New Year’s day attack on experienced mountain leader in Snowdonia

Incident number: 1193

Response ID: 316,567,827

Date of incident: 01.01.25

Location: Snowdonia path from Maes Cwm to Moel Eilio (Grid reference SH 572 590)

Status: Between 3 and 5 people walking on PRoW with dogs on leads

Eryri Local’s story

“We were walking along the bridleway traveling south east towards Maes Cwm to ascend Moel Eilio. We were near to the stile before we saw them which was 20m away. I wanted to turn back as we had 2 dogs with us but my friend had been past them recently and thought we would be OK. We continued on quietly keeping the dogs close. My dog was attached to my waist harness with a canicross bungee lead which I failed to release before one of the cows charged us. She kept ramming into myself, my dog and my friend. My friend let her dog loose but my dog was trying to get away but as he was attached to me I was being dragged around and I was unable to release the carabiner whilst the cow continued to charge and headbutt us. I don’t quite know how we managed to escape without being knocked to the floor and injured. We managed to run to the gate and climb the stile to escape. He is an ex cattle dog so knows how to behave around cattle. I wrote to the council who claimed to have gone there to look. My friend went that was a few weeks later to find the cattle had been fed directly on the bridleway and he retreated as they were starting to approach him. There is no safe alternative around that path to avoid cattle when they are loose there.”

They continue “I have a deep phobia now of cows causing me a lot of issues with my outdoor work as a Mountain leader. This is a local route to me that I used to run frequently now I have to do a large detour over Snowdon if I come across cattle on the path from Moel Eilio which they are now frequenting (Maes Gwm)