bit of an annoyance. The site is perfectly level, wherever you are. There are some other pitches which have been cut away from a nearby hill, but I think those are just ‘overflow’ pitches, but even those are level. There are toilets and showers, as you would expect, along with a washing up area. However, there is only two of everything. Two lavatories, two urinals, two sinks, two showers and of course, two washing up sinks. This is probably no problem out of the main holiday season, but as we were there in August (‘07), we were quite frequently queuing for the toilets etc, which is a bit annoying when you ‘have to go’ ! On site there was no shop, no club no pub, no swimming pool and no refreshments. A holiday on this site really does guarantee a quiet time. In fact, the only sound you hear is the drone of the nearby main road. (Noisy during the day, but quiet at night). However, a short five-minute walk away there was a ‘Little Chef’ and a petrol station with small provisions section. There was also a café’ at the petrol station, but this didn’t appear to be open when we were there. Very close to the site, there is a famous walk called ‘Torrent Walk’ which we did while we were there. This was truly beautiful, and a very pleasant way to spend a few hours. The walk is about 5 miles round trip, and follows a river.
The only minus sides to this holiday were silly little things, like there being not enough of the toilets / showers / sinks. Also, there were no soap dispensers at the sinks, and nowhere to put your soap or shampoo when you’re in the shower. Strangely, there were no plugs in the washing up sinks either (work out how you do it then ? ) One important thing I will point out about Torrent Walk Campsite is that it is solely ‘geared up’ for Mountain Bikers. Quite close to the site is a famous Mountain Biking area called ‘Coed Y Brenin’. Most of the bikers use this site to visit there. This site is perfect for them. They have secure storage for the bikes, and a bike ‘jet wash’. This obviously attracts Mountain Bikers in their droves, but a lot of the ‘all male yuppie mountain bike groups’ had no consideration for the other site users, returning to the site obviously inebriated in the early hours and making loads of noise. If you’re a family with young children, you may want to look elsewhere for a site, but there are loads around the area. The kiddies on site don’t even get a climbing frame or a swing ! There are a couple of Horses in a neighbouring field that are very friendly which was nice, but that was it for children.
Costs will obviously vary depending on when you go. We paid £108.00 for 6 nights. However, the very friendly owner told us to ‘round it off’ to £100 as we were staying for the week. I think it was £5 per person per night. Then it was a couple of quid extra for electric, and another couple of quid extra for my little 5 year old boy, again – per night. Not sure why you have to pay extra for a child. Surely, you pay for the ‘pitch’.
In conclusion, we did have a very nice holiday in Dolgellau. The site itself wasn’t as good as others we have experienced, but I guess it depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re a Mountain Biker, then quite simply, this is the site for you ! In fact, I’d say that 80% of the people staying there were Mountain Biking. I’m not sure if we’d stay there again. We may do if it was out of the main holiday season, but if we visit this area again (which we are planning to do) we’ll find a ‘family friendly’ site.
Details:-
Torrent Walk Campsite.
Dolgun Uchaf,
Dolgellau,
Gwynedd.
LL40 2AB
Telephone: 01341 422 269
Mobile phone: 07768 020 617
E – Mail: dolgunuchaf@aol.com
Website: www.guesthousessnowdonia.com
Please note; The views expressed in this article are those solely of the author,
and no responsibility will be held, nor correspondence entered into.