Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Moel y Gamelin

23.01.16  St Elmo’s Summer House (SJ 084 817)

St Elmo's Summer House (SJ 084 817)

I’d wanted to visit this hill for many years, mainly because of its unusual name, which relates to a structure that once inhabited its high point.  We parked to the south-west of the summit and followed a lane to its end where it turns in to a muddy track, this leads to open fields where the summit is situated.

The summit consists of the remains of an ancient barrow, which is approximately 33 metres in diameter and if not for intervening trees it would be itervisible with The Gop (SH 086 801).  There are a profusion of such ancient structures in this part of Wales and further down this hill is another that sits quietly in the field.

It was easy to locate the high point which constitutes grass on a flattened top, as the Trimble gathered its allotted five minutes of data I chatted with Aled and admired the coastal view and the snow-capped peaks of Eryri out to the west.

Gathering data at the summit of St Elmo's Summer House

Before packing the Trimble away and after it had gathered its allotted data I walked around the barrow, it has a well preserved bank and ditch that some indicate is part of the summer house that gives the barrow its name.

Once the Trimble was packed away we sauntered back down the field to the muddy track and followed the lane back to the awaiting van.  Our next walk and the last hill for the day was to the summit of Garreg (SH 133 782).

Survey Result:

St Elmo’s Summer House 

Summit Height:  239.6m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 08488 81789

Drop:  c 96m

Dominance:  40.07%

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