Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Moel y Gamelin

26.02.14  Mynydd Eglwyseg (SJ 231 464) and Pt. 452.4m (SJ 229 443)

Mynydd Eglwyseg (SJ 231 464)

The beauty of light and colour, days on the hill can sometimes give unexpected moments when radiantly rich colour is back dropped by luxuriant grey where the deepness of colour makes you marvel.  Today was one of those days.

The forecast predicted an occasional rogue shower in the afternoon, but as it sounded as if it was going to be mainly dry I packed the Trimble and headed off for Mynydd Eglwyseg (SJ 231 464), the only Dewey in the Bryniau Clwyd that I hadn’t visited for a second time.

Google Maps had indicated that a number of ‘passing places’ are situated on the narrow road north of Llangollen as it makes its way towards the World’s End (that must sound rather dramatic for those that don’t know the area).  I chose one ‘passing place’ to park in that had another within a hundred metres or so, hoping that by doing so any cars meeting one another could easily reverse to the next ‘passing place’.

To the east of this narrow road are Creigiau Eglwyseg, this is a fortress of limestone cliffs with few indents for the walker.  One way through is indicated on the OS 1:25,000 map as a black dotted line heading directly east from just below the house of Bryn Goleu (SJ 219 454).  I’d wanted to investigate this path for many years and by combining the summit of Mynydd Eglwyseg with that of the hill situated at SJ 229 443 it would give an alternate descent route down through another stream gully at SJ 225 441.

I made my way up beside the stream above Bryn Goleu on a good path that gained height quickly.  Above were terraced blocks of limestone cliffs which are a favourite haunt for the rock climber but are out of bounds during nesting times.  I’d only visited this hill once before with Huw in September 2002, when we did an extended two car walk over all the 500m hills from Moel Morfudd (SJ 159 457).  My memory was of a torturous heather bound pathless hill, it hasn’t changed in the intervening years.

The upper part of the stream gully above the house of Bryn Goleu

Once above the cliffs the scenery changed from dramatic to wild as the vertical limestone had been replaced by miles of undulating almost featureless heather.  One or two sheep tracks made their way in to the morass; fortunately I found what looked like the remains of a vehicle track that contoured around the hillside.  This gave good progress until the time I had to leave it and strike out for the high point.  A few minutes of stumbling heather bashing brought me to the summit, this consists of a domed bit of land, almost certainly an ancient tumulus that is heather free and has the start of a small cairn on it.  The Trimble was set up and wedged in place with a couple of small rocks and I busied myself noting how many satellites had been locked onto, the margin of uncertainty associated with its placement, the time the equipment had started to gather data, what terrain constituted the summit, the hill name, was it the summit or the bwlch and how long the data collection was going to be for.  This procedure is followed for every survey – oh the joys of hill walking!  Mind you that Barnard chap really goes to town when the G&J team are out on a survey, he catalogues everything that moves, and also many things that don’t!

The view north from the summit of Mynydd Eglwyseg 

The view south from the summit of Mynydd Eglwyseg

As the Trimble was reaching its allocated ten minutes of data collection the hills to the south started to disappear behind a grey winter shower which was heading my way.  I quickly packed the Trimble away and as the first rain drops drove in I donned waterproofs and continued on the small path that connects the upper ridge of this hill.  I soon came across snares that had been laid across the path.  These had been pre-warned as I’d looked on the Hill Bagging website the night before and Douglas Law had posted ‘Watch out for snares’ on his visit dated 17.09.12.  This is the first time I’ve ever come across any snare on a hill in Wales, there were three or four of them, all positioned immediately next to or on the small path itself.  I pity the animal that is caught in one and also the person who laid them.

One of a series of snares on the path just below the summit of Mynydd Eglwyseg

An unwanted addition to the hillside, a snare on the path just below the summit of Mynydd Eglwyseg

After the shower whizzed off to the north the downhill heather stomp began.  Soon I was deposited next to a fence with a lovely green field in front of me, oh the beauty of green fields!  I decided to keep to the heather for another five minutes as a small path was leading me to the start of a stream gully, when this was reached I turned 180º and marched up in to the field and followed the valley to valley direction of the land until it met the hill to hill direction of the land.  This turned out to be beside an ancient stone circle which is marked as a Cairn on the map.  This is also next to a minute contour ring on the OS map that implies that there is a hummock hereabouts; it turned out to be a sink hole.  The Trimble was set up at the spot I judged to be the critical bwlch and gathered 11 minutes of data.  This is the bwlch for the next hill I was heading toward, if having a minimum of 20m of drop it would enter the ranks of Sub-Pedwar hills, it currently has an estimated drop of c 19m.

Pt. 452.4m (SJ 229 443) a new Sub-Pedwar?

The stone circle (SJ 228 451) at the bwlch of Pt. 452.4m

From here to the summit of the next hill was all on close cropped grass – yummy!  This hill’s name is given the Pt. notation as we have found no appropriate name for it.  It’s crowned by a fairly large cairn.  The Trimble was set up on an embedded rock next to the cairn which I judged to be the highest ‘natural’ ground of the hill.  During this time another shower was pushing north, by the time the Trimble had achieved its required 0.1m of accuracy before pushing ‘Log’ to start data gathering, the sky was turning a luxuriant dark grey, the deepness of colour almost reached black, one of those colours that you just want to dive in to and immerse yourself in.  I stood and watched as a rainbow cast itself over the cairn and the dark heather of Mynydd Eglwyseg.  It was all rather scrumptious!

The dark heather of Mynydd Eglwyseg

The Trimble GeoXH 6000 at the summit of Pt. 452.4m (SJ 229 443)

Once the Trimble was packed away I headed due west and found a good path that descended steeply past a small rock strewn waterfall.  I slithered down on my backside as the rock was slippy and only got up when feeling safe to do so, this didn’t help as within a few seconds I went flying as vibram soled boot touched something it didn’t like and deposited me beside the water.  Thankfully rounded stomachs can sometimes be an advantage and it seems that this time the impact was cushioned somewhat.  Soon the steep path led down beside bushes of gorse to the narrow lane and after a further ten minute walk I was back at the car.  An excellent little circuit.

Survey Result:

Mynydd Eglwyseg

Summit Height:  512.1m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 23158 46420 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Bwlch Height:  424m (spot height)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SJ 23474 49588 (spot height)

Drop:  88m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and spot height bwlch)

Dominance:  17.21% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and spot height bwlch)

Pt. 452.4m

Summit Height:  452.4m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 22903 44310

Bwlch Height:  429.9m (converted to OSGM15)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SJ 22811 45134

Drop:  22.6m (400m Sub-Pedwar addition)

Dominance:  4.99%

For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet