31.07.18 Parc Llwyn Du (SN 428 188)
 |
| Parc Llwyn Du (SN 428 188) |
Having driven south and
visited Mynydd Pencarreg (SN 575 432) and Mynydd Llanybydder (SN 535 395) I now
had an afternoon in the sunshine to enjoy a number of hills just to the south
of the Afon Tywi above Carmarthen, before a late afternoon meeting with a
friend who was house sitting for the week in the town.
The first hill I wanted
to visit is positioned above a meeting of minor roads to the south of the
B4300, and it here where the bwlch of the hill is situated and also where I
parked my car adjacent to an earthen track that has public right of way, this
would give me access to the hill’s summit.
 |
| The bwlch of Parc Llwyn Du |
 |
| LIDAR image of the bwlch of Parc Llwyn Du |
The field where the
summit of this hill is situated is named Parc Llwyn Du on the Tithe map and
this is the name that the hill is now listed by in the Welsh P30 list. I’d come prepared with ten figure grid
references for both summit and bwlch provided by LIDAR analysis, but only had
intention to survey the summit of the hill.
LIDAR analysis gives the
highest point of this hill beside a trig pillar at SN 42343 18691, which the
Tithe map names as Llain Bolahaul, but as this is positioned on ground
associated with a small covered reservoir I considered this point man-made and
therefore concentrated on the eastern part of the hill where a natural summit
exists that LIDAR gives as only 0.2m lower.
 |
| LIDAR image of the summit of Llain Bolahaul on the left and Parc Llwyn Du on the right |
The track led toward a
mast and another minor road, I only stayed on it for a short distance and soon
gained height up the field to my north.
A gate then gave access toward its high point, with the field where this
is situated contentedly being grazed by a large herd of cows. As I walked up beside the staked perimeter
the cows inquisitively headed my way, not a good sign for a surveyor!
 |
| A sign of things to come |
I decided to try and
bi-pass the cows and approach the summit from their rear, and clambered over
two wired fences which thankfully led through gaps in adjacent hedges, one
accessed the field to the immediate north, and the other gave me access back in
to the field where the summit and the cows were positioned. As soon as I emerged back in to the high
field the cows were on me, slowly wandering my way, within a minute or two of
finding the summit position I stood with about 30-40 cows surrounding me and
the Trimble with an amorous bull no more than a few feet away who was enjoying
mounting one of the herd, I thought any semblance of gathering Trimble data
next to impossible as by now a number of cows were licking the equipment.
 |
| Friendly surveying assistants |
I then spent a number of
minutes gently encouraging the cows to back away from the Trimble, miraculously
this worked and once it was gathering data I stood with my arms out stretched
slowly encouraging them to take backward steps away from the equipment, and
once five minutes of data were gathered and stored I ran toward the equipment
and switched it off, by the time I had done this the cows were back edging
their way toward the Trimble.
 |
| Gathering data at the summit of Parc Llwyn Du |
I packed the Trimble
away and stood looking at the cows for a while, after rubbing the noses of one
or two I departed as they all followed me down the field. It was only a short walk back on the track to
where my car was parked; next stop was the summit of Lan (SN 441 196).
Survey Result:
Parc Llwyn Du (significant name change)
Summit Height: 104.3m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 42895 18827 (summit relocation confirmed)
Bwlch Height: 73.4m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 43247 18917 (LIDAR)
Drop: 30.8m (Trimble summit and LIDAR bwlch) (100m
Twmpau status confirmed)
Dominance: 29.58%
No comments:
Post a Comment