Where Cad West is, and what the name means
Cad West is the second best known of the Mach Loop hillside viewpoints after the Bwlch, and the one most first-timers are pointed towards. It sits above the A487 between Corris and Cross Foxes, at the head of the Tal-y-llyn valley — the straight glacial trench following the Bala Fault beneath the southern walls of Cadair Idris.
The Old Vicarage at Corris, which sits under the flight line, explains the name: “Cad” is short for Cadair Idris, the peaks on the north side of the valley. Cad West and Cad East are two positions on the same hillside, facing different ways.
From Machynlleth it is a straight run north on the A487 through Corris, 5.6 miles from town; Dolgellau is 16 miles away on the same road. From the north, turn south at the Cross Foxes junction. MachLoop.co.uk gives the position as 52.7086°N, 3.8450°W, postcode LL40 2SH — a wide Tal-y-llyn postcode good for the right stretch of road, not the layby itself.
The layby — and why people are there at eight in the morning
Cad West is served by a roadside layby on the main road, generally reckoned the largest parking area on the Loop. Shootsmart.co.uk calls it “quite generous, largest layby in the loop” at approximately 30 cars; the Minffordd Hotel at Tal-y-llyn puts it at approximately 20 vehicles; MachLoop.co.uk describes it more cautiously as roadside with limited space. Somewhere in that range is the honest answer, and on a promising weekday in the flying season it fills.
Because it fills, arrival time matters most; MachLoop.co.uk advises being parked by 08:30. If the layby is full, drive on rather than improvising. The specialists are blunt: do not block farm gates, passing places or private driveways, and do not park on verges in a way that blocks visibility or churns the ground, because access depends entirely on the goodwill of private landowners. This is working sheep country, and a farmer who cannot get a trailer through a gateway is the fastest way to lose a viewpoint for everybody.
The walk up, and the fence
The walk from the layby is the reason Cad West suits people who do not fancy the biggest climbs. The figures the specialists give are consistent: MachLoop.co.uk says around half a mile and roughly 300 feet of climb, graded moderate; the Minffordd Hotel gives 0.40 miles and 307 feet; spotterguide.net describes a 750-metre footpath gaining about 90 vertical metres “easily and smoothly”. Times quoted run from 15 to 20 minutes (spotterguide.net and Scramble’s LFA7 guide) to 20 to 30 minutes depending on fitness and conditions (shootsmart.co.uk).
On the ground that means rough upland grass and trods that traverse the hillside rather than attacking it head-on. Shootsmart.co.uk notes the trails run horizontally across the slope and that the fence gives handholds on the steeper sections. That fence is the landmark as well as the handrail: Cad West’s nickname is simply “the Fence”, and the famous fence shots are taken from along it. None of it is a surfaced path — uneven ground, no steps, nothing to shelter behind, and not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs. MachLoop.co.uk lists boots, waterproofs, food, water and a paper map as the basics.
What you are looking at, and where the sun is
Face into the valley and the ground drops away towards Tal-y-llyn to your left and the pass to your right. Aircraft, when they come, arrive from your left and cross left to right — MachLoop.co.uk, shootsmart.co.uk and the Old Vicarage all agree. What makes the spot distinctive is the possibility of a genuine level pass, with aircraft close to eye level rather than below you, giving either a topside view or a flat-on profile depending on where you stand.
There can be a second look. Shootsmart.co.uk describes aircraft going behind and turning left towards Corris Corner over Tal-y-llyn lake, so the pass is not necessarily over the moment it is past.
On light the specialists differ slightly. Shootsmart.co.uk rates Cad West as good all day; spotterguide.net puts the good light from early afternoon to sunset, and Scramble’s guide also calls it an afternoon spot. That makes it a natural pairing with Cad East, which everyone agrees is a morning position — and it is worth reading the photography page before deciding which way you want the sun.
Who Cad West suits
It suits a first-timer who wants a real hillside view without the longest climb, and it is the one location the specialists mention in the same breath as children: shootsmart.co.uk recommends it for families, on the strength of the easier access and the fence handholds. It suits a long lens, and a party of mixed pace. It does not suit anyone who cannot manage rough, unstepped ground with 300 feet of ascent, or who needs a toilet, a bench or a roof; there are none. If the climb is out, the flat alternative is the Corris Craft Centre car park, which MachLoop.co.uk calls the only fully flat, no-climbing option on the Loop.
The honest limitations
Cad West is an exposed hillside in Welsh mountain weather with no shelter of any kind. The Dyfi valley climate is mild but changeable, and the ground above it is not gentle; wind on the shoulder can be considerably stronger than in the layby, and low cloud sitting on the tops ends the day before it starts, because military low flying stops when the crews cannot see the ground. Phone signal is patchy.
The larger limitation is the one no viewpoint can fix. There is no published day-to-day schedule for LFA7 and no way to look up when jets will pass. MachLoop.co.uk gives common flying hours as roughly 09:00 to 17:00 Monday to Friday and then says, in three words, “no schedule, ever”. Blank days happen. Even on a flying day the crews may take a different part of the Loop entirely and never come past Cad West. The Old Vicarage at Corris counted an average of 3.5 passes a weekday past the house in a June 2024 sample, with 21 on the best day.
So treat a sighting as a bonus and the hill as the day out. Our when they fly page sets out what is knowable, planning a Loop day covers the hours in between, and getting here covers reaching the valley — there is no bus. Follow the Countryside Code as Eryri National Park publishes it: gates as you found them, dogs on a lead near livestock, litter home.
Day trips