Garth Goch

The walk up Garth Goch from Bala takes about an hour and a half if you're not rushing, and you'll spend most of it climbing through moorland with the town dropping away behind you. It's not particularly high - just over 2,000 feet - but the views across the Bala Lake and towards the Arenig range are properly spectacular once you reach the top, especially on a clear day. The summit itself is fairly bare, with rough grass and rocky outcrops, so don't expect shelter or facilities up there. Bring a packed lunch if you want to stay a while and soak it in.

Walkers with decent fitness will find this rewarding. It's not technical scrambling, just steady gradient through open country, so families with older kids can manage it fine, though younger ones might find the featureless moorland boring on the way up. The real appeal is that view at the end - you can see right down the lake valley, and on good visibility days you'll pick out peaks well into Snowdonia. Go early if you can, especially weekends, as the car parking near Bala gets rammed in summer. The route itself is straightforward enough to follow, though bog patches appear after wet weather, so good boots matter.

If you're staying at Tyn Cornel Camping nearby, this makes a cracking half-day outing to break up a lazy park holiday. It's close enough that you're not spending hours driving, but challenging enough to feel like proper exercise. Free to access, obviously - it's just a mountain.