Parking
Morfa Dyffryn Car Park on Ffordd Benar, reached from the A496; use the designated car park. Parking is operated by the National Park Authority.
Overview
About Benar Boardwalk
Why go
- Flat, even route suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs
- Straight boardwalk to a beach viewpoint
- Dune wildlife and sea views
Heads up
- Very short, with little route variety
- Sand can make sections harder to traverse
- The open beach and dunes are soft sand beyond the accessible boardwalk
You leave the car park, follow the access path onto the boardwalk, and run out through the dune system to the beach end. The payoff is the viewpoint at the finish, with a picnic bench and sandy Benar Beach in front of you, looking out across Cardigan Bay. On a clear day you can pick out the Llyn Peninsula and catch a glimpse of Bardsey Island. Morfa Dyffryn is a nationally important active dune system, so the walk out passes specialised dune plants, damp slacks behind the beach, and ground used by breeding birds.
Parkwolf’s verdictThe sequence and the payoffMap & elevation
The route
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Eryri Tour Guide
Your drive to Benar Boardwalk, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Eryri National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this area
Why a Dune Needs Bare Sand0:00 / 0:30
“At Morfa Dyffryn, a patch of bare sand isn't a failed dune. It's part of the habitat. When scrub and dense grass take over, the open ground needed by specialist plants and insects disappears.”
Plays on the road 1.6 km from the trailhead in the Parkwolf Eryri Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- A Fort Shaped by Rock
- The Tomb That Grew
- The Boxer in the Grass
- Craig y Ddinas Hillfort Walk
- 298 audio storiesacross Eryri’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Grey Heron, Tawny Owl, Common Raven, and 9 more
- Works offlinemaps, 120 trails, 82 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Benar Boardwalk
The route in shortThis is a there and back again walk from Morfa Dyffryn Car Park out to the beach viewpoint,…
This is a there and back again walk from Morfa Dyffryn Car Park out to the beach viewpoint, returning along the same boardwalk and access path. Parkwolf stores it as about 0.4 miles (0.6 km) return, rounded from the full mapped corridor of 302.94 metres each way. The official promoted route sheet prints 200 metres, which is shorter than the complete car park to beach geometry, so expect a little more than that on the ground. Allow roughly 15 minutes, longer if you sit a while at the end.
Accessibility and footingGraded Easy, Access for All, difficulty 1/10.
Graded Easy, Access for All, difficulty 1/10. It is largely flat and even, with no steps and no steep sections, and the boardwalk is wide enough for conventional wheelchairs, pushchairs and Tramper-style mobility scooters. The one real variable is sand, which blows in and builds up on sections of the decking and can make traversal difficult. The boardwalk and access path are the accessible part of this trip. The open beach and the dunes beyond are soft sand and are not wheelchair ground.
Is it too short?Be honest with yourself about the length.
Be honest with yourself about the length. This is a few hundred metres each way, not a coastal hike, and it is not part of a longer walk here. Taken for what it is, a short, flat, genuinely accessible push or stroll from car to sea view with somewhere to sit at the end, it does the job well. Pack a flask and treat the bench as the destination.
Parking and getting thereStart and finish at Morfa Dyffryn Car Park, OS grid reference SH 572 224, reached on Ffordd…
Start and finish at Morfa Dyffryn Car Park, OS grid reference SH 572 224, reached on Ffordd Benar off the A496. There is designated parking, operated by the National Park Authority, and picnic tables in the car park. An accessible toilet sits near the car park, though facilities here are seasonal, so do not count on it being open when you arrive.
Reserve rules and dogsDogs are allowed on the route.
Dogs are allowed on the route. From March through July, the bird breeding season, keep them on leads: ringed plovers nest on the beach and other birds nest in the dunes and saltmarsh. Follow reserve signs, stay on the boardwalk, and give wildlife, livestock and the dune faces space. Old military debris turns up on this stretch of coast, so leave anything of that sort alone.
The naturist beachPart of the reserve is a signed designated naturist beach.
Part of the reserve is a signed designated naturist beach. It is clearly marked, so read the signs at the beach end and choose your spot accordingly. Worth knowing in advance if you are visiting with children or a group.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Eryri
77 sightingsGrey HeronMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
17 sightingsTawny OwlMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
32 sightingsCommon RavenMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
21 sightingsGreat Spotted WoodpeckerMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
18 sightingsEuropean RabbitMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
161 sightingsViviparous LizardMost seen around 10 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Eryri. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
