Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Yr Eifl

16.02.14  Mynydd Cennin (SH 458 449)

Mynydd Cennin (SH 458 449)

After visiting Foel (SH 450 506) with John and Graham I navigated my way towards Mynydd Cennin, which is listed as a HuMP with 105m of drop and a Welsh 200m P30 with c 104m of drop.  The hill is positioned on the eastern extremity of Pen Llŷn (Lleyn Peninsula) and midway between Foel (SH 450 506) to its north and Garn Bentyrch (SH 422 419) to its south-west.  The higher hills of the Llŷn are across the Afon Wen to the west.

I parked close to a gate (SH 451 447) at the start of a paved road that leads to the farm of Pant-yr-Einiog.  By now the morning’s clear blue sky had been taken over with a calm winter stillness of blue tinged grey.  As I approached the farm a man came out of a barn, we talked for a few minutes and I explained where I wanted to go and asked if he could direct me to a footpath that according to the map headed north-east from the farm up the hill side.  He said ‘you’ll find no footpath there but the best way for you is to go back to that gate (a few metres back down the road) walk over this field (indicating the field at the back of the large barn that he had come from) and climb over the fence in the corner’, ‘are you all right with climbing fences?’  ‘After that you go up next to that wall (indicating higher up the hill) and you then have to get over the wall and make your way up to the top, it’s a fine viewpoint’.  I thanked him for his help and direction and proceeded on my way.  Sometimes Welsh farmers get a bad press in the outdoor world of hill baggers, but I’ve always found them to be more than helpful and extremely courteous, as was the farmer from Pant-yr-Einiog today.

The fence that the farmer pointed me towards was built up on an embankment but not difficult to stretch over and after that came the stone wall and the upper part of the hill.  Approaching the trig pillar which adorns the area of the summit it became evident that I’d have to inspect a number of rocks around its base.  Each one was tried for its permanence with a good solid kick of a walking boot and most gave a good wobble, indicating that they had been placed there.  The ones that didn’t give a good wobble were then inspected with a hand grab, every one of them moved, either by boot or by hand.  I then started digging away at the grass around the rocks at the base of the trig and came across more rocks, I gave these a good boot and they also moved.  Deciding that none of these rocks were a part of the ‘natural’ (as in permanent / embedded) part of the hill, I moved my attention to a large rock about four metres or so from the trig.  This rock would not move whatever I did to it.  I then assessed it from various angles and re-examined all the rocks at the base of the trig.  Yep the large rock was the high point!

The Trimble was placed on the high point of this rock and gathered 11 minutes of data.  During this time I had a wander around the summit area and looked north toward Foel, where I’d been that morning.  It’s a quiet sort of place on top of this hill; I wonder how many people visit outside of Hump and P30 baggers?

The summit of Mynydd Cennin.

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 on the highest rock that didn't move when booted with a size 44!

Once the equipment had been packed away I headed back to the car and had an adventurous journey around the narrow lanes trying to get to Huw and Helen’s house that was only two or three miles away.  Within a half mile of their house I had to turn back as two fir trees had fallen straight across the road (100mph winds had brought many trees down across the Llŷn during recent winter storms).  After a five mile detour I got there and surprised them and had a lovely few hours looking around their renovated old farmhouse and enjoying an excellent meal prepared by Helen.  Great to see Huw again, a friend for many a year, but one I hadn’t seen for quite some time.

  

Survey Result:

Mynydd Cennin

Summit Height:  262.1m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 45843 44964

Drop:  c 104m

Dominance:  39.68%

For further details please consult the Trimble survey spreadsheet click {here}