Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Y Berwyn

28.08.15  Winllan Hill (SJ 217 214)  

The contentment and good memories left after a walk can sometimes match the afterglow of colour when the sun sinks ever deeper into a darkened sky and delicate cloud banks enhance the radiant and subtly rich colour.

These feelings of afterglow are hard to quantify, but the essence of contentment and the pervading feelings of happiness from being out on the hill and the after effects must be associated with some form of euphoric experience, when mind and body meet as one in an environment that gives so much beauty to one’s life.

On our way to the summit of Winllan Hill

This hill experience can be found in so many varieties from the adrenalin rush of a scramble to the gentleness of watching the sun set.  Although vastly different they are intrinsically linked.

Part of this beauty is being on the hill in the evening when life slows and the land quietens, this experience and its enthralling aspect is relatively new for me as I am more an early morning hill person when the heat of the day dictates that height should be gained before it overbears the mind and the body.

Evening light on the high Berwyn

These evening walks have become part of my hill routine and they are due to meeting Mark Trengove, and over the last couple of years they have become part of my hill experience and ones that I look forward to immensely.

Sun setting on another day

Much of this is down to enjoying Mark’s company, and the refined dining and good grub associated with these evening walks.  But this enjoyment goes deeper as these evening walks can also mean the gentleness of colour when the sky blazes and glitters the view with a multitude of subtlety. 

Cloud banks at dusk

These beautiful and radiant colour washes only last for brief moments and they should be savoured and breathed in as their experience is one that quickly fades when the sun sinks out of view and the rich colour quickly dissipates to dusk and then darkness.

Gathering data from the summit of Winllan Hill

All too soon it is over, once there and glimpsed and then gone, hopefully to be experienced when another evening walk takes place.  But some of this joy is the not knowing part, will the sun and sky give its subtle and radiant show or will it ebb distant and disappear from view without its blast giving afterglow.

A partly shrouded silken moon over The Wrekin

This evening was one of those occasions when for a few minutes the sky shone and the cloud illuminated the colour with silvery sheen and gentle mauves dissipating itself against the darkened and silhouetted land.

And at the end of the day...........

Those few moments were rather magical and have lasted with me as I write this, as they have left a pleasant feeling of contentment when mind, body, sky and colour seemed to be one.

Survey Result:

Winllan Hill

Summit Height:  220.3m (average of six surveys and converted to OSGM15) (significant height revision)

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 21709 21460 (summit relocation confirmed)

Drop:  c 52m

Dominance:  23.61%




For details of the second summit survey of Winllan Hill

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