Campsite review: Rhaeadr Nantcol Waterfalls
This year (2025) our first camping trip, and therefore the official 'start of the season' came later than usual, and much later than I would have liked! With perfectly good reason though - the start of this year (and the end of the last) had been completely preoccupied with buying our first home. So instead of starting out with some local trips in unpredictable weather (as early spring in the UK can be so hit or miss) our first trip was at the start of May, in Eryri (or Snowdonia National Park), near Llanbedr.
We'd stumbled across this site, Rhaeadr Nantcol Waterfalls, when we saw it in a video on social media, which showed the river Cwmnantcol (attempt to pronounce at your own risk) flowing straight through it, dissecting the green fields which were scattered (not rammed - thankfully) with tents and campers. As a child, my first camping trips that I can remember were in north Wales, on the shores of Bala lake, so it's an area that's fairly familiar to me. The video showed the site looking peaceful and scenic, so after checking the calendar, we got it booked.
After a four hour drive, which included a breakfast stop just outside of Shrewsbury, and a visit to the London House Stores butchers on the A496 (which I would highly recommend) we arrived at the campsite. The last few miles of our journey were on twisty and narrow lanes, which I found very enjoyable with my Dacia Duster's spongy suspension, although it does get a little tedious when you meet a farm truck coming the other way and you end up having to reverse back down said narrow and twisty lanes! When you first enter the site the reception (which also functions as a small shop) is positioned at the front, on a big gravel car park, and there the staff, who were very helpful and friendly, got us booked in and helped to direct us to our pitch. We were around the back of the site, on the pitches with hookup (a rare luxury for us) and we were happy to see that it was fairly quiet! Given that it was a bank holiday weekend, I was sure that the site would be filling up fairly soon, but thankfully, it didn't get much busier, and for the whole duration of the weekend the pitch to our left remained completely empty - making our pitch feel really spaced out from all others.
We found that the site was really tidy and well kept, from the gravel track that runs through all areas of the site, to the stone walled toilet and shower block, which were among some of the best I've ever seen! The pitches were surrounded by hills, some grazed by sheep and others home to woodland, creating a cosy valley feel and also providing some wonderful natural views from the tent.
Rhaeadr Nantcol really captures the feeling of being tucked away from the world, whilst still boasting fantastic facilities and also being near places to go and things to see. Only a twenty minute drive down the road is the seaside town of Barmouth, complete with beaches, fish and chips, pubs and shops galore. There is also Shell Island, which is even closer. However, if you prefer peace, quiet and nature on your trip, there are multiple walking routes which can be joined right from the site - more on these later.
On the second day of our trip we went into Barmouth and enjoyed walking on the beach, although unfortunately, it wasn't quite warm enough to tempt us into a dip in the sea! We also walked through town and may have fallen into a pub, before making our way to the harbour and then of course we ended up going to a chip shop (or chippery) for lunch.
On our third day we decided to stay local to the site and the surrounding area, and so we were able to enjoy a few of the walks that I had saved for just such an opportunity. The first was the waterfalls circular, which starts and ends right on the site. The route is supposedly just under 1.5 miles and can be done in less than 40 minutes, however, I think whoever is doing this walk in such a short amount of time has not stopped enough times to take in the view, enjoy a flask of tea, and potentially even enjoy a small picnic, because the scenery on the route is fantastic!
A screenshot of the route on AllTrails
The area covered by the waterfall circular - route as seen on OS Maps
Once we had followed the circular trail back to the site, we went straight into the next walk that I had planned, which also can be started right from the camp site - the Coed Aberartro circular. The route led us out of the front of the camp site, and then left through some sparse woodland, over a small bridge, and then onto a shaded forest track, dappled with shreds of sunlight that had made it through the canopy above. This track led us through the Coed Aberartro woods, an ancient woodland which overlooks the river, and was filled with spring bluebells. We found the woodland to be peaceful and quiet, and I really enjoyed the peace beneath the shade of it's trees. It's only a small woodland however, and eventually the path leaves through a wooden gate, and then joins onto a narrow and twisty road, which goes downhill towards the nearby town of Llanbedr. We followed this road parallel to the river, until it eventually forked, and the right fork led us into the surrounding farmland.
As we progressed on the right of way into the farm land, the road which had previously been tarmacked turned into a pair of farm track ruts, that took us down to another gate, leading into a field. I knew from the map that we were close to the town, and also the promise of a refreshing pint at this point, and thankfully the rest of the walk went by easily and unhindered (i.e. no attack cows/horses). Our path ran through the field and then into the local park area, and once we'd gotten into the park, we noticed through the bordering hedge that around the corner of the field that we had just been in, was a small group of cows with calves, which we had managed to avoid, unknowingly, because our path had left the field before turning the bend.
In Llanbedr we visited the Victoria Inn, a pub that I would consider brilliant purely because it hosted many sets of deer antlers on it's walls, but in addition to this, it also did great beers and food - win win. We sat in the garden enjoying the sunshine and some ice cold beverages. Although not a particularly hard or long walk, there's no reason not to reward oneself with a beer when the opportunity arises.
The map of the walking route that I had found would have taken us back to the campsites along the small and winding local roads, but we chose to return the way that we had come, through the forest and alongside the river. Although this was mostly uphill, the incline wasn't too severe, and it was much nicer to be ambling through the woods than it would have been hugging the side the roads all the way back.
https://nantcolwaterfalls.co.uk/
https://www.alltrails.com/en-gb/trail/wales/gwynedd/rhaeadr-nantcol-waterfalls-circular
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