23.12.17
Graig Wen (SH 739 394, bwlch only at SH 763 403)
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| The bwlch of Graig Wen |
I’m not averse to
standing in a bog, they do have unusual pleasures that are mainly ones centred
on either remoteness or peacefulness, and solitude is also a quality associated
with a good bog.
Bogs are seldom
purposely visited by a hill walker, little detail is needed to explain this as
they are usually wet, occasionally impenetrable and sometimes oozing with
methane, all of these are seldom sought by a hill walker; usually the summit
and the view is priority, but a good bog can also give fulfilment.
Today’s bog looked
forlorn when I pulled my car up, it looked particularly wet, mist hugged the
adjoining hillsides and a slight drizzle was slowly sweeping up the westerly
valley.
I had little option as
far as parking was concerned and pulled by car to the side of the B road that
makes its way from Llyn Celyn to Ffestiniog and hoped that it would not
obstruct any traffic.
Thankfully during my
hour’s immersion in said bog few vehicles passed, and all that did so, easily
avoided the seemingly abandoned car pulled up on the side of the road, and for
any inquisitive driver catching site of me in the bog I suspect I must have
looked an unusual site as I spent the majority of the time waiting patiently
for data to be gathered as the Trimble sat on top of my rucksack as I stood a
number of metres away scribbling all necessary detail in my notebook whilst
taking another photograph of the damp and misty land.
The bog in question is
the critical bwlch for Graig Wen (SH 739 394) whose summit was surveyed earlier
in the year and whose height came to 555.585m (converted to OSGM15). This bwlch is given a 417m spot height on Ordnance
Survey 1:25,000 Explorer maps, if accurate this would give the hill 138.6m of
drop. However, the bwlch contouring on
OS Maps (the recent replacement for OS Get-a-map) is between 410m – 415m, if
this contouring is correct it would give Graig Wen over 140m of drop which is
sufficient for it to be classified as a Submarilyn. Not news to excite every hill walker, let
alone every hill bagger, but new Submarilyn’s do not appear every day of the
week.
As I left my car I
donned wellies and quickly made my way down beside reed grass and a vehicle
track to the point of the bwlch. Thankfully
the bwlch was only a short distance from the B road and although the majority
of time I was immersed in its delights proved misty, my car was always in view.
I spent a few minutes
assessing the lay of land and followed a water course westward to where the
ground visibly descended, and then retraced my steps to where I had initially
thought the critical bwlch to lie. It
was here that I took the first of what proved to be four data sets. The second being where I had walked to, both positions
were wet and beside the oozingly green water course.
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| Gathering the first data set |
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| Gathering the second data set |
Wellies were proving
essential as I squelched around the bwlch for the next 50 minutes or so, this
way and that, balancing from one wet tuft of moorland grass to another.
The third data set was
taken from where the 417m spot height is positioned on the ground, visibly this
was higher than the position of the first two data sets, but the ground also
seemed to ever so slightly rise and then dip again, and it was the water course
that led me to thinking where my preferred critical bwlch position to be.
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| Gathering the third data set |
I had a prior
appointment with Aled in Porthmadog at 11.00am, so quickly set the Trimble up
for the fourth data set on the eastern side of the fence that crosses the area
of the bwlch and positioned it beside the continuation of the water course and
where the land visually then descended.
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| Gathering the fourth and last data set |
Once the fourth data set
was stored and happy with my hour’s activity I abandoned the delights of the
bog and walked back up to my car and the onward journey to Porthmadog.
Survey Result:
Graig Wen
Summit Height: 555.6m (converted to OSGM15, from previous Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey)
Summit Grid Reference: SH 73910 39474
Bwlch Height: 414.6m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SH 73910 39474
Bwlch Height: 414.6m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SH 76301 40330
Drop: 141.0m (Submarilyn addition)
Dominance: 25.38%
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