06.12.14 Yr Allt (SJ 242 100)
Yr Allt (SJ 242 100) |
I’ve often wondered where the inner drive for
hill bagging comes from. After all
completions for many lists are years ahead from the time when one first starts
ticking and purposely bagging. I suspect
some part is driven by the beauty of our hills, but the inner drive, that
element that is hard to quantify must in some regards be a part of the
subconscious. Possibly it’s an elemental
thing, a force of nature, pushing one onward.
I’ve experienced this inner drive and have been
led by my own agenda, forever bagging another hill and placing a tick against
it in another list. For me part of this
is an inner mentality to collect. Since
an early age I collected things, and I now realise that my hill bagging is
driven by a similar need. I wonder if it
is the same for other people.
When driven by this need one is led from one
hill to the next, seldom re-visiting as there is always a new hill to bag. Once that final hill is attained in that list
that has been painstakingly followed for however long, a sense of anti-climax
can be felt, until at least the inner drive takes a hold again and another list
and another hill is found. The
possibilities are endless for as long as the inner drive remains.
I’ve found over recent years that I am happy
enough to be led if a friend wants to visit a certain hill, even if I’ve been
there before. I find this comforting,
but my goals have not been forgotten and although that inner drive that pushed
me on for many years to bag the next unticked hill, has to some extent been
replaced, my goals are now selected and savoured in a more leisurely way.
Part of this change from an inner need to a more
leisurely adoption of chose was practiced this morning, as the hill I visited is
local and I have been up it on a number of occasions. It is a hill that makes a pleasant walk and
one that can be done from my front door which is a fulfilling feeling. The hill is Yr Allt and it is one of a number
of Humps and Marilyns that almost encircle the Severn valley around Welshpool.
However, that inner drive and ulterior motive
was not completely absent as although I’d visited the hill on numerous
occasions, I had never surveyed it, and as it has no map spot height on its
summit with just a 230m uppermost contour ring, I could gain a leisurely and
enjoyable early morning walk and obtain the first accurate absolute height for
the hill.
I locked my front door at 7.55am and walked down
the estate and onto the canal tow path to the road crossing on the outskirts of
Welshpool next to the Flash Leisure Centre.
The Montgomery Canal is partially restored and runs 33 miles from the
Llangollen Canal at Frankton Junction to Newtown. It gives pleasant walking, albeit quite flat,
as one would expect, but it can be used to access a number of P30’s from my
front door.
Sign on the tow path |
The land either side of the canal tow path was
still, and etched in morning frost, quite beautiful in feeling with quietness
pervading. As the sun struggled over the
elongated ridge of Cefn Digoll the world awoke and the rhythmic hum of vehicles
on the A483 droned in the background as morning Swans and bobbing Moorhens
accompanied me as I walked northward toward Pool Quay.
Early morning frost contrasting with the above photograph taken three hours later |
Above the black morning waters of the canal Yr
Allt rose up with wooded eastern slopes and close cropped grassed western
ones. Except for the rhythmic hum of
vehicles that can surprisingly disappear from one’s mind, the quietness of
solitude lent gentleness to the land, once the colour cast down from the wooded
slopes reflections in the water accentuated the complication of tree growth.
Reflections pointing the way ahead |
Morning sunshine edging toward lower ground |
Complication of tree growth |
Quietness of solitude |
Once I reached Pool Quay I left the comforting
confines of the canal and gained height past Dyers Farm on a footpath over
fields. The last time I had been this
way was with Mark Trengove, thankfully we had chosen to wear wellies which
proved a wise decision, today the fields were in the first throngs of winter
coldness with little mud and slosh in evidence.
The sun was now wiping the land with sublime
colour, all gentle and golden, highlighting beauty and etching profile to trees
and hills. Beyond the last field the
Coppice Lane leads up past Coppice East Farm to a track through a deciduous
wood, where pheasants scampered in all directions.
The Breiddin |
When the track passed the last house the
footpath continued onto a rising field and then proceeded over a stile toward
the trig pillar, which is placed just below one of the two high points of the
hill.
The trig pillar near the summit of Yr Allt with the Breiddin in the background |
The first high point of Yr Allt is beyond the trig pillar in the background in this photo |
I set the Trimble up beyond the trig with
intention to get two data sets to compare the height difference between each
high point. As it gathered data I looked
out across the Afon Hafren (River Severn) toward the Breiddin, with Moel y
Golfa pyramidal in shape, this profile never disappoints.
Gathering data at the first of the two high points atop Yr Allt |
Once five minutes of data were gathered I
proceeded to the high point of the hill, set the Trimble to ‘Log’ and looked
out toward the west where the Berwyn dominated the view with a faint dusting of
snow on its upper ridge.
Gathering data at the second of the two high points atop Yr Allt |
As I packed the Trimble away and descended the
southerly slope of Yr Allt I looked out at the setting of the town I know as
home, nestled amongst a series of rounded hills with Y Golfa, Pen y Parc, Cefn
Digoll, Breiddin and Yr Allt hemming its life into a small space next to part
of Britain’s longest river, with working fields and the arteries of roads
fulfilling the need for travel and commerce.
Once across the fields I re-joined the canal tow
path and leisurely made my way back home past reflections of picturesque stone
bridges, under the accompaniment of the unseen mewing pee-oo of a buzzard and
the flecks of white grazing adjacent fields.
Nearing home |
Survey Result:
Yr Allt
Summit Height: 231.3m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 24240 10005 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 125.9m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SJ 21855 08773 (LIDAR)
Drop: 105.4m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Dominance: 45.57% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
For details on the second Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit survey of Yr Allt
For details on the Trimble GeoXH 6000 bwlch survey of Yr Allt
For details on a third visit to the summit of Yr Allt
For details on a fourth visit to the summit of Yr Allt
For details on a fifth visit to the summit of Yr Allt
For further details please
consult the Trimble survey spreadsheet click {here}
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