Myrddyn Phillips - Mapping Mountains: Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys

06.11.20 Yr Allt (SJ 242 100)

Yr Allt (SJ 242 100)

In an evening I sometimes take a small walk following a part of the canal tow path which is no more than a few minutes from where I live. The usual direction I walk frames Moel y Golfa toward the north-east, whilst to the east the elongated spine of Cefn Digoll dominates. I find just a few minutes beside this waterway can re-invigorate and seldom leaves me unfulfilled.

On occasion I extend my usual walk to gain a little height, by doing so the wooded summit of Upper Park comes in to view. However, when height is gained and the confines of the canal tow path left, it is Yr Allt that dominates. This hill is positioned to the immediate north-east of Welshpool and rises like a squashed cone with a strip of green grazed pasture framed against mixed woodland.

My evening walk took me to the fields surrounding Corfield’s farm. I’d been here many times during the previous months when lock down restrictions only permitted walks from your own home. Usually in an evening I sit beside the canal and watch the cloud scape edge ever darker as dusk turns to night. During this time the colours can mesmerize, they can be other worldly and seem beyond description. However, on this particular evening I’d set out earlier as I wanted to chase that magical 30 minutes when the sun sinks low on the horizon and illuminated colour highlights the land. I was now in a field beside the pool known as the Flash with Corfield’s Farm in front and the squashed cone of Yr Allt beyond. That magical light was playing upon the land with illuminated autumnal colour picking out the most delicious hues.

The Flash, Corfield's Farm and Yr Allt

I stood and looked up at Yr Allt, a hill I had been up on many occasions. I had seldom seen it look so wonderful. As that magical light faded I turned my back on the hill, happy in the knowledge that the following day I would be on its summit, and headed home as the slumber of dusk set in.

Visiting Yr Allt:

With a forecast of early morning mist clearing to sunshine and blue skies, the day was one not to be missed and I had arranged to meet Huw at 9.30am for a socially distanced walk to the summit of Yr Allt. This hill dominates the immediate north-eastern outskirts of Welshpool, and although not great in height, it is relatively prominent and gives extended views.

Over recent years I’d visited its summit twice to survey it with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 and did likewise on a separate occasion to survey its bwlch. Therefore, the day ahead was one free of the Trimble.

I left my home just before 9.20am to walk the short distance on a part of the Montgomeryshire Canal tow path to where we had arranged to meet. All surrounding land was cloaked in autumnal mist, and with hardly a breath of breeze a gentle feel pervaded the landscape.

It was good to see Huw, as although we had been in communication since the first nationwide lock down was implemented in late March; we had only seen one another once during the subsequent eight months, so there was a lot of catching up to do.

We followed the continuation of the tow path out of town toward the second bridge which gives access to the Rhallt lane. All was quiet and still with the morning’s mist hung across the waters of the canal. The lane heads steeply up and soon bisects, with the right hand branch swinging northward and eventually turning to a track and then a footpath through scrub undergrowth. Our route to the hill followed the right hand branch of the lane up until a public footpath sign indicated the continuation of our route. I was now on new ground as I’d always descended from the summit in this direction, but to the east of this footpath.

The footpath was a delight as it squeezed its way between private ground adjoined to a house on its north and a small wood on its south. Underfoot, copious amounts of leaves scattered and crunched as we made progress firstly contouring and then gaining height to where a foot style gives access to an open field. It was here we stopped as we had spotted flashes of blue overhead toward the upper part of the lane and now a break in the mist gave views across the river valley to the long backed ridge of Cefn Digoll which floated above the mist to our south-east.

Huw admiring the view

As we stood in the field admiring the view a pair of Red Kites skimmed the skies overhead, their delicate grey heads and rusted body picked out by direct sunlight. One then nestled in a large tree directly in front of us. We edged nearer as it manoeuvred on the branch, I had my camera at the ready and took a series of photos as we forever got closer, until it left the branch and glided off toward the Allt Wood, whose perimeter, from this point onward would be our route to follow to the top.

Red Kite

As we progressed ever upward the mist floated past us giving beautiful conditions. Reaching the summit of the hill a tear in the mist showed more blue sky above and the high mast just beyond reared skyward. Leaving the summit we continued following the edge of the Allt Wood loosing height to a foot style and then steeply up toward the trig pillar where we met Geraint, who had walked up the Coppice Lane.

A misted scene approaching the summit of Yr Allt

It was great to see him, another old friend that during the lock down and months afterward I had not seen. We remained beside the trig pillar for some time, chatting and laughing and looking out as the conditions Huw and I had experienced on our way up where the mist had cleared, was now also in evidence here.

Beside the trig pillar on Yr Allt

By the time we left the trig it was stunning with autumnal warmth and clear blue skies above. Instead of reversing our inward route we decided to walk with Geraint toward Coppice East Farm. To spend time in a friend’s company during such times was a thing to savour and our route down followed a muddied wooded track past the most delightful autumnal colour highlighted by that magical overhead sun.

Heading down the muddied track to the Coppice Lane

As we said our goodbye’s to Geraint who headed down the continuation of the Coppice Lane, Huw and I lingered resting on the upper bar of a gate, talking about a plethora of subjects as we had done leading up the hill and as we did so all the way back toward our inward route.

The greens of autumn

A series of footpaths lead from Coppice East Farm across fields and down through a wood to the Montgomeryshire Canal, on our way down the Breiddin dominated the view to our north-east with their distinct profile on grand display.

Heading back toward the canal tow path with the Breiddin in the background

Once beside the canal a swing bridge gave access over it to the towpath and we followed this back toward Welshpool, chatting away and then sitting on a bench beside the second swing bridge we came to. It was here that a number of people stopped to talk, all knew Huw, and we lingered here in the sunshine for 30 minutes or so, watching at one point a number of sheep herded from The Moors farm across the swing bridge to the grazing fields on the opposite side.

Moving the sheep from Moors Farm

Continuing on the tow path we chatted away, I stopped occasionally to look back at Yr Allt, now no more than a rising field off in the distance. Yr Allt is a fine hill, and today we’d visited it in sublime conditions.

Yr Allt from the tow path

Once back home I mapped out the route at six miles, it had taken almost six hours and was all-the better for the relaxed, leisurely pace set throughout the walk. The conditions were quite magical with gloomed mist replaced by autumnal sunshine and welcome warmth that will all too soon disappear with the oncoming and imminent winter, and all done in excellent company.

Survey Result:

Yr Allt

Summit Height: 231.3m (converted to OSGM15, from previous Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey)

Summit Grid Reference: SJ 24240 10005 (from previous Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey)

Bwlch Height: 125.9m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference: SJ 21855 08773 (LIDAR)

Drop: 105.4m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)

Dominance: 45.57% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)

For details on the first Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit survey of Yr Allt

For details on the second Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit survey of Yr Allt

For details on the Trimble GeoXH 6000 bwlch survey of Yr Allt

For details on a fourth visit to the summit of Yr Allt