08.08.15
Bryn Mawr (SJ 251 190), Cae Boncyn (SJ 238 193) and Old Oswestry (SJ 295 309)
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| Bryn Mawr (SJ 251 190) |
Our last three hills of
the day started with the delights of Bryn Mawr which is another hill hidden
away in the landscape of mid Wales that has an ancient hill fort constructed on
it. This is similar to the first hill we
visited earlier in the day; Gaer Fawr Hill (SJ 223 129) as it is now submerged
in trees and undergrowth, sometimes this adds to the appeal of such hills as
there ancient landscape is hidden and their once proud nature is open to one’s
imagination.
We parked to the west of
the hill beside a gate that gave access to a covered reservoir, with Alex
striding ahead on a freshly mown strip of grass that marched up next to thistle
and long grass, this led to a locked gate and barbed wire, which Alex quickly
dealt with, with the dexterity of a monkey, whist I crumbled in a heap and
struggled Sloth like to its top and perched on a small fence post I then threw
myself down to the comparative safety beyond – oh to be young again!
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| On the path leading to the covered reservoir |
Ahead lay swaying grass
and a summit swathed in summer growth with the high point beside a tree that
had glimpses of the outside sunshine penetrating the canopy above.
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| Heading for the summit |
As I set the Trimble up
on top of my rucksack Alex sat in a patch of sunshine whilst I sneaked away
from the equipment and stood beside clumps of nettles and brambles and a
multitude of undergrowth. It was a long
wait as the Trimble edged toward the 0.1m accuracy level and eventually I
pressed ‘Log’ and waited for it to gather its five minutes of allotted data.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Bryn Mawr |
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| Alex waiting patiently for the Trimble to do its stuff |
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| My rucksack makes a good improvised tripod |
Once the equipment was
packed away we found an easier descent route on mown grass to a gate and then
through a field which was adjacent to our ascent route, next stop; Gelli Farm
and a visit to Cae Boncyn.
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| The green fields of Cae Boncyn (SJ 238 193) |
To get to Gelli Farm
Alex navigated us east to the B4393 and then west toward a minor road and a
concrete track / road that gains height rapidly up to the farm. When I parked the farmer was contentedly
sunning himself on a reclined seat outside his front door. I walked toward him, introduced myself and
asked if we could visit the hill which was in view from the front of his farm. He kindly said yes, and directed us to which
gates to use and pointed to where the high point was, which was positioned just
beyond a bricked construction which looked like a small water tower, I thanked
him and re-joined Alex and away we went up the hill.
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| Heading toward the summit of Cae Boncyn |
Alex led through the
second gate and a couple of minutes later we were standing on the grassed
summit which is to the west of the current position of the 142m spot height on
Ordnance Survey maps and in the adjacent field to it.
Away to our south-east
was Courthouse Bank (SJ 247 183) and its two distinctive summit ridge trees and
beyond was the Breiddin with the quarried western side of the hill bathed in
afternoon sunshine.
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| Looking across to the Breiddin |
As the Trimble gathered
its data I scribbled a number of notes which are given in the Trimble Survey
Spreadsheet on the Spreadsheets heading of this blog, and Alex lazed in the sun
admiring the view and happy in life.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Cae Boncyn |
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| The Trimble on the summit and Alex flat out enjoying the sunshine |
Once all the lazing and
Trimbling had been completed we retraced our steps back down the hill to the
car, before leaving I walked back to the farmer; Mel Jones, and thanked him
once again for letting us visit the hill, I also asked if he knew of a name for
it and indeed he did as he quickly said ‘we call it Cae Boncyn which is the
name of the field’. He then mentioned
the ‘Rabbit Field’, the ‘Maes’ and the ‘Barracks’, all are individual bounded
fields either on Mel’s land or adjacent to it.
As the conversation
continued with Mel, he said ‘hang on a moment’ and disappeared in to his house
and reappeared a couple of minutes later with a large back-boarded map of his
farm. This was made by his father and
passed down to Mel and will, sometime in the future, be passed down to Mel’s
sons. On the map was each field with
their name written against them, with the field where the 142m spot height is
positioned on current maps being named the ‘Top Field’ and the field where the
high point of the hill is situated and where the Trimble had been placed named
as ‘Cae Boncyn.’
I asked Mel if I could
take some photos of him with the map and we stood on his lawn, beside his farm
with him proudly holding the map. It was
great meeting Mel and talking about his farm and the various names written on
the map; if only every farmer had such a thing as then the preservation of
locally known place-names would be made much easier.
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| Mel Jones with the Gelli Farm field map |
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| The map has each individual field named with the high point of the hill named as Cae Boncyn |
Only one hill remained
and that was positioned across the border in deepest, darkest England on the
outskirts of Oswestry. The name of our
last hill is Old Oswestry, to my knowledge the hill doesn’t appear in any hill
list but we thought it stood an outside chance of becoming a new Tump.
Old Oswestry is
positioned on the northern outskirts of the town that bears part of its name
and can be easily accessed from a visitor car park to its west. This gives immediate access to its impressive
earthen ramparts and its upper section.
The area of this ancient hill fort is now in the guardianship of English
Heritage and it was classified as a Scheduled Monument in 1997.
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| An artist's impression of Old Oswestry |
Old Oswestry is one of
the best preserved hill forts in the country and has five sets of ramparts
enclosing a central area of 8.4 hectares.
As we walked up the path past these ramparts a number of people were
sitting in the sun after having visited the site. Nearing the top we found the central section
with its high point being lazily guarded by a herd of cows that were
contentedly munching on grass whilst the labours of the world passed them by.
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| Looking past one of the series of earthen ramparts onto summer activity below |
We walked part of the
upper rampart and then visited the central cow pasture where we picked the spot
for Trimble placement and sat in the sun as it gathered its five minutes of
data. During this time a friendly cow
visited us and slowly edged itself ever nearer, it was an inquisitive beast and
I hoped its attention would be kept on Alex in preference to a sticky slurping
lick of a brightly coloured Trimble that was positioned on the ground a few
metres from it.
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| Making friends |
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| Gathering data at the summit of Old Oswestry |
Once the Trimble was
safely packed away we headed back to the car and drove to Gobowen for Alex to
catch the train back home. It had been a
great couple of days with Alex visiting Yr Allt yesterday and a good bagging
day today, all that remained was to write a multitude of blog posts and process
a multitude of data!
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| Alex catching the train back home |
Survey Result:
Bryn Mawr
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 25117 19054
Summit Height: 142.1m (converted to OSGM15)
Drop: 44m
Dominance: 30.97%
Old Oswestry
Summit Height: 165.1m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 29533 30990
Drop: c 27m
Dominance: 16.35%
For further details please consult
the Trimble survey spreadsheet click {here}
