Come and experience the peace of this unique location in the remote Tywi valley. The track leading to this 17th century former farmhouse takes you into an era before electricity, with gas lighting and a large open fire for heat. Hot showers are available. Lôn Las Cymru, the Welsh National Cycle Route, passes nearby and the Cambrian Way long distance path is not far off. There are many other mountain tracks, pony trekking is available and bird watchers will be well rewarded.
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 | OS maps: | Landranger 147 Explorer 187 | (1:50,000) (1:25,000) |
| Grid Reference: | SN 806 562 | ||
| Public transport: | Train to Aberystwyth,Carmarthen or Llanwrtyd Wells, Bus X40: Cardiff/Carmarthen to Lampeter/Aberystwyth, Bus 585: Lampeter/Aberystwyth to Tregaron Postbus 287: Llandovery to Rhandirmwyn | ||
| Nearest shop: | Tregaron | 15 km / 9 mi | |
| Nearest hostel: | Ty'n Cornel | 31 km / 19 mi (by road) 8 km / 5 mi (by footpath) | |
You can walk to Dolgoch over the hills from Tregaron or take the winding Abergwesyn mountain road. The hostel is 1 km / ¾ mile south of the bridge, along an unsurfaced track. It is a simple hostel offering the following facilities:
Dolgoch is open throughout the year. Booking information is available on the YHA website.
| Martin Hanks has produced a series of beautifully illustrated maps showing walks in the hills around the Elenydd hostels. See our Walking and Cycling pages. |  |
My appreciation for Wales and especially Dolgoch began in the late 1970s when some friends of mine (inspired by a school trip to London) suggested we spend the holidays in England (sic) and I joined them. After some uneasy experiences with large hostels we started looking for the smallest ones and ended up in the Cambrian Mountains where we met George who was wardening at Dolgoch at that time. From then on we came back quite regularly, went to several parts of the country from Cornwall to Scotland over the years, but we never had a holiday without seeing Dolgoch, where we sometimes did voluntary work on the water supply or the building itself. Martin Rusch
We stayed at Dolgoch in July 2006 whilst on a cycle tour through Wales, during the heatwave with the tar melting on the roads. My teenage son was riding his road bike carrying heavy panniers (he did not listen to Dad's advice on packing!). He managed to ride 3/4 of the way up the Devil's Staircase before walking the last bit - further than his dad did! He was intrigued by the gas lights and shower at Dolgoch.
Earlier that day he had broken a spoke - rear wheel, cassette side. On arrival at Dolgoch we met a group of 'Roughstuff' riders. My son thought it was strange to be riding off-road on touring bikes, especially when he saw the condition of one of the bikes. Anyway we had a great discussion whilst cooking and eating dinner. One 'mature' Roughstuff rider could not understand why you would want more than a 5 speed cassette whilst many of the others were amused at my son's high gearing (52/39 chainring and 12/25 9 speed cassette), then impressed when he told them how far he had ridden up the Devil's Staircase. The Roughstuff guys looked for a spare spoke to repair his wheel but did not have the right size, but one of them did a great job of truing his wheel to allow him to ride to the bike shop in Aberystwyth. We enjoyed our night at Dolgoch and it was good to see and hear the banter between teenager and the older crowd. Richard Wrigley
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