18.08.15
Gaer Fach (SO 009 366), Corun Fanolau (SO 015 361) and Cefn Bach (SO 002
372)
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| Corun Fanolau (SO 015 361) |
The southern ridges of
Mynydd Epynt extend for miles and their land that is open to the public gives a
tremendous feeling of openness and tranquillity. However, their northern and central lands are
now off limits for most of the year due to the Military Artillery Firing
Range. It was the southern part of the
Clepyn Melyn / Drum Ddu ridge that I hoped to visit later in the afternoon. I say ‘hoped’ as I had been surveying
Regional bylchau for most of the day and had just extracted myself from a
prolonged period in an 8ft-10ft high Maize crop which was growing in one of the
fields that needed surveying.
I parked just off the
narrow lane that crests this southern ridge as it makes its way from two miles
south of Upper Chapel over and into the Ysgir Fawr valley. The mid to late afternoon light was beautiful
when I set off down the track toward the house of Ffynnon-oer, and the
freshness of colour would only get more sublime as the walk progressed.
The narrow lane that
crests this southern ridge splits the hills I planned on visiting with the twin
391m map heighted summits of Cefn Bach to its north and the Pedwarau of Gaer
Fach and Corun Fanolau to its south.
As I headed south on the
track to the house an old dog barked and wagged its rear end toward me, an
indicator that it wanted companionship rather than a show of hostility, I
stroked its head and peered into its old eyes, they had a comforting look to
them and as I said goodbye I opened a gate and headed on a good path toward the
southern and higher flank of Gaer Fach.
The ancient earthen
embankment that this hill’s name suggests is part of the hill is now only a
semblance of its original construction, but as with most ancient hill forts
their positioning is part of their appeal, and Gaer Fach looks out extensively
to the higher hills of south Wales.
Today its summit
consisted of medium length grass that partly submerged the Trimble as I placed
it on what I judged to be the high point of the hill. To my south-east my next hill; Corun Fanolau
had an eloquent shape as its upper section rounded up to its freshly white
painted trig pillar. Further north the
distinctive block shaped conifer plantations of the Military Epynt land were on
show, it was near to part of this land that I hoped to visit before daylight
turned to dusk.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Gaer Fach |
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| The distinctive summits of the Bannau Brycheiniog |
Once the Trimble had
gathered its customary five minutes of data I wandered down the south-east
flank of Gaer Fach and connected up with the good path that continued from the
house of Ffynnon-oer. This path passed
over the critical bwlch of Gaer Fach, and the current Ordnance Survey map spots
a place just on the west side of the intervening hedge for their spot height,
when I arrived I looked at the land either side of the hedge from the
convenience of standing as high as I could on a gate, by doing so I thought
land on the eastern side to be higher, and when I started to assess the land
from on my knees, land further east away from the intervening hedge seemed
higher still. I nearly set the Trimble
up there and then, but closed it down and decided to head up to the summit of
Corun Fanolau which enabled me to get a view back down onto the area of this
bwlch, this also gave me a further chance to assess the lay of land on my descent
from the summit of Corun Fanolau.
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| Looking down on the connecting bwlch between Gaer Fach (centre of photo) and Corun Fanolau, with the block shaped conifer plantations of the Military Epynt in the background |
Corun Fanolau is a
rather beautifully shaped hill which has a small quarried section just below
its trig. I found land about three
metres from the base of the trig to be the highest and placed the Trimble down
and stood back to soak in the view, this takes in most of the south Walian
giants and looks out on more Pedwarau as they bathed in late afternoon light.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Corun Fanolau |
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| Another view of the Bannau Brycheiniog |
By now I thought that
all of the surveys planned for the day had a chance of being completed, but I
still had three more to do on this walk and I then wanted to examine the bwlch
of Banc y Celyn (summit at SO 047 464).
This latter bwlch may involve venturing onto Military land and there
were another three surveys to be conducted to ascertain where the critical
bwlch for this hill was positioned.
Because of this I could not linger.
I quickly packed the
Trimble away and left the summit of Corun Fanolau and walked down to the
connecting bwlch with Gaer Fach, the point I chose as that of the critical
bwlch was where I had also placed the Trimble beforehand, this was a few metres
east of the intervening hedge and beside a small flat runnel of stone.
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| Gathering data from the critical bwlch of Gaer Fach |
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| The summit of Corun Fanolau standing above the bwlch connecting it to Gaer Fach |
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| The southerly top of Cefn Bach |
Once the bwlch survey
had been completed I walked past the house and the friendly old dog barked its
welcome and came for another stroke, by now the occupants had arrived back home
as their van was parked outside, I continued down the track past their house
and clambered over a fence and into the field where the critical bwlch of Cefn
Bach is situated, within a couple of minutes I had assessed the lay of land and
chosen the spot for Trimble placement and it was in place collecting its
allotted five minutes of data.
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| Gathering data at the critical bwlch of Cefn Bach |
All that remained was a
walk up the field to a gate, past my car and through another gate and onto the
continuation of the path northward toward the southerly of the two 391m map
heighted summits that is given for the high point of Cefn Bach. Unfortunately I did not have enough time to
continue north and survey its second summit as the bwlch of Banc y Celyn still
remained to investigate.
As I neared the
southerly top I spent a number of minutes assessing the land for its high point
as there are two distinct contenders, I eventually decided what one was higher
and set the Trimble up. As it collected data
I stood and looked out toward Gaer Fach and a lovely landscape of rolling hill
ridges and valley bottoms, a beautiful place to end the day’s summit surveying
on.
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| Gathering data from the southerly top of Cefn Bach |
After the Trimble was packed away I
scampered back down the grassed path and within a few minutes I was back at the
car sorting my gear out for my last surveys of the day; the bwlch of Banc y
Celyn.
Survey Result:
Gaer Fach (significant name change)
Summit Height: 413.3m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 00915 36622
Bwlch Height: 377.4m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 01225 36448 (LIDAR)
Drop: 35.9m (Trimble summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Dominance: 8.68% (Trimble summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Dominance: 8.68% (Trimble summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Corun Fanolau (significant name change)
Summit Height: 423.2m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 01525 36160
Bwlch Height: 326.7m (converted to OSGM15) (from subsequent Trimble survey)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 99991 39512
Drop: 96.5m
Cefn Bach
Summit Height: 389.4m (converted to OSGM15) (390m Sub-Pedwar deletion confirmed)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 00293 37291
Bwlch Height: 335.0m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 00287 36949
Drop: 54.4m (prioritised drop for listing purposes)
Dominance: 13.98%
For details on the bwlch survey of Corun Fanolau
For further details please consult the Trimble survey spreadsheet click {here}
For further details please consult the Trimble survey spreadsheet click {here}
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