Charged 6am–11:59pm: free ≤30 min · £1 ≤1hr · £3 ≤2hr · £7 ≤4hr · £12 all day · season tickets £40–£70. No overnight parking. Blue Badge free with registration.
Tyddyn Gwladys, Pont Cae'n-y-coed & Glasdir
Free, no overnight parking. Choose the car park that matches your trail: they are several miles apart by road.
No route number is confirmed for this guide. Plan door to door with the Traveline Cymru journey planner, and check the current service before travelling.
By car
8 miles north of Dolgellau on the A470, through Ganllwyd.
At the Visitor Centre only: 9:30am–4pm inside (closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day), 24 hours outside. None confirmed at the satellite car parks.
Food & drink
Nothing is sold anywhere in the forest: the café and shop closed for good on 31 March 2025. Bring your own.
Bike wash & charging
Bike wash and 13-amp e-bike charging points at the Visitor Centre.
Accessibility & terrain
Blue Badge
Dedicated bays near the Visitor Centre entrance.
Accessible trails
Afon Eden and the Forest Garden loop are both suitable for off-road mobility scooters. The Glasdir mine trail has a step-free viewpoint alternative from Pont Llam yr Ewig.
Mountain biking
The MinorTaur trail is built for adapted cycles, wheelchairs and mobility scooters.
Other walks
Forest roads with sections of narrow, unmade, uneven path: mud, rocks, roots and steps on the Volcano and Glasdir trails.
Dogs & restrictions
Policy
No official dog policy is published for the forest.
Mountain bike trails
Keep dogs under close control: riders move fast and can appear with little warning.
Safety, weather & local conditions
Old mine workings
On the Waterfalls & Goldmines and Glasdir trails, old mine workings and buildings may be unsafe, with unprotected drops into the river gorges. Stay on the waymarked route.
Unstaffed site
The Visitor Centre carries no first-aid provision and no on-site staff.
Emergency
In an emergency, call 999.
PLACE-SPECIFIC DETAILS
Route & waymarking
Volcano Trail
10.8km (6.7 miles), strenuous, around 5 hours, 372m ascent. Climbs to Moel Hafod Owen, the park's highest point. From Pont Cae'n-y-coed.
Waterfalls & Goldmines Trail
3.6km (2.2 miles), moderate, around 1½ hours, 109m ascent. Passes Rhaeadr Mawddach, Pistyll Cain and the former Gwynfynydd gold mine. From Tyddyn Gwladys.
Glasdir Trail
2km (1.3 miles), moderate, around 45 minutes, 80m ascent. Loops through the former copper mine. From Glasdir.
Mountain biking
A full graded network from an easy skills area to black-grade routes, plus gravel and running trails.
What to bring
Sturdy footwear
Waterproof layer
Water
Food and drink
Card for parking
Torch or phone light
Not just a bike park.
Coed y Brenin carries several registers on one 9,000-acre hillside: the forest where mountain biking in Britain was first developed, waymarked walks to two real waterfalls, and the remains of a Victorian gold mine that once sent Welsh gold to the Queen for her 60th birthday.
Most visitors come for one of these: the bike trails, usually. Few realise the same forest holds a strenuous summit walk, a former copper mine, and a working history of mining that goes back to 1863.
Trail, forest and a cascade, one hillside.
Should this shape your day?
Free to visit, but five different car parks mean five different visits.
Good fit for
mountain bikers of any level
walkers wanting a genuine choice of difficulty
anyone drawn to real Welsh mining history
families combining an easy trail with a hired bike
Think twice if
you're expecting a café, shop or staffed information point
you need toilets away from the main Visitor Centre car park
you want one single easy stop: the five car parks serve different visits
you'd rather not plan logistics before you arrive
Before you go
the forest and trails are free and always open
only the Visitor Centre car park is charged: three others are free
Pick one trail — bike, waterfall walk, or the summit route — rather than trying to cover the whole forest in a single visit.
Open moorland gives way to conifer forest long before any trailhead comes into view.
One forest, five car parks.
See the shape of the visit before you choose your trail.
01 Choosing your car park
The Visitor Centre for biking, or one of three free car parks for a walk.
02 The Visitor Centre
Charged parking, Beics Brenin for bike hire, but no café or shop.
03 Waterfalls and a gold mine
From Tyddyn Gwladys: Rhaeadr Mawddach, Pistyll Cain, and Gwynfynydd.
04 The climb to Moel Hafod Owen
From Pont Cae'n-y-coed: a strenuous 10.8km to the forest's highest point.
05 The old copper terraces
From Glasdir: a loop through the remains of a former copper mine.
06 A step-free option
From Pont Llam yr Ewig: the mine's history without the challenging climb.
07 The drive back out
No food or drink on site. Plan refreshments in Dolgellau or Ganllwyd.
Seen along the way.
Forest track, waterfall, gold mine and copper terraces: the visit before you make it.
A forest track through the plantationPistyll Cain, on the Waterfalls & Goldmines TrailThe 1986 Gwynfynydd gold ingot, given for the Queen’s 60th birthdayThe old copper workings at GlasdirThe Forest Garden, an accessible loopThe “Horns” gateway, near the Visitor Centre
The parts people remember
One forest, five different doors in, and no two visits quite the same.
01
Five gates, one forest
Every visit here starts with a choice, not a single entrance: which car park, which trail, which version of the forest you're about to meet.
02
Off the tarmac and into the trees
The road drops away almost immediately. Dense conifer closes in on both sides, and there's no view out again until the trail opens.
03
The waterfalls arrive without warning
The path follows the river quietly for a while, then the noise builds fast: spray in the air before the drop itself comes into view.
04
Old workings, right beside the path
At Glasdir and along the Waterfalls and Goldmines Trail, the ground itself changes: cut stone, old walls, a drop into the gorge close enough that the waymarking matters.
05
Nothing to stop at on the way out
There's no counter waiting at the car park: just the trail, the trees, and whatever you brought in with you.
A forest with five different doors in, and it never quite feels like the same place twice.
Forest Archive
Old stories, carefully told.
Three field notes on what this forest has been: gold, bikes, and copper.
All three are documented history. Where a source disagrees with another, it's said plainly.
Field notes
Three entries. Open one to read the note.
Mining history Fact
Gwynfynydd, the gold mine
Field note I · filed under industry
Gold was worked out of this valley from 1863, and the mine's own gold once travelled all the way to the Queen.
What is known
Gold was first discovered at Gwynfynydd, near Ganllwyd, in 1863. The mine was developed commercially from 1887, employing around 200 people by 1888, working quartz veins through horizontal tunnels. In April 1986, a kilogram of Welsh gold from the mine was presented to Queen Elizabeth II to mark her 60th birthday.
What isn’t exact
Sources disagree on the exact closure year: some give 1998, the site's own operator page gives 1999. Both agree the mine stopped working in the late 1990s.
What to notice there
The remains sit right beside the Waterfalls and Goldmines Trail: old workings close to the path, with the same unprotected-drop cautions that apply along the whole route.
Sporting history Fact
Where the trails began
Field note II · filed under the bike trails
Mountain Biking Wales calls this the first forest developed for the sport anywhere in the country.
What is known
The forest was identified as a potential mountain bike race course in 1990, and the first races were held in 1991. Dafydd Davis, employed as a Forest Sports Development Adviser, developed the early trails and was awarded an MBE in 2004 for services to forestry. The current visitor centre opened in 2006.
What isn’t exact
The "first forest developed for mountain biking" claim comes from Mountain Biking Wales, the sport's own official body, not independently verified elsewhere, though nothing contradicts it either. The current number of waymarked trails also varies slightly by source.
What to notice there
The graded trail markers themselves — yellow through to black — and the dedicated skills area, still expanding today.
Mining history Fact
Glasdir, the copper terraces
Field note III · filed under the second mine
A second, quieter mine sits elsewhere in the forest: copper, not gold, and far less documented.
What is known
Glasdir is the site of a former copper mine within the forest. A waymarked trail now loops directly through the terraced remains of the old workings, with an alternative step-free viewpoint route nearby.
What isn’t exact
No confirmed operating dates are available for Glasdir's own mine from the sources checked: it is a genuinely less-documented site than Gwynfynydd, not a gap in the telling.
What to notice there
Old mine workings and buildings sit close to the path here too, with the same unprotected-drop caution as the gold-mine trail: stay on the waymarked route.
Don’t let the day end at one pin.
Four more places within about 13 miles of the forest.
