Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Beacon Hill

14.08.15  Gaer (SO 114 698)  

Gaer (SO 114 698)

As I drove south the persistent rain that had fallen during the night continued, Aled and I were heading to the Powys Archive at Llandrindod to examine Enclosure Maps and their accompanying Awards.  We had booked the facility’s two microfilm viewers as the numbers appearing on the Maps are referenced in the Awards, therefore two machines are required to reference a number against a name.  Our endeavours found some interesting names but as Aled whizzed through the maps calling out the occasional number I tried to find the correct reference, with many seemingly not to exist.  This form of research can send you a bit bonkers and I ended up this way after a fruitless search for four different numbers.  When the Archive closed it was time to get our boots on and visit a couple of hills as although the sky was overcast the rain had now stopped.

The first hill we visited is named Gaer and it stands above the small community of Llanddewi Ystradenni, which is situated a few miles north-east of Llandrindod.  We parked near to where a right of way leaves the road, with a good little circular walk being easily devised as this footpath soon splits with one branch heading northward toward the hill and the other heading eastward before swinging across fields up toward the hill.

We opted for the eastward footpath and walked on a vehicle track with puddled water looking forlorn in the track’s ruts.  Gaer is quite a bulky hill and it was on grand display above the hedgerow as we walked down the track, our onward route lay through a gate on steep pastoral land and as Aled zig-zagged his way up I followed, occasionally I would sneak ahead when he stopped to take a photo.

Heading up toward the summit of Gaer

We decided to head straight up the hill instead of following the continuation of the sometimes indistinct path, this meant one stretch over a fence and a delicate manoeuvre through a large clump of nettles.  This brought us out high on the hill, but there was still a five minute wander to its high point.  The summit of the hill consists of grass and the views are extensive, it was relatively easy to determine the high point and once the Trimble was set up and gathering data I joined Aled, had a chat and soaked in the view.

The Trimble set-up position at the summit of Gaer

The colour was not great as the grey mass of cloud gave a silken after rain feel to the land, but the views compensated, after I packed the Trimble away we headed south and then west to join the track which heads up to the southern side of this hill’s summit.  Across the valley Buddugre (SO 089 700) stared back at us large and green.

Heading down from the summit of Gaer

Across the valley Buddugre stared back at us

As we got back to the car we had a quick sort out of gear and pressed on to our next hill; Castell Tinboeth (SO 089 754).

 

Survey Result:

Gaer

Summit Height:  417.4m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 11432 69801 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  308.4m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SO 14462 72427 (LIDAR)

Drop:  109.0m (LIDAR)

Dominance:  26.11% (LIDAR)

For further details please consult the Trimble survey spreadsheet click {here}