21.09.14 Craig Wion (SH 664 319), Pt. 499.5m (SH 665 310), Pt. 518.5m (SH 663 306) and Pt. 497.2m (SH 661 303)
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| The central ridge of the northern Rhinogydd - a land of rock and heather |
In the western part of north Wales is a land
made of hard sedimentary rock where mountain peak and wild heather moor is
interspersed with desolate bog and openness seldom found in northern
Wales. When walking in to this country
there is a feeling of visiting a land that time has forgot. The land in question is the Rhinogydd, a
unique landscape in Wales where a continuous ridge stretches from its grassier
southern lands in to its central and northern realms where great gaping gaps
are met with up thrusts of rock. It
really is quite a magical place.
This was another walk suggested by Mark, who
along with his ex-working colleague and good hill walking friend; Dave
Middleton, planned on visiting the central section of the northern Rhinogydd
from Craig Wion to Bwlch Tyddiad. Mark
asked if I would like to join them, as I’d only walked this part of the ridge
in its entirety once before I jumped at the chance. My memory from my previous visit was one of
rock canyons and numerous hills all joined by a narrow path that if lost
foretold a struggle amongst wild land of heather, bog and crag.
We met at Y Bala and proceeded in one car to the
beauty of Cwm Bychan which was resplendent in early autumnal sunshine. We parked at the head of the cwm next to the
Cwm-bychan farm house where there is a grassed parking area with an honesty box
for the parking fee of £2.00 per car and £1.00 per person.
As we headed back down the lane to join the path
that headed up toward the bwlch between Clip and Craig Wion, we stopped and framed
the impressively looking Carreg y Saeth against the lapping waters of Llyn Cwm
Bychan. Carreg y Saeth justifiably
appears on the front cover of the 1st edition of Y Pedwarau. It looks a stunning hill guarded by typical
northern Rhinogydd rock and heather.
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| Carreg y Saeth framed by Llyn Cwm Bychan |
Once our path was found it led up through hill
sides of heather, now with their purples dying back to dull browns, their
ebbing colour still contrasting subtly with the yellow and green of the
gorse.
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| The subtle colour maze of heather and gorse |
As height was gained Clip rose up ahead, another
impressive hill with sides of rock giving way to lower ground of tussock and
bog, what marvellous country. At this
stage Mark and Dave were about ten minutes behind me as I steadily made
progress up to the first bwlch of the day.
The afternoon cloud had yet to bubble up and with blue skies the sun’s
warmth illuminated the land.
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| So good, it had to be included twice - Carreg y Saeth |
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| Clip (SH 654 329) rising out of its lower heather clad land |
The first of many point’s to survey was the
critical bwlch of Craig Wion, there proved two possibilities for its position
with a hummocky lump bulging up between, the north-westerly option looked the
lower and this is where the Trimble was placed for its five minutes of data
collection. As the equipment was being
closed off Mark and Dave appeared, perfect timing.
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| Gathering data at the critical bwlch of Craig Wion |
We initially found vestiges of a path heading
toward our first summit of the day; Craig Wion, this was soon lost but
reappeared higher up. Behind us Clip
rose almost as a black face of rock with Craig Ddrwg continuing ever
northward. This section of ridge from
Clip to the Pedwar of Craig y Gwynt is another magical place to investigate.
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| Dave and Mark admiring the rock face of Clip and Craig Ddrwg |
Ahead lay the small cairned summit of Craig Wion
with its slightly rounded shape bulging with rock. As the Trimble gathered its customary five
minutes of data we took a break and relaxed with food in welcome sunshine. To our south lay a jumble of rock strewn
hills, one lump after another, all seemingly merging in to one another. I’d come prepared with a number of ten figure
grid references which Mark fed in to his GPS in a steady stream of data through
the day. Each helped pinpoint where the
map spot height or interpolation suggested the survey point to be on the
ground.
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The rounded rock strewn summit of Craig Wion
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| Gathering data at the summit of Craig Wion |
As we left the summit of Craig Wion we headed
toward the first of four potential critical bwlch positions for a 499m map
height hill that is listed with c 27m of drop.
In affect this hill could change from its current Sub-Pedwar status to a
fully-fledged Pedwar, or jump up in altitude rank to a Dewey or for those
interested in Sub-Deweys it could find its way in to this sub-set of
hills. To be sure that the correct
lowest bwlch was surveyed each in turn would need Trimbling.
The narrow path continued down toward the first of
the four bylchau with land ahead now rising as each rocky top became more
distinguishable, as we descended I noticed a substantial hill down on
our right, we checked the map and couldn’t find where it was situated. As we neared the bwlch it quickly disappeared
out of sight, I promised myself it was something to investigate in the future.
Each of the four bylchau were visited, with each
bwlch bisected by lumps of heather and rock emerging up out of the ridge, the
narrow path continued like a roller coaster as it wound its way over the
land. When at each bwlch it was similar
to being in a narrow tussock grassed encampment beside rising sides of
rock. The land we were walking on was
proving impressive in nature and if not for the ten figure grid references
directing us toward each Trimble placement we may have become marooned in a
complicated land where map contouring could easily go wrong. Considering how narrowly defined some of
these bychau were the Trimble was achieving its 0.1m accuracy before data can
be logged remarkably quickly. Only once
did it struggle and this was when a vertical bank of cliff rose directly above
it.
Once the four bylchau had been surveyed we
headed up to the summit of the 499m map heighted Sub-Pedwar. The ten figure spot height grid reference
placement took us to the northern edge of its summit plateaux where small
squared rocks all neatly stacked together but split from weathering where
trying their utmost to topple over a cliff, the Trimble was placed on their
high point and I willed it to stay in position.
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Typical northern Rhinogydd land
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| Balanced on the edge of a cliff, the first option for the summit of Pt. 499.5m came to 498.896m (converted to OSGM15) at SH 66549 31044 |
About 100 metres to the south lay a large
erratic boulder which looked slightly higher than where the 499m spot height is
positioned on the ground, and whilst Mark and Dave went over to investigate it
I took a reading with a small spirit level and Dave then did likewise sighting
back toward me. We all agreed that the
erratic boulder looked higher. But would
it prove to be over 500m in height? Data
were collected from its top as we gazed back on the wild land we’d walked
through and looked toward the maze of rock ahead.
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| Dave standing on the top of what proved to be a new Pedwar |
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| Gathering data at the second option for the summit of Pt. 499.5m, this came to 499.536m (converted to OSGM15) at SH 66565 31003 |
The descent from this summit takes you down a
steep cleft in the rock to a lower boulder field before the customary narrow
tussocked bwlch is crossed to a steep ascent on a peat path. It would be a shame to lose this hill from
the list of Sub-Pedwarau to the higher echelons of 500m hills as it is a fine
hill by any standard.
As we crested the opposing ground at the top of
the steep peat path I veered rightward to visit a small hill just to our
west. Mark left Dave and I to our
bagging need and said he was going to sit and grumpily eat his trail mix as he
was going to have nothing to do with these smaller prominence hills. Whilst at its summit I headed toward yet more
cliffs to photograph the current Sub-Pedwar in late afternoon sunlight and
stepped straight in to a hole on my way back toward Dave, who was sitting on a
rock taking in the view. The small hole
proved to have sides of rock which scraped my lower leg meaning that I was
sporting a bloodied wound when we re-joined Mark.
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| The summit of the new Pedwar is the large erratic boulder on the right of photo. The 499m map spot height is positioned at the summit on the left of photo. |
However, before re-joining Mark we followed his
tracks up a slender path on the edge of a small drop as it traversed a crag, what
marvellous land. This delightful little
occupier of mind and soul popped us out near to the top of the hill that is
listed in Michael Dewey’s list as Moel Morwynion, which in his notes within his
500-Metre list has ‘Authors name from
llyn 600 metres to south west’. It
would be good to one day find a locally known name for this hill. As the Trimble gathered data from the high
point Mark kindly did running repairs to my leg and covered a formidably sized
plaster with some ointment, I then slapped it on my leg and watched as blood
oozed out from the sides, mmmmm yummy, time for a sandwich.
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Gathering data at the summit of Pt. 518.5m
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| Dave admiring the view |
By now eleven surveys
had been conducted and there was only one hill left to visit, this is listed
under the point notation in Y Pedwarau as no suitable historical or local name
is known for it by the authors. I’d
previously surveyed this hill with my old staff and obtained a drop of 102 ½ft / 31.2m, noting that ‘difficult
measure on rock and heather, two summits, southern one has large cairn’. As ever with these old staff surveys I take
great delight in comparing their drop result to more accurate surveying which
today was being done with the Trimble.
Once at its bwlch the Trimble was positioned on
its improvised Tripod and again it reached its 0.1m accuracy relatively quickly. Once data were collected we headed up to the
497m map heighted summit. By the time I
had arrived Mark and Dave had pin-pointed the highest point, soon the Trimble
was in position and I grabbed a bite to eat and watched as the sun sank behind
a narrow bank of evening cloud as the sea turned golden in its glow.
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| The penultimate survey of the day at the summit of the Sub-Pedwar |
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| Sea turning golden in the sun's glow |
This Pedwar also has an adjacent 496m map height
top which has a large cairn beside it; we just had time for me to gather
another five minute data set from this point before it was time to head down. As the Trimble gathered data I stood and
looked out to sea as the sun cast evening colour from behind its narrow cloud
bank, to be on a hill as daylight turns to night is a magical experience.
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| Last survey of the day as the light dims from the evening sky |
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| Casting colour from behind cloud |
As we left the last
summit of the day the sun was playing light upon the land with mauve tinged
highlighted cloud nestling above a sea of orange. As the sun emerged from its cloud hiding it
turned the land a succulent rich hued red with black of foreground hills being
off laid with the bluish grey of the slither of Pen Llŷn.
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| Rich colours highlighted against the black outline of the Rninogydd |
The walk down the Roman
Steps proved enjoyable as light dwindled from the land, and as we entered the
lower reaches of our route back to Cwm Bychan, darkness fell upon us with just
a serene afterglow highlighted on the lake.
It proved a fitting end to a walk in a rather special area of Welsh
upland.
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| Darkness decsends on Llyn Cwm Bychan. Photo: Mark Trengove |
Survey Result:
Craig Wion
Summit Height: 565.6m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SH 66424 31950
Bwlch Height: 485.5m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Girf Reference: SH 65754 32912
Drop: 80.2m
Dominance: 14.18%
Pt. 499.5m
Summit Height: 499.5m (converted to OSGM15) (Pedwar status confirmed when coupled with drop value)
Bwlch Height: 469.2m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Girf Reference: SH 66658 31203
Dominance: 6.08%
Pt. 518.5m
Summit Height: 518.5m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SH 66363 30620
Bwlch Height: c 463m (interpolation)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SH 66567 30863 (interpolation)
Drop: c 55m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and interpolated bwlch)
Dominance: 10.61% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and interpolated bwlch)
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