Carole Engel completes Y Pedwarau - The 400m Hills of Wales

Carole and friends at the summit of Aberedw Hill, the third person, and first female, to complete Y Pedwarau

On the 25^th April Carole Engel completed Y Pedwarau and became the third person, and the first female, to do so.  The first person being Rob Woodall who completed on Moel Eithinen (SJ 167 592) in the Bryniau Clwyd range on the 9^th June 2011, and the second being Carole’s good friend; Anton Ciritis who completed on Banc y Ddinas (SN 858 462) which is situated on the outskirts of Llanwrtud (Llanwrtyd Wells) in the southern part of mid Wales on the 9^th September 2014.

Front cover of the 1st edition of Y Pedwarau, published May 2013 by Europeaklist

As Carole neared her last few walks to complete this list she had six Pedwar hills left to visit close to the small community of Aberedw, which is situated to the south of Llanfair-ym-Muallt (Builth Wells).  It was then that Carole decided to include these six hills as her last walk and complete her Pedwarau at the summit of Aberedw Hill (SO 084 507).  Aberedw Hill is relatively prominent and its summit is topped by three tumuli with the higher one also supporting a trig pillar.  Green tracks on open hillside give good access to these spacious hills and few fences can be found when walking their broad ridges.

The three tumuli on the summit area of Aberedw Hill (SO 084 507)

Many of the Pedwarau hills were visited in the company of Anton Ciritis, and after completing the Nuttalls and Deweys, Carole and Anton decided that their love of the Welsh hills was so strong that they wanted another hill list as a challenge.  It was the original version of Y Pedwarau that appeared on Geoff Crowder’s V-G Backpacking in Britain website that fulfilled this challenge.

First section of the original Welsh 400m P30 list as presented on Geoff Crowder's v-g.me website

Carole and Anton, the third and second people respectively to complete Y Pedwarau - The 400m Hills of Wales

The first 400m Welsh hill that Carole recorded visiting was on 6^th June 2009 in the lands between the Moelwynion and Arennig, this was Craig y Garreg-lwyd (SH 730 427).  On the same day she also visited Drum, Foel Ddu and Moel Pen-y-bryn.

Carole was born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire in 1957 and has completed the Nuttalls, Deweys (1^st recorded female), Wainwrights, Outlying Fells and the Birketts.  She can now add Y Pedwarau to her completed bagging exploits.

John and Anne Nuttall's two volume guide

Michael Dewey's Mountain tables book

When Carole completed Y Pedwarau she kindly sent some personal details through so that a post could appear on the Mapping Mountain Blog, part of what she sent appears below.

I just fell in love with Wales after doing the Nuttalls and Deweys and wanted another reason to walk there.  Much of Wales can be walked on a day trip from Yorkshire, so is accessible to me.  I love the solitude of the hills (as opposed to the over-walked Lakes) and the variety between the rocky north and the grassier south and that there is very little arable land making access difficult, including very few electric fences!  I’m sad to finish in many ways as nothing can fill the gap left by the beauty of Wales.

Many congratulations to Carole, the third person to complete Y Pedwarau.

Celebrations at the summit

Y Pedwarau is available in e and print booklet form and can be interactively ticked:

Europeaklist booklet ‘Y Pedwarau’ as an e-booklet version or print booklet version.

‘Y Pedwarau’ on the Haroldstreet website for GPS Waypoints, Google mapping and on-line hill bagging tick lists.

‘Sub-Pedwar’ hills on the Haoldstreet website for GPSWaypoints, Google mapping and on-line hill bagging lists.

‘Double Sub-Pedwar’ hills on the Haroldstreet website for GPS Waypoints, Google mapping and on-line hill bagging lists.

Carole’s completion of Y Pedwarau on the summit of Aberedw Hill on YouTube.