07.05.21 Domen Ddu (SO 016 782), Pt. 540.0m (SO 019 787),
Crugyn Llwyd (SO 024 796), Pegwn Mawr (SO 023
812) and Pegwn Bach (SO 017 805)
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| Crugyn Llwyd (SO 024 796) |
Having asked permission
to park my car at the entrance to Grach farm I was walking along the
continuation of the narrow lane that heads south by just past 8.00am. My plan for the day was to visit and survey
the hills on the southerly part of the main Pegwn Mawr ridge. I’d visited Domen Ddu and Crugyn Fawr on two
previous occasions, but along with these hills I wanted to survey Pegwn Bach;
as its name implies a lower and adjacent hill connected to Pegwn Mawr.
There was a slight chill
in the air as I set off, with low light accentuating the rippled shadows moving
across the land, pushed along by a wakening breeze. The forecast gave generally dry conditions
with an outside chance of an early afternoon shower materialising.
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| Early morning heading toward the southerly part of the main Pegwn Mawr ridge |
The main ridge of Pegwn
Mawr is now dominated by its wind farm.
I visited this hill before the turbines were installed and remember it
being a wild moorland hill. Now the
access tracks lessen this effect, but it is still a good hill to visit, and
although I had no definite plan to head as far north as its summit tumulus, it
was relatively near Pegwn Bach and especially so as the latter has two
potential points for its bwlch and the furthest north of these was literally
just below the summit dome of Pegwn Mawr.
I soon left the narrow lane
and continued on a track and again left this after only a short distance to
climb a steep closely cropped grass slope upward to a fence. The grazing fields now relented and moorland
took over. Shortly after crossing the
fence I followed a vehicle track contouring upward to the edge of forestry which
is situated close to a bwlch that I later surveyed. But my first objective was the summit of
Domen Ddu; a hill that I had surveyed on two previous occasions, the first in
September 2002 when assisted by Eryl Selly and Steven Hughes we surveyed the hill
for drop using my old basic levelling staff, resulting in 81ft / 24.7m. The second in June 2008 with John Barnard,
Graham Jackson and David Purchase when we line surveyed the hill resulting in 24.3m
of drop. Now I wanted to put an accurate
height to its summit and also, if time and inclination was forthcoming, its
bwlch, as it is always good to compare data produced by the Trimble GeoXH 6000
against other surveying methods.
By the time I neared the
summit tumulus on Domen Ddu cloud had built up, therefore the land was cast in
patches of direct sunlight and shade and when the sun enhanced the colour I
took every opportunity to take photographs and approaching the summit tumulus
the greens, beiges and rusted fawns of moor grass swept toward the upper part of
the hill. At times like this, when on my
own and the beauty of upland landscape is fleetingly enhanced by direct
sunlight, it still has the power to stop me in my tracks and just look and take
in the scene.
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| Approaching the summit tumulus atop Domen Ddu |
I was soon on top of the
tumulus and set the Trimble up atop my rucksack with its internal antenna
aligned with the highest part of the hill, and once the measurement offset was
taken I set it to gather data and stood on the periphery of the tumulus looking
north to the other hills I planned to visit.
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| The onward route with Pegwn Bach on the left and Crugyn Llwyn central right |
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| Gathering data at the summit of Domen Ddu |
Having packed the
Trimble away I headed back toward the corner of forestry and then followed reed
grass upward to where a bwlch lay. This
bwlch connected to a small prominence hill just to its north. I took two data sets, each on the valley to
valley traverse before heading to its summit.
The high point was relatively easy to identify and consisted of a patch
of grass amongst copious amounts of heather and moor grass.
This summit was an
excellent vantage point to look north toward the remaining hills to visit and
between it and the summit of my next hill; Crugyn Llwyd was a morass of
bleached moor and no doubt bog. I hoped
a semblance of a path existed otherwise it would prove a wet and unrelenting
route onward. Thankfully a vehicle track
on the moor contoured around the north-easterly flank and this would at least
help me on my way. Once on it, it led
all the way over the connecting bwlch and up toward the summit of Crugyn Llwyd.
As Domen Ddu had
previously been line surveyed I had no definite plan to Trimble its bwlch, but
I had noted the ten figure grid reference for it. However, although the bwlch could have been
positioned in a desolate quagmire it was conveniently placed at the track and
even without the aid of the ten figure grid reference its position would have
been easy to identify. As I was now there
I surveyed it with the Trimble. As the
equipment gathered its allotted data I sat on the edge of the track and watched
a Red Kite circle overhead. As it did
so, its head moved leftward looking straight down at me. I watched it for a number of minutes as it
glided the air, circling as it did so; a wonderful sight.
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| Gathering data at the bwlch of Domen Ddu |
I left the continuation
of the track as it was waterlogged from recent heavy rain that had swept the
blue skies away over the last few days, and followed a fence line up the
southern part of Crugyn Llwyd. This hill
was central on my day’s route and gave good extensive views. Its high point was easy to identify and after
surveying it I continued heading north.
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| Pegwn Bach from the summit of Crugyn Llwyd |
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| Gathering data at the summit of Crugyn Llwyd |
The continuation of the
route from the summit of Crugyn Llwyd was now on moor grass. I picked up an occasion sheep track on the
moor which headed down toward its connecting bwlch and passed over a green
track crossing from east to west on my way.
Later in the day I would use this as my descent route back to Grach farm
and my car. But now I had a formidable
bwlch to tackle. It looked
horrendous. It extended across the land
in front of me with high tussocks, reed grass and what turned out to be a water
laden bog. I wandered its realm for a
number of minutes, balancing from one wobbly tussock to another, always aiming
to where I envisaged the valley to valley traverse met with that of the hill to
hill traverse. My chosen spot could
easily be 100 – 200 metres out in placement.
However, as I was there I set the Trimble up and gathered the allotted
five minutes of data. During data
collection I sat on a tussock which slowly collapsed with the bog progressively
making me wetter and wetter.
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| Approaching the bwlch of Crugyn Llwyd with Pegwn Mawr in the background |
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| Gathering data at the bwlch of Crugyn Llwyd |
Leaving the bog I made
my way up toward one of the bylchau that connect with Pegwn Bach. This small prominence hill has two potential
positions for its bwlch. My initial plan
was just to survey one, but I knew that in all likelihood I would survey the
two. I also knew that as the second of
these two positions was just below the summit of Pegwn Mawr, I would probably
also visit this summit.
The Trimble was set up
beside a small puddle of a pool at the first bwlch and on the moor for the
second, and leaving the summit of Pegwn Bach for my return I then continued
toward the top of Pegwn Mawr.
As my hill life is now mainly
dictated by surveying I have learned that preparation pays dividends and therefore
prior to each walk I analyse available LIDAR and make a note of all relevant
grid references. This takes time, but
also saves it when on the hill. However,
I always gain pleasure from unplanned visits and as Pegwn Mawr was not planned
for today, I enjoyed heading up to its summit.
This brought back so many memories from my first visit prior to the wind
farm being built, to when John, Graham and I surveyed the hill for summit
position, to my last visit three years ago with Aled when we surveyed the hill
with the Trimble. As I was now on the
summit I set the Trimble up and gathered another summit data set.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Pegwn Mawr |
Although the equipment
was initially placed facing south where the majority of satellites are
positioned, after ten minutes of waiting the accuracy level only attained 0.15m,
therefore I re-positioned it facing north and within a couple of minutes the
0.1m accuracy level before data should be logged appeared on the screen and I
pressed ‘Log’ and stood below it whilst it quietly beeped away gathering data.
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| The view north from the summit of Pegwn Mawr |
Having said my goodbye’s
to the summit of Pegwn Mawr I retraced my inward route back to the first
potential bwlch position of Pegwn Bach and continued on a sheep path leading
toward its summit. This is crowned by
another ancient tumulus, which is grassed with a prominent cairn positioned on
it. The Trimble was soon set up
gathering its eleventh and last data set of the day.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Pegwn Bach |
It was a relatively easy
descent from this hill toward my awaiting car.
One thing I did not want to do was retrace my route back over the
connecting bwlch with Crugyn Llwyd. My eventual
route of descent lay on the southern side of a steep stream valley that headed
down toward Grach farm. Leaving the
summit of Pegwn Bach I took a direct line toward the summit of Domen Ddu which
looked back across the intervening land and then followed a green track of
sorts as it headed toward an old rusted gate which gave access to the other
side of the stream.
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| Nearing Grach farm |
Beyond the stream I
connected with the descending green track which I had walked over when heading
down to the bog laden bwlch of Crugyn Llwyd.
The green track proved a delightful route down, leading me on a steady
and comfortable gradient with the early afternoon sun bringing warmth replacing
the chilled air from early morning.
Survey Result:
Domen Ddu
Summit Height: 551.8m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH
6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 01690 78262 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 527.6m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH
6000) (and also relative to 24.262m line survey for drop)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 02166 79025 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Drop: 24.3m (line survey)
Dominance: 4.40% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and line
survey for drop)
Pt. 540.0m
Summit Height: 540.0m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 01946 78794
Bwlch Height: 528.0m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 01979 78656
Drop: 12.0m
Dominance: 2.23%
Crugyn Llwyd
Summit Height: 570.0m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 02407 79622
Bwlch Height: 531.2m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 02308 80404
Drop: 38.8m
Dominance: 6.81%
Pegwn Mawr
Summit Height: 585.3m (converted to OSGM15, average of two Trimble
GeoXH 6000 surveys)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 02391 81239
Bwlch Height: 285.9m (converted to OSGM15, from previous
Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey, natural bwlch)
Bwlch Height: 283.8m (converted to OSGM15, from previous
Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey, disused rail cutting)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 92693 80074 (from previous Trimble GeoXH
6000 survey, natural bwlch)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 92601 80035 (from previous Trimble GeoXH
6000 survey, disused rail cutting)
Drop: 299.3m (natural bwlch)
Drop: 301.5m (disused rail cutting bwlch)
Dominance: 51.14% (natural bwlch)
Dominance: 51.51% (disused rail cutting bwlch)
Pegwn Bach
Summit Height: 567.5m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 01766 80573
Bwlch Height: 557.4m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 01944 80714
Drop: 10.1m
Dominance: 1.78%
For details on the 1st
summit survey of Pegwn Mawr
For details on the bwlch survey of Pegwn Mawr
For an in-depth examination of the bylchau of Pegwn Mawr and Great Rhos
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet