As mentioned on the home page, we thank Ordnance Survey for the permission to use their maps on some parts of this website and for your visits to Wales we strongly recommend that you purchase the Ordnance Survey Explorer map number OL23, which is scale 1:25 000. This is priced at around £7.
Welcome to the page for the locations in Wales, this page will make it easier for the user to navigate to a specific location far quicker than trawling through the mass of pages. For locations in Wales this is the page you should head for when you return to see if any updates have been made, this will save you time searching through all the locations for Wales.
To the Royal Air Force, Wales is one big playground and on their charts they have named it low fly area 7. Within low fly area 7 is a special or a select area where they can train at altitudes as low as 100ft for fixed wing aircraft, this area is known as LFA 7 (T). This area is only active for the 100ft low fly section at certain times of each week, these times can be found on the MOD website, which there is a link to on this page. So at these published times they can work at 100ft and the rest of the times they must fly no lower than 250ft. The main area for us photographers is called the Mach loop and is circled on the map on this page, this is effectively a large roundabout of a series of valleys with entry and exit points leading to and from many arteries in Northern Wales and runs anti Clockwise. Area 7(T) lies to the southeast of the loop and the A5 pass lies to the North west towards Bangor. MOD website, Click here
The Lowfly areas of the Uk are usually open Monday to friday from around 0730 until 1800 and almost never at weekends. You may occasionally hear or see aircraft during the evenings but the bulk of the flying will take place between 0830-1700
It is a good idea to write these grid references down and leave them in your camera bag in case of an emergency, this could save valuable time as its a universal system and all emergency vehicles are fitted with GPS.
Mach loop weather. Click
Where to go ?
There are locations in Wales to suit every photographic taste and most are situated within 6 miles of one an other in the Mach Loop. For sheer excitement Cad west is hard to beat and offers great top side images, Cad East is good for a great variety of different opportunities and is good for those who have walking or medical problems. Corris Corner is hard to beat for the back drop of the lake and for aircraft forming vapour early in the morning. The most popular location in the loop is The Bwlch in the Dinas valley, offering a good car park and 3 locations which give different results plus not forgetting the exit to this valley which offers great landscape shots. On the forum the most frequently asked question is where should i go for a first trip. My answer is go to the Bwlch, mainly because its easy to find and if you go to the bottom ledge it is fairly easy on the legs and easy to navigate to. Also if you are alone, at this location you will nearly always find someone to show you the way, plus you will nearly always see something. As with any location, you should try to arrive at 8am to be able to find a parking place and you should aim to stay until around 5pm. Take precautions, plenty of food and drink, warm clothing( even in summer ), a good seat or cushion, and a good hat for the sun or a warm one at if its cold
Where to stay
In the heart of the Mach loop is the Buckley Pines Hotel, Mention Lowfly.net when you book and you will receive 10 percent discount on your room.
Local amenities
The village of D inas Mawddwy does have a Post Office which is open Monday to Friday wich closes at 1pm until 2pm for lunch. Also in the village is a phone box, public houe and a childrens play area with a public toilet nearby. Less than 1 mile away is the village of Minllyn, which also has a public phone box and a Pub/hotel, the Buckley Pines. There is a small tourist attraction as well in the from of the Meirion Mill, with a gift shop and toilet. further down the road by 1/2 mile is a Cafe/shop and Post office on the premises of the garage at Mallwyd, just off the roundabout of the A470/A458.
Dolgellau: Is a small town with a variety of pubs, restaurants and takeaways. It is very tourist friendly which is good as this area of Wales is reliant on tourism all year round. The little Chef is about 1 mile outside of the town, east on the A470. Next door to the Little Chef is the garage which opens at 0700 during the week, as does the Little Chef .
