Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Carnedd Wen

 

15.09.20  Stingwern Wood (SJ 145 000)  

Stingwern Wood (SJ 145 000)

When I compiled the original 200m height band of Welsh P30s I’d listed the summit position of this hill as SO 154 997 with an accompanying note stating; Higher tops may exist to the West and North-West.  When these height bands of P30s were compiled I was reliant upon the newly published Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer maps and favoured these over the 1:50,000 Landranger maps for summit and bwlch heights, and as the other tops had no spot height, it was the 251m spot heighted summit that was prioritised. 

Digital mapping now give the highest point and therefore the hill’s qualifying summit within the furthest north-westerly 250m ring contour, which is given a 258m summit spot height on the interactive mapping on the Magic Maps and WalkLakes websites. 

This higher top is a part of Stingwern Wood and was the third of a hoped for 13 hills during our day’s travels.  We’d already visited Beddau (SO 185 977) and Pt. 185.9m (SO 181 991) and by 9.20am were parked at the start of a track close to Stingwern Cottage to the south-west of the summit. 

The promised warm sunshine was now upon us as the light grey early morning clouds were opened up.  Leaving the car we headed up the track for a short distance before veering right on to an open field which rose steeply toward a gate. 

By now we could see the wood which encloses the upper part of the hill; however a large section had been felled which gave hope that our ascent would be a relatively easy one.  The gate led in to another field which we contoured close to its boundary heading toward a fence corner and another gate.

Alex heading toward the summit of Stingwern Wood

Alex led the way toward the gate and the fence corner where woodland sprang up on our right, whilst the felled section looked much more inviting on our left.  An old wooded track led through the remains of the felled section toward the summit of the hill.  Within a few minutes we were standing on its high point, and the route here was remarkably easy compared to what we had both expected. 

The summit of Stingwern Wood now comprises scrub land that was once wooded, with the morning’s sunlight highlighting delicate long grasses that gently swayed in any welcome breeze that meandered across the hill. 

As the Trimble gathered its allotted data Alex headed on the continuation of the indistinct track further in to the wood, whilst I stood a few metres away from the survey equipment as it quietly beeped away gathering its individual data points. 

Gathering data at the summit of Stingwern Wood

When Alex re-joined me I closed the equipment down, packed it away and we headed back on our inward route following the track toward the fence corner.  To our north-west the higher Stingwern Hill was bathed in morning light with lines of trees following water courses and boundaries breaking up an otherwise green pastured scene where cattle grazed in the lower foreground.  It was a quiet scene and one typical of this part of Wales. 

The view toward Stingwern Hill

Departing from our inward route we continued on the track through the scrub undergrowth to a gate which gave direct access to the first field we had walked up on our ascent.  We were soon back at the car; 55 minutes after leaving it.  Our next hill, which was the fourth and highest of the day was Stringwern Hill (SJ 132 014), which we had both previously visited. 

 

Survey Result:

 

Stingwern Wood (significant name change)  

Summit Height:  260.0m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000) (significant height revision)

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 14514 00063 (Trimble GeoXH 6000) (summit relocation confirmed)

Bwlch Height:  c 198m (interpolation)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SJ 14414 00402 (interpolation)

Drop:  c 62m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and interpolated bwlch)

Dominance:  23.86% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and interpolated bwlch)

 

 

For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet