21.05.18 Cefn Coch (SH 868 142) and Seven Valleys (SH
874 151)
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| Seven Valleys (SH 874 151) |
Extending southward on
the western side of Cwm Cewydd is a small ridge whose two hills I’d looked at
on many an occasion when studying Ordnance Survey maps, and until today they
had passed me by. This ridge is a
delight, it is a quiet place, and today in the early morning bathed in the
first rays of sunshine under a blue sky with gentle bird song echoing across
the land and the call of a cuckoo flirting across the cwm, there could be few
better places to be.
I’d never driven up this
valley but had looked across it from higher hills to the east, the road is
narrow and there are occasional houses, with the paved section ending high up
the cwm where there is sufficient parking for two or three cars and a track
that continues to the hill ridge.
My route to the hills
was down the road I had just driven up to a lane that headed steeply up toward
the bwlch between the two hills I planned on visiting. Across the Nant Cwm Cewydd blues merged with
greens as the delicate bluebell cast its spell with fields aglow and coloured a
wistful blue.
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| Beautiful Bluebells |
Seasonal change is one
of the delights of living in these wonderful isles of ours and the month of May
is one of the best, as it is time for new growth after winter’s harsh climes,
and today the unfurling of ferns brightened by early sun sprinkled themselves
against the Welsh Poppy, and all had a backdrop of woods pungent with the scent
of a myriad of bluebells, scattered as a carpet of blue and dashed up the
hillside.
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| New growth |
The paved lane led to an
earthen track and a gate giving access to the steep grazing field making up the
summit of my first hill of the day; Cefn Coch.
On the way to its high point I grappled with a poor lamb that was stuck
between a tree and wired fence with its head firmly lodged through one of the
square openings of the fence and its rear legs and body curled against the
tree, there was blood seeping out of its eye and the lower fence post was red,
I managed to drag its head out of the wire fence and held its coat in my grasp
dangling it in mid-air as I tugged the fence toward me, by doing so freeing its
rear legs and body, I then pulled it upward and over the fence and stood it on
the grass beside me, it sauntered off without a backward glance looking for its
mother.
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| The way to the hill |
As the lamb sauntered
off I headed for the summit which was relatively easy to pinpoint, and as the
Trimble gathered its allotted data I stood and listened to a tractor in the
adjacent field turning the earth for seeding, and once five minutes of data
were stored and the Trimble packed away I headed down to see if I could ask the
person operating the tractor about the names of these hills.
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| The high Aran |
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| Gathering data at the summit of Cefn Coch |
Ieuan Davies stopped the
tractor and smiled and I explained my interest in the hills and their names,
one of the names that Ieuan gave me I thought a little unusual as it was
English; this name is Seven Valleys and it related to one of these hills and
was a reference to its view, the position of the hill in question was confirmed
an hour or so later after I had surveyed the intervening bwlch.
 |
| Ieuan Davies |
It was good to meet
Ieuan and as with many of these chance meetings on the hill with locals who
work the land, he was only too willing to impart his knowledge and do so in a
friendly manner, I waved goodbye and headed back down the steep slope to the
connecting bwlch which was on a narrow earthen track under the cover of trees,
I had little hope that the Trimble would achieve its 0.1m accuracy level before
data should be logged, but having waited ten minutes for it to do so the magic
number of 0.1m appeared on its screen and I pressed ‘Log’ and headed down the
track to allow it as good a coverage of orbiting satellites as possible.
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| Gathering data at the critical bwlch of Cefn Coch |
During the wait at the
bwlch I listened to the buzz of a quad bike rounding sheep up from the higher
slopes of my next hill, as the earthen track was carved in to the hillside my
eye was level with the lower part of a wired fence and as the distant beep
emanated from the Trimble as each datum point was collected the call of the farmer
on the quad bike echoed across the land.
The sheep were rounded up from the top of the near hill as farmer and
sheep dog worked in unison, encouraging the sheep down the hill, with their
bleating now cascading across the land.
I let the Trimble gather ten minutes of data and just stood and listened
to the hub of countryside sound as quad bike and driven sheep merged down the
hillside.
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| My view whilst waiting for the Trimble to gather its allotted data at the bwlch of Cefn Coch |
By the time I packed the
Trimble away the farmer and sheep dog had collected their prize and great
swamps of sheep were being penned outside the ruin of Bwlch Cwm-cewydd. I waited until all the sheep were safely
penned and then chatted at length with Carwyn Pugh, he confirmed that the
second hill on my walk is the one known locally as the Seven Valleys and that
although he spoke Welsh, as did Ieuan, the hill is known locally by its English
name.
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| Carwyn Pugh busy at work |
Before Carwyn headed off
on his quad bike he explained that the sheep had been gathered so the lambs
could be marked, and as the quad bike whizzed back up the hill I spent a few minutes
framing the multitude of sheep and took a series of photos, their coloured
markings standing out against their white fluffed bodies.
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| Sheep |
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| Penned |
It was an easy stroll up
to the next and last summit, this hill now has a thin strip of conifer
plantation obstructing the view that it gets its name from, and however apt
such a name as Seven Valleys is, it still sounds a little odd for an English
name to be used by Welsh speakers for a hill situated in the heartland of Welsh
speaking Wales.
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| Cefn Coch from the ascent of Seven Valleys |
The summit of Seven Valleys
is crowned by a steep grassy knoll which has two quartz rocks at its high
point, and as the Trimble gathered data I tried my utmost to count the valleys
and name each in turn.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Seven Valleys |
It was only a short walk
down to the connecting bwlch and again this was Trimbled, I then headed the
short distance down the earthen track leading back to the end of the paved lane
and my car.
Survey Result:
Cefn Coch
Summit Height: 313.0m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SH 86836 14261
Bwlch Height: 252.8m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SH 87054 14525
Drop: 60.2m
Dominance: 19.23%
Seven Valleys (significant name change)
Summit Height: 340.5m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SH 87419 15168
Bwlch Height: 287.8m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SH 87978 15488
Drop: 52.7m
Dominance: 15.48%
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