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Cader Idris

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Cader Idris ("Arthur's Chair" in English)
Elevation: 2927 feet, 892 meters.
In Welsh, Cader means chair and Idris is the name of one of the old Welsh giants. There are a number of routes to the top, the easiest being from Llanfihangel-y-Pennant, 3.5 miles south west of the summit of Cader Idris. Not a mountain for beginners to attempt. (Climbers advice)
A tremendous hill with a very impressive Corrie (Cwm Cau). On a sunny day the water in this lake is bright turquoise. There is an excellent and long climb rising from the lake on the huge buttress to the left. The circuit of the main corrie is a must. (Paul Riordan - climber)
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Who amongst us can forget CADER IDRIS. 15- and 16-year-old inexperienced climbers being pitted against this mountain, inadequately trained and often with the barest and poorest of equipment. Even the best climbers in the world would have had trouble wearing a poncho, hob nail boots and threadbare denims. Thanks to the 'Duke of Edinburgh' this was often for 2, 3 or 4 days at a time. Add to this a raving loony horse riding Welsh farmer waving a shotgun and shouting, "Get off my land" and you have the experience of a lifetime. (If you survived of course!)
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Quote Ref: cader001

<<< Quote Ref: cader001 >>> Cader Idris in all its glory.
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"The Rock of Cader Idris"
[It is an old tradition of the Welsh bards, that on the summit of the mountain Cader Idris is an excavation resembling a couch; and that whoever should pass a night in that hollow, would be found in the morning either dead, in a state of frenzy, or endowed with the highest poetical inspiration.]
 
I lay on that rock where the storms have their dwelling,
The birthplace of phantoms, the home of the cloud;
Around it for ever deep music is swelling,
The voice of the mountain-wind, solemn and loud.
'Twas a midnight of shadows all fitfully streaming,
Of wild waves and breezes, that mingled their moan;
Of dim shrouded stars, as from gulfs faintly gleaming;
And I met the dread gloom of its grandeur alone.
 
I lay there in silence - a spirit came o'er me;
Man's tongue hath no language to speak what I saw:
Things glorious, unearthly, pass'd floating before me,
And my heart almost fainted with rapture and awe.
I view'd the dread beings around us that hover,
Though veil'd by the mists of mortality's breath;
And I call'd upon darkness the vision to cover,
For a strife was within me of madness and death.
 
I saw them - the powers of the wind and the ocean,
The rush of whose pinion bears onward the storms;
Like the sweep of the white-rolling wave was their motion,
I felt their dim presence, - but knew not their forms!
I saw them - the mighty of ages departed -
The dead were around me that night on the hill:
From their eyes, as they pass'd, a cold radiance they darted, -
There was light on my soul, but my heart's blood was chill.
 
I saw what man looks on, and dies - but my spirit
Was strong, and triumphantly lived through that hour;
And, as from the grave, I awoke to inherit
A flame all immortal, a voice, and a power!
Day burst on that rock with the purple cloud crested,
And high Cader Idris rejoiced in the sun; -
But O! what new glory all nature invested,
When the sense which gives soul to her beauty was won!
 
by Felicia Hemans (1793 - 1835)
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Photographs Of Cader Idris
 General Photos Of Cader Idris (3 Photos) 
 Painting Of Cader Idris In 1871 
 Photos From John Young (3 Photos) 
 Photos From Richard J. Abraham (2 Photos) 
 Photos From Richard Rothwell [A] (8 Photos) 
 Photos From Richard Rothwell [B] (8 Photos) 
 Photos From Richard Rothwell [C] (8 Photos) 
 Photos From Richard Rothwell [D] (9 Photos) 
 Photos From Bill Fox - Reunion 2009 (3 Photos) 
 Photos From Alan Ventress - June 2009 (6 Photos) 
 Postcard Of The Cader Idris Shelter In The 1920's 
 Brian Kemp Climbs Cader In 2013 (1 Photo) 
 The Aussies Climb Cader In 2015 (10 Photos) 
 
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If you have any photos of Cader Idris then I would love to show them.

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