Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Moel y Gamelin

 

16.09.21  Pt. 353.6m (SJ 249 539) 

Pt. 353.6m (SJ 249 539)

This hill proved to be my last of three walks of the day.  I had considered doing more, but time and inclination meant this did not happen.  The summit of this hill is situated to the east of Gwern Hall, whose rough access track I had mistakenly driven up, thinking it was the minor road leading to where I wanted to park.  I soon realised my error, reversed my inward route and turned up the next paved road and parked just below Tan-y-bryn, whose occupants I talked to on my way down from the hill. 

It was proving to be a lovely late afternoon with blue sky above interspersed with white and grey cloud, with darkened sky further north-east which illuminated in direct sunlight.  There is a special quality to grey sky when struck by sunlight, it enhances foreground colour and adds a deep and rich coloured backdrop, when this happens I often stop and gaze. 

From where I parked a good track which is also a public footpath leads past Tan-y-bryn to a higher house, it was here that I met the most delightful woman.  She was walking with the aid of two sticks and her pet dog wagged its tail in my direction, she told me that he loved meeting strangers.  I stopped and we talked at length about the hill just above her house.  She was aged 90 and was full of knowledge of her surrounding area having lived here for more than 50 years.  She told me that her house was originally a Tŷ-unnos; a house erected overnight and thus giving rights to the occupants to stay.  The house has been developed since these days, but part of an original wall is still intact, she showed me by extending her arms the approximate width of this wall.  I could have stopped for a while longer, just listening and asking questions, but I was still considering another hill after this walk, which when I got back to my car did not materialise.  Thanking her for her time, she kindly directed me on my onward route following the continuation of the public footpath through a near gate and up the adjacent field behind her house. 

Looking across the upper field toward the summit

Prior to visiting this hill I had used LIDAR to analyse its summit and had come prepared with the ten figure grid reference for it, and with the Trimble acting as a hand-help device it eventually led me toward its high point, but not before a rather circuitous route via a bench which I very happily and lazily sat on for a number of minutes. 

LIDAR image of Pt. 353.6m (SJ 249 539)

LIDAR places the summit of this hill close to the second fence along the summit field.  I followed the public footpath up and then veered right and walked up toward a line of stunted trees standing atop a small embankment that I took as the first fence.  I continued in the same direction and arrived at a very large and dense outcrop of gorse that from this direction was impenetrable.  I decided to circumnavigate it to try and find what was on the other side, so therefore crossed a barb wired fence and continued in the same direction on the other side.  This just led downhill, but gorse and brambles meant there were few crossing opportunities to get back on the other side of the fence.  I eventually found a spot to re-cross which conveniently was beside one of a number of wooden benches dotted across this and an adjacent field.  Once across the fence I readily sat and relaxed and wondered how to get back through the mass of gorse to where I had been a few minutes earlier.  Leaving the bench I walked up to the corner of the field on the opposing side of the thick gorse to where I had been a minutes earlier and turned the Trimble on to check the grid reference against that produced by LIDAR.  I was about ten metres from the high point and on the wrong side of the mass of gorse.  The high point was where I had originally crossed the fence, which I found rather humorous. 

Following the gorse downhill back toward the field adjacent to the old woman’s house I eventually found a gate which gave me access around the gorse, I was soon back where I had started from, this time knowing I was at the summit! 

The Trimble was soon set up under a large gorse bush with the LIDAR ten figure grid reference indicating the high point to be just in the gorse.  It took about 15 minutes for the 0.1m accuracy level to be attained before data should be logged, during this time I happily picked large blackberries from the mass of brambles overhanging the near fence. 

Gathering data at the summit of 353.6m (SJ 249 539)

Once the equipment was activated I stood back and waited for five minutes of data to be gathered and stored.  During this I looked north across the brambled fence toward the top that was originally listed as the qualifying summit for this hill, which by eye looked similar in height to where I was standing.  But for me today I was just going to survey this summit. 

The view across to the original listed summit of this hill

During the day I had spent much time calling at fishery’s, cottages, farms and houses asking about names of hills, none of these proved fruitful, but all were fun, meeting some lovely people when doing so, and on my return from this summit I wandered back down my inward route and stopped at Tan-y-bryn where three people were outside, one being the daughter of the lovely 90 year old who I had spoken with earlier.  We talked for 20 minutes or so about all manner of things, including the bombing of Liverpool during the 2^nd World War. 

I left knowing that this was my last hill of the day and wandered back to my car to change.  It was still a beautiful late afternoon as I did so; I took my time and savoured the warm sunshine.  I had come well prepared earlier in the day with details for summit and bwlch positions for nine hills, I knew that my late start meant that all would not be visited, but thought that four or five may be so.  It turned out I only did three, but they were lovely and meeting a number of people en route just enhanced the experience. 

 

Survey Result: 

 

Pt. 353.6m (significant name change)

Summit Height:  353.6m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 24997 53989 (Trimble GeoXH 6000) (summit relocation confirmed)

Bwlch Height:  c 322m (interpolation)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SJ 24041 53999 (interpolation)

Drop:  c 32m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and interpolated bwlch) (Sub-Trichant reclassified to Trichant)

Dominance:  8.94% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and interpolated bwlch)

 

 

For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet