17.06.25 Carn Llidi (SM 737 280)
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| Carn Llidi (SM 737 280) |
Carn Llidi is rock
strewn in its higher reaches and protected from any off-path ascent by copious
amounts of tough undergrowth. The hill is
positioned north-west of Tyddewi (St David’s) which purports to be the smallest
city in the British Isles. It looks out
over a jagged coastline which the Pembrokeshire Coast Path follows. Although the hills hereabouts are good, it is
the coastal path that is the highlight.
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| Pentre Ifan |
We were based at Caerfai
for a few days, which is just to the south and easy walking distance from Tyddewi. On our way to Caerfai we visited Pentre Ifan,
which is one of Wales’ most impressive ancient burial sites with its upper
monolith delicately balanced.
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| Inside the chapel at St Non's |
The coastal path was
next to where we stayed; we walked to Solfach (Solva) and bussed it back to the
city and on another day headed to the delights of St Non’s; a Catholic retreat
beside the coast path.
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| The cathedral at Tyddewi |
Whilst at Tyddewi the
first Welsh Bible was transferred to the cathedral. It was translated by Bishop William Morgan
and published in 1588. It had never been
on public display and along with the first Bible published in Irish was now at
the cathedral. Whilst visiting to see this
Bible I stood and listened to four elderly ladies talking amongst themselves in
Welsh, whilst pointing at the book housed in its display cabinet. I found this scene rather emotional as this
book played a crucial role in preserving the Welsh language and over 430 years
later this small group of neatly dressed women were a testament to the
importance of this book and the strength of the language.
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| The first Welsh Bible |
As well as hills,
coastal walks and the cathedral, the land surrounding Twddewi also looks west
to a series of islands dominated by Ynys Dewi (Ramsey), which I had visited and
surveyed its three P30 hills in May 2016.
However, there are many more islands scattered beyond Ynys Dewi with the
main grouping being Emsger, Carreg Rhoson and North Bishop. And when at Caerfai we took two boat trips;
the first around Ynys Dewi and the second a magical evening trip to North
Bishop.
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| On the coastal path |
However stunningly
beautiful the coastal path and islands are, and however interesting and
historically significant the cathedral is, we also needed a hill to visit. The one that looked the most impressive was
Carn Llidi. I contemplated bringing the
Trimble to survey its summit, but the prospect of carrying the equipment for
six days with only one hill to visit was not appealing and therefore the Trimble
remained at home and LIDAR would have to suffice for the numerical details of
this hill.
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| The highest of the chain of islands known as North Bishop |
We parked on a grass
verge on the B4583 road at it descends to its end at Whitesands beach. This gave opportunity for a circular walk
with only the uphill section back on the narrow paved road at the end of the
walk as a repeat.
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| Beside the narrow road leading down to Whitesands |
Setting off the weather
was again lovely; with crisp blue sky heralding what we hoped would be another
glorious day. However, weather
hereabouts was proving fickle. Each
evening I watched from the elevation of Caerfai as thin cloud banks quickly
rolled landward and then quickly dissipated as the sun cast out again, only for
another cloud bank to follow.
Our route took us down
to the beach, where we were confronted by a multitude of school children, all
donned out in wet suits with their paddle boards aimed at the sea. It was good to walk on the beach, somewhere
we would revisit for an afternoon during a particularly warm spell of weather
later in the week. Our walk this time on
its sands was only short as we headed north and soon joined the coastal path.
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| Suzanne on the coastal path leading north from Whitesands |
This section was like
others we had visited with dramatic plummeting views downward to rocky coves,
sandy beaches and towering sea stacks, and all experienced with the sea a
constant blue and today the sky casting radiant. It was indeed a good day to be out, but that
weather hereabouts is a fickle beast.
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| The view back toward Whitesands |
We were looking for a path
on our right leaving the main coastal path and which, hopefully, would take us
toward our hill. Thankfully we found it
as the prospect of walking through the tough undergrowth away from any path is not
recommended.
The path swung up
gaining ground and always heading toward the western end of the Carn Llidi
summit ridge. As with many similar hills
leaving the path can course calamitous results of floundering in copious
amounts of evil undergrowth. Therefore, I
thought it prudent to ask one or two fellow walkers who were heading down in
the opposite direction, whether and where the path continued. We were met with conflicting advice, some
encouraged going back down to another path and others seemed to discourage
anything to do with venturing high on the hill.
I found this advice rather unusual, thanked them and off we went forever
upward.
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| Murky conditions starting to set in over Ynys Dewi |
The path eventually
swung up on to a concreted section leading to the summit of Carn Llidi Bychan;
an outlier of the main peak and the farthest extension of the rocky western end
of the summit ridge. As height was
gained we looked out toward Ynys Dewi, which was now being overtaken by one of
those fickle weather conditions with grey murk approaching.
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| Ancient burial chamber beside the path on the way to Carn Llidi |
The initial continuation
toward the main peak was easy enough, with a variety of narrow paths leading
toward the upthrust of the summit cone.
As we reached where path butted against rock, Suzanne decided that was
far enough for her and found a sheltered spot away from the increasing strength
of the wind, to wait until I visited the summit and hopefully descended safely
back to where she was now happily sitting and admiring the view northward.
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| Approaching the summit cone of Carn Llidi |
When approaching Carn
Llidi from the west its highest point requires hands on rock to reach its
summit. I used to hunt out any scramble
and have many fond memories of weekends spent in Nant Peris, evenings in the
Vaynol Arms, breakfasts in Pete’s Eats and late mornings and afternoons
venturing on to Eryri peaks via scrambling on rocky ridges. This at that point of my life was the
norm. I found it highly enjoyable and
considered myself competent enough to know when to back off from something that
looked beyond my limit. However, age and
scrambling not being the norm can quickly lead to lack of confidence on rock, and
this was only confounded when in October 2023 I slipped and fell from a rocky
ridge close to Moel Hebog. Falling on
the opposite side of the ridge would probably have resulted in death. I was fortunate to walk away with just a
large bruise on my upper thigh and a few scratches. This experience dampened any confidence I had
left when confronted with hands on rock and those scrambles that in my younger
days were the norm. Today was the first
time I had encountered rock since the day I had fallen. This all sounds rather melodramatic, but it
is as it is and it feels good to write about such things and be as honest as I
can.
Before venturing up the
rock I took my rucksack off and left it at the base of the summit cone and safely
zipped my camera in its case. The way up
was obvious as the rock was discoloured through many peoples visits over the
years, it involved two sections of scrambling before reaching the high point,
the first up a diagonal wide groove and the second a metre or two traverse to
the left and then up a few steps to where the summit opened up. By the time I reached the top it was
definitely windy, not so much to be dangerous but enough that I was thankful I
had decided not to bring the Trimble.
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| The view north-eastward up the coast from the summit of Carn Llidi |
Reversing my upward
route was relatively easy, as with most things of a similar nature, taking ones
time is essential. Soon I was back at my
rucksack and shortly afterward sitting beside Suzanne tucking in to some yummy
morsel of food. As we gathered our stuff
to head down we felt the first drop of rain that was being pushed landward beyond
the grey sky murk that we had seen over Ynys Dewi on the latter part of our
ascent.
Our route down was easy,
reversing the summit ridge to Carn Llidi Bychan and the narrow concrete path
leading down to the main path, here we continued down toward the road, instead
of swinging rightward and rejoining the coastal path. This soon brought us out on to the road and
that nasty little bit of uphill at the end of the walk, never the best at the
end of any walk.
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| Relaxing in the car with our picnic with the cloud base now enveloping Carn Llidi |
During our descent the
weather continued to close in, with those succulent blue skies of earlier now
replaced by greying murk with intermittent spells of light coastal drizzle
being brought in on the wind. The rain
was never heavy enough for me to put waterproofs on and we arrived back at the
car still dry from our endeavours. All
that remained was a quick change whilst the kettle was boiling and to have a
feast of a picnic sitting in comfort looking out of the car window as the whole
upper ridge of Carn Llidi disappeared under grey murk.
Survey Result:
Carn Llidi
Summit Height: 182.1m (LIDAR)
Summit Grid Reference: SM 73797 28001 (LIDAR)
Bwlch Height: 57.8m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SM 76096 28625 & SM 76132 28642
(LIDAR)
Drop: 124.3m (LIDAR)
Dominance: 68.27% (LIDAR)
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet
