22.06.19
Bryn Bach (SN 905 004), Mynydd Pen y Cae (SN 887 032) and Craig y Llyn (SN
906 031)
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| Craig y Llyn (SN 906 031) |
Today comprised eight
hours following forest tracks and visiting three hills in increasingly warm conditions
under a radiant and piercing blue sky in south Wales. For me, two of these were new hills, whilst
the three were all new for Aled, including the highest; Craig y Llyn.
We were parked at the
beginning of a forest track adjacent to the A4061 road as it descends south
toward Treherbert and Treorci and ready to walk at 9.35am. It was already warm with wisps of high cloud
and a beautiful blue sky above giving clarity of colour that remained with us
all day.
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| The access / forest track leading to the hills |
Since my last visit to
Craig y Llyn the hill now has an extensive wind farm on it, and the forest and
access tracks would lead us to and between each of the three hills in a
circuitous route, with only minimum doubling back from Bryn Bach toward our
onward route to Mynydd Pen y Cae.
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| Where once there was open hillside, there is now forestry and wind turbines |
Leaving the car the wide
access track led to a crossroads where the main substation for the turbines is
situated, here we turned left and headed south toward what we thought would be
a relatively easy visit to the summit of our first hill of the day; Bryn Bach. Unfortunately the person with the map (me) wasn’t
paying heed to the tracks, time and mileage and was immersed in conversation
and therefore we walked straight over the summit of Bryn Bach without realising
it and only stopped a mile further south when we reached what we thought was
the top. The ten figure grid reference
in the Trimble and a quick study of the map told us our (my) mistake and we
turned around and walked back the mile to the top we had already passed over!
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| Heading south from the sub-station |
The summit position
produced by Aled’s LIDAR analysis led us to the high point of Bryn Bach which
is easily reached in forestry adjacent to the track. I set the Trimble up without much expectation
of gathering data and so it proved as the accuracy level before data should be
logged was not attained. Having rested
in the shade I packed the Trimble away and we left the summit on a near forest
break taking us back to the track and headed toward the hill’s connecting bwlch
which was positioned in felled forestry with new planted saplings already
taking hold. We assessed the area of the
bwlch from opposing directions on the hill to hill traverse, chose the spot for
Trimble placement and rested in the sun as it gathered its customary five
minutes of data.
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| The summit of Bryn Bach |
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| Gathering data at the bwlch of Bryn Bach |
Leaving the bwlch we
headed back to the sub-station where we turned left and continued following the
wide and greyed track around the head of Cwm Corrwg; an extensive valley which
before the forestry was planted must have been a beautiful place.
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| The large sub-station between Bryn Bach and Craig y Llyn |
By now the heat had
increased and although welcome after the recent wet weather I started to wilt
under its intensity. We sat and rested
on large rocks above the thin thread of the Afon Corrwg with it forever tricking
downward as occasional bird song wafted from the trees.
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| The view down Cwm Corrwg |
We now followed forest
tracks westward before joining a good path that headed direct to the summit
ridge of our second hill of the day; Mynydd Pen y Cae. When the path reached a fence we veered right
and followed its continuation to the high point of the hill and sat with midges
as company whilst the Trimble beeped away gathering summit data.
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| The path leading to the summit ridge of Mynydd Pen y Cae |
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| Gathering data at the summit of Mynydd Pen y Cae |
I was now flagging and
slowly followed Aled over a bog to join another main forest track where the
view north-west in to Cwm Nedd opened up.
We followed this track eastward toward the connecting bwlch where an
inordinate amount of time was spent wandering in a forest break and the near
trees assessing the lay of land before we chose the spot for Trimble placement.
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| The distant peaks of Bannau Brycheiniog |
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| Gathering data at the bwlch of Mynydd Pen y Cae |
Once data were taken I
joined Aled on the escarpment path that led to the viewpoint overlooking Llyn
Fach. By now any stop was welcome as the
heat had battered me. We continued on
the path to the marker post signalling the divergence of paths with a turning right
leading to the summit of Craig y LLyn. Before
heading toward its trig pillar we sat and rested. I felt as if I could easily stay here for an
hour, recovering from the day’s exertions, and found the process of standing
and getting my legs to work as legs should, a disconcerting process, but once a
few steps were taken I followed Aled toward the trig where I activated the Trimble
to be met with a blank screen. So the
summit of Craig y Llyn was not Trimbled, which was a shame.
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| Llyn Fach |
Leaving the summit we
followed the path down to an intersecting forest track and turned left and
continued down to our inward route which took us back to my awaiting car. All that remained was to change and stop at
the near viewpoint on the A4061 for a well-earned ice cream before the drive to
Caersŵs where Aled’s car was parked for his onward journey back to
Porthmadog.
Survey Result:
Bryn Bach
Summit Height: 533.2m (LIDAR)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 90574 00441 (LIDAR)
Bwlch Height: 518.0m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 90572 01251
Drop: 15.2m (LIDAR summit and Trimble bwlch) (Uchaf
status confirmed)
Dominance: 2.84% (LIDAR summit and Trimble bwlch)
Mynydd Pen y Cae
Summit Height: 574.6m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 88743 03214
Bwlch Height: 557.0m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 89494 03481
Drop: 17.6m (500m Sub-Twmpau deletion)
Dominance: 3.06%
Craig y Llyn
Summit Height: 600m (triangulation pillar)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 90685 03150 (triangulation pillar)
Bwlch Height: 208m (spot height)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 94284 06208 (spot height)
Drop: 392m
Dominance: 65.33%
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