In search of solitude: hillwalking pair reveal the Remotest Hills of
Wales
Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams
Monday 13 April 2015 02:02 PM GMT
Monday 13 April 2015 02:02 PM GMT
Rhinog Fawr features in the booklet |
There are many reasons for
taking a walk to the top of a hill. Solitude must be near the top of the list
for many peakbaggers eager to escape the pressures of modern life and commune
with nature.
Amateur hill sleuth Myrddyn
Phillips and collaborator Aled Williams went in search of the
remotest hills in
Wales. Here, they detail their results, which are published in an online
booklet today.
Seekers of peace and quiet
may be disappointed to learn that one of the nation’s remotest peaks is one
where you are least likely to find yourself alone on the summit.
Have you ever stood on a
mountain top and wondered just how remote it is?
For those lovers of
wilderness and solitude who have, there is a recently published listing of
Welsh hills that catalogues the Remotest Hills of Wales.
The list has been compiled by
Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams, who in 2013 published lists of the 400m
hills in Wales and England, entitled Y Pedwarau and The Fours respectively.
This time the duo have set their sights on something very different and have
compiled a list of the 166 hills in the whole of Wales that are at least 2.5km
from a paved public road.
Myrddyn Phillips |
The list has been named Y
Pellennig: The Remotest Hills of Wales, as the Welsh word pellennig means
‘distant’ or ‘remote’.
The list evolved out of an
attempt to pinpoint the most remote spot in mainland Wales from the perspective
of distance from the nearest road. This point was identified as being at the
heart of the Mynydd Du upland in South Wales.
This soon led the pair to
investigate all the hills in Wales that were the farthest from public roads. Mr
Phillips said: “The summit of Yr Wyddfa would feel more remote in the early
morning of a cold winter’s day than it would on a bright and warm summer’s
afternoon, with a horde of tourists disembarking off a newly arrived train.
“Possibly the true meaning of
remoteness is personally perceived, and therefore transient, thus making it
difficult to quantify.
“A simple, albeit
generalised, method of defining remoteness could be based on the distance
between the summit of a hill and the nearest paved public road. This at least
is easy to ascertain and, as the great majority of hill walks start from the
convenience of public roads, it may facilitate a means of determining a
critical aspect of remoteness. This is what we have used”.
Aled Williams |
As the complete list includes
42 island hills, the majority of which are out-of-bounds during the summer due
to seabird nesting colonies, or their general inaccessibility, a mainland-only
list was also devised that would fulfil a challenge that was feasible for
walkers to complete.
Mr Phillips said: “The
listing criteria chosen was a minimum distance of 2.5km from a paved public
road and 15m of minimum drop between different hills, and this works extremely
well as all manner of esoteric and interesting hills are included.”
The qualifying hills are
diverse in terms of height, geology and situation. Included, for example, are
the airy tops of the dramatic Ynys Weryn (Worm’s Head) headland, the lonely
sentinel of Ynys Llanddwyn that forms the south-western tip of Ynys Môn, the
delightful Mynydd Enlli and the handful of hills that are found on Ynys Dewi.
Carnedd Uchaf in the high
Carneddau also appears and, of course, the highest point in Wales, Yr Wyddfa. A
few of the hills will be practically unknown to many hillwalkers, as this
publication represents their first appearance within a hill list.
The remotest hill in the
whole of Wales also proved to be one of the lowest when measured by elevation,
this being West Tump, which is a 17m high wave-battered lump of rock 16.33km
out in the Celtic Sea. However, the remotest hill of mainland Wales was found
in the great expanse of grassland to the south of the high Mynydd Du peaks in
the Brecon Beacons national park.
Yr Wyddfa, Snowdon, remote but don't expect solitude |
This is Tyle Garw at 4.875km
from the nearest road and at an elevation of 467m. Dr Williams said: “These
distances are not great by Scottish standards, but the perception of remoteness
is of course relative to a particular country.
“The remote land found in
Siberia is on another scale when compared to the Scottish Highlands, and so are
the Welsh hills when compared to the Highlands. The booklet will assist walkers
in getting far from the madding crowd, visiting the loneliest, wild and scenic
spots in Wales”.
Every hill name that appears
in the list has been painstakingly researched, and the booklet also publicises
some unrecorded hill names taken from research that the duo have undertaken in
almost all of the upland areas in Wales.
Dr Williams said: “Some of
these unrecorded names were kindly given to us by local farmers, gatherers,
shepherds and landowners, and our aim is to safeguard local upland names and to
encourage their use over invented names that have no or minimal historical and
cultural merit. We hope to publish the entirety of this place-name research in
the future, thus ensuring the existence of these local names for future
generations to use and enjoy.”
This unique list sets a
challenge for the hillwalker who enjoys the wilder side of Wales. The first
recorded completer would also become the first person to ascend all of the
Welsh remote hills.
The Remotest Hills of Wales |
The booklet is freely
available from the Europeaklist
website as an e-booklet and a print-booklet version. A
basic version of the list can also be accessed on the v-g.me website and an interactive version is hosted on Haroldstreet, where
users can log their progress and download GPS waypoints.
Please click: http://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2015/04/13/in-search-of-solitude-hillwalking-pair-reveal-the-remotest-hills-of-wales
to see the original article published on the Grough website.
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