26.01.18 Ffridd (SJ 038 121) and Mynydd Bach (SJ 051
123)
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| Mynydd Bach (SJ 051 123) |
Dolanog is similar to
many small communities in Wales as a quiet peacefulness pervades its realm, with
this peaceful tranquillity also edging to the tops above the hamlet, which is nestled
beside the Afon Efyrnwy (River Vyrnwy).
Today the river gushed eastward with grey waters, with this seemingly
the only thing that stirred in Dolanog.
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| Dolanog |
I hadn’t been out on the
hill with Charlie for nine months and it was good to see him again, the hills
we planned on visiting were ones that he had investigated a few weeks ago and
having enjoyed them he wasn’t averse to re-visiting.
Having parked and walked
across the old bridge we followed the paved road heading west which soon turned
in to a vehicle track beside fields recently planted with trees, these new
plantations continued on the northern side of the road and track all the way
from the valley below toward the higher tops above.
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| The route to the hills |
There was a slight
freshness in the air with blue skies predominating above; both were welcome as
the preceding days had been damp and grey.
The track avoids the first hill skirting it on its southern side, and
heads toward the connecting bwlch between the two hills; here we heard a
tractor chugging up from the south, smiling at Charlie I ran off to stop
it. Its occupant; Trefor Jones, farms
from Maescelynog and it was his hill that we had just passed and which we
planned on visiting after the higher westerly summit had been surveyed. Trefor told us that the hill is named Mynydd
Bach, with it being purchased from Neuadd-wen a number of years ago. After thanking him for his time we carried on
following the track toward Ffridd; the first and highest hill of the day.
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| Trefor Jones |
The track led round the northerly
part of the upper section of Ffridd and so we left it to walk to the summit,
which is marked by a small, old cairn. I
set the Trimble on top of my rucksack, measured the offset between its internal
antenna and the highest part of the hill and once the 0.1m accuracy level had
been attained, pressed ‘Log’ and joined Charlie a few metres away. During the five minute data collection we
stood and admired the late morning’s light as sun and greying cloud added
atmosphere to the scene.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Ffridd |
As the Ordnance Survey
Interactive Coverage Map hosted on the Geograph website gives a second top as
1m lower than the cairned summit, we headed over to it once the Trimble had
gathered its allotted five minutes of data.
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| Gathering data at the 328m map heighted lower summit of Ffridd |
Although this second top
didn’t have the sweeping westerly views of the cairned summit it was crowned by
an attractive small rock outcrop and as the Trimble quietly beeped away gathering
its data, Charlie headed off to investigate the southerly outlying top which we
both concluded was lower than where the Trimble was presently gathering its data.
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| Charlie admiring the view to the west |
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| The 330.6m cairned summit of Ffridd from the 328.5m rock outcrop summit |
Once the Trimble was packed
away I joined Charlie and we then headed toward the inward vehicle track back
toward the connecting bwlch between the two hills. We’d assessed this from the track on our
inward route and its southerly part was decidedly watery, enough so that even
with wellies it would be a treacherous undertaking attempting to gather data
from its depths, thankfully the ground slowly rose to the north and we followed
the minor paved road that heads over this bwlch from south to north, to where
dryer ground existed indicating that this was the higher part of the area of
the bwlch.
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| Looking east from the hills above Dolanog |
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| With the Breiddin beyond |
I took two data sets at
this bwlch, both from its northern periphery, one amongst rough grass beside
its bog and the other on the edge of the minor road, once data were stored we
continued toward the summit of Mynydd Bach.
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| Gathering data at the critical bwlch of Mynydd Bach |
As we ascended over
closely cropped grass toward the summit of Mynydd Bach I occasionally turned around
and looked back at the expanse of bog that makes up the connecting bwlch and even
though eyesight alone is not ideal for judging either height difference or the
upward / downward lay of land, the upward motion of this bwlch headed northward
toward where the Trimble had been placed.
Thankfully the summit of
Mynydd Bach is easily found as rising ground leads to a small embedded rock
whose uppermost part just breaks the soil and grass, and with the area of the
summit having no other discernible bump I aligned the Trimble with the highest part
of the small rock and waited for the allotted five minute data set to be
gathered.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Mynydd Bach |
Before re-joining the
vehicle track we headed further east to the end part of the upper ridge of
Mynydd Bach, by now the predicted cloud build up had materialised and the
sunlight that had given us striking colour had dulled. The vehicle track led on to the upper part of
paved road which took us down toward the Afon Efyrnwy and the car park in
Dolanog.
Survey Result:
Ffridd
Summit Height: 330.6m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000) (significant height revision)
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 03897 12140 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: c 253m (interpolation)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SJ 03041 12323 (interpolation)
Drop: c 78m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and interpolated bwlch)
Dominance: 23.48% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and interpolated bwlch)
Mynydd Bach (significant name change)
Summit Height: 324.9m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 05100 12325
Bwlch Height: 296.4m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SJ 04661 12268
Drop: 28.5m
Dominance: 8.79%
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