18.04.22 Chwarel Graig Ddu (SH 725 455), Pt. 658.45m (SH 727 458), Pt. 643.1m (SH 727 460), Pt. 535.0m (SH 723 461), Pt. 516.9m (SH 724 465) and Pt. 519.2m (SH 721 463)
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| Chwarel Graig Ddu (SH 725 455) |
A tremendous amount of activity
has been directed toward the discovery and confirmation of hills for Welsh
2,000ft (609.6m) P15 status. This can be
traced back to the 1920s when Arthur St George Walsh first compiled his list to
these hills. Not surprisingly Arthur worked
purely in imperial measurement with a 2,000ft minimum height and a 50ft minimum
drop criteria, although we do not know his exact methods, we do know that he
was meticulous in his cataloguing of hills for this list.
In the late 1980s John
and Anne Nuttall compiled their guide to Welsh hills using this same
criteria. Importantly they developed a
surveying method that enabled many marginal hills to be either included or set
to one side. Their list was later
augmented with survey results produced by Dewi Jones and soon afterward by
me. During this time I compiled a Welsh list
using 500m minimum height and 15m minimum drop, which under the co-authorship
of Aled Williams has since evolved into The Welsh Highlands list. A sub-set within this list is the higher tier
above 609.6m in height. This higher tier
is not a duplication of John and Anne’s work, or earlier lists such as Walsh’s
for that matter. Ever since its first
compilation it has included hills not in the Nuttall’s list; for example, Castell
y Gwynt and Fronllwyd, and it has also excluded hills listed by the Nuttalls;
for example, Carnedd y Ddelw and Pt. 637.1m.
The surveying activity
for these criteria was significantly expanded by John Barnard, Graham Jackson
and myself who concentrated on the marginal hills produced by my previous
surveys. Using a level and staff and
Leica GNSS equipment dramatically increased the accuracy of the results. This has now been expanded by the use of the
Trimble GeoXH 6000 and the availability of LIDAR. By now it seemed all possible hills that
stood any chance of inclusion to this height and drop category had been
surveyed. But this premise was wrong. One last hill lurked in the background
awaiting discovery!
The potential of the
hill in question was first spotted by Aled Williams whilst scrutinising online
5m map contouring. This was
approximately two years ago and this hill had been on our radar ever since as
this map has an uppermost 610m contour and bwlch contours between 590m – 595m. However, as this hill is a part of a working
quarry our intention was to inspect it from adjacent hillsides and hopefully
confirm its validity.
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| The map giving 5m contours |
The hill in question is
positioned above Blaenau Ffestiniog in the heartland of Welsh slate mining and
not surprisingly it has been terra-formed due to quarrying activity. Hills created by man-made influence are
shunned by some people, but there are many similar hills throughout Wales that
are now included in a variety of hill list categories.
We endeavour to use best
available data on any given day for our Welsh Highlands list. By doing so we believe it enables our list to
be as up-to-date as possible, even if a hill may be included one day and then
excluded a month later due to continued terra-forming removing it from
qualifying existence. The main
qualifying factor outside of the relevant numerical criteria is that the hill
is considered solid and stable. A good
test for this is to jump up and down on its summit, if it does not move then it
passes the test. However, in this case we
could inspect from a distance.
We met at 7.00am in the Cae
Clyd car park at Manod on the outskirts of Blaenau Ffestiniog. The forecast was for sunny conditions with
the possibility of a rogue shower materialising in the afternoon. At this time in the morning we could have
been excused for not believing this, as the cloud base was low obstructing all
near hills.
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| An old gate leading us on the footpath toward the hill |
The cloud at least kept
the temperature pleasant as we made our way to the end of the paved road and
then continued on a track toward a public footpath. This was the first time I had approached
these hills from this direction and as we gained height the cloud rose with us,
it seemed our timing was perfect.
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| Misty early morning |
Our route took us to
Llyn y Manod. In years gone by there was
a fishing hut beside this lake, any vestige of this or its remains were out of
view today as the mist still skimmed the land beside the lake as we approached.
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| Llyn y Manod with Manod Bach rising above |
From the lake an old
quarry track leads up the western slopes of Manod Mawr which loomed above us as
a great bulk of a hill. This track meets
the disused incline leading from the quarry down toward Blaenau Ffestiniog. From here it was only a short walk to where
the main quarry road emerged out of the still rising mist.
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| Nearing the quarry road |
At the intersection of
the quarry road leading up toward the high point of our potential new hill the
public footpath diverts around to its south and east. This then climbs to meet the easterly slopes
of the adjacent 658m map heighted hill.
From here we looked down on our potential new hill which has a quarry
road passing over its summit area.
Because of this we knew that it was solid and stable.
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| The intersection between the quarry road and the public footpath |
On the summit of the
658m map heighted hill we met the only other person we saw on the hill all
day. He told us he had Covid and advised
we keep our distance, when doing so I was standing downwind of him; I soon
changed my position and thanked him for telling me so.
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| Looking down on Chwarel Graig Ddu |
We then Abneyed the
summit of this hill and decided to gather data from the highest ground visible
at the base of the large summit cairn.
The view from this summit is extensive and as my last visit to this hill
was in March 2004 it was good to be back after a gap of 18 years.
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| Approaching the high point of the day |
To our west we watched
as darkened cloud edged its way northward toward the high Glyderau and
Carneddau. It was now early afternoon
and the cloud was thickening and even though threatening darkened cloud
occasionally built up over the tops we visited, it remained dry, which for our
purposes on the hill was welcome.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Pt. 658.45m (SH 727 458) |
We now had four
potential sub hills to survey, the first of which was only a short distance
below us. I had surveyed this first
small prominence hill with a basic levelling staff in August 1998 and the other
three in October 2005, and Aled had compared my results to his interpolation of
the 5m contouring available online. With
the aid of the Trimble GeoXH 6000 we could now put accurate heights and
positions to each of these four hills.
One of the joys of
surveying is the places such a pastime takes you to, and these potential sub
hills did just that, as the land hereabouts is probably seldom visited. But today it was quiet with light and shade
across the landscape adding depth to perspective, with each hill in turn giving
extensive and rewarding views.
After surveying the
first potential sub we followed the line of a fence down steep ground to where
a complicated series of summits and bylchau are placed. Our three remaining hills where positioned relatively
close to each other and therefore surveys came thick and fast.
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| Gathering data at the summit of the third of four potential sub hills |
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| Moel Penamnen |
The summit of our
penultimate hill gave views across Llyn Bowydd and Llyn Newydd to the shapely
profile of Moel Penamnen. This was our
furthest northerly point during the day; from here we headed south surveying
another potential sub on our way.
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| Looking out toward Cnicht |
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| Beside Llyn y Manod |
From the summit of our
last potential sub hill all that remained was the walk out aiming for the
eastern shore of Llyn Du Bach, which connected us with a path leading toward
the incline heading down from the higher tops toward the outskirts of Blaenau
Ffestiniog. We crossed this and made
steady progress up to the earthen track leading to Llyn y Manod. As we gained the track we rested, which for
me was a welcome break.
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| Late afternoon light |
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| Manod Bach |
Our remaining route
followed the path on the eastern shore of the lake before joining our inward route
from earlier in the day. The atmospheric
misted scene from early morning had long been replaced by blue skies, late
afternoon warmth, extensive views and the knowledge that the main aim of the
day had been completed.
Survey Result:
Chwarel Graig Ddu
Summit Height: 613m
Summit Grid Reference: SH 72505 45533
Bwlch Height: 592m
Bwlch Grid Reference: SH 72456 45744
Drop: 21m (Uchaf addition) (600m Sub-Twmpau addition)
Dominance: 3.43%
Pt. 658.45m
Summit Height: 658.45m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH
6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SH 72741 45844 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: c 593m (interpolation)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SH 72943 45510 (interpolation)
Drop: c 65m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and
interpolated bwlch)
Dominance: 9.94% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and
interpolated bwlch)
Pt. 643.1m
Summit Height: 643.1m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SH 72780 46053
Bwlch Height: 633.0m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SH 72816 46026
Drop: 10.1m
Dominance: 1.57%
Pt. 535.0m
Summit Height: 535.0m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SH 72348 46195
Bwlch Height: 524.3m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SH 72392 46231
Drop: 10.8m
Dominance: 2.01%
Pt. 516.9m
Summit Height: 516.9m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SH 72414 46598
Bwlch Height: 507.0m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SH 72346 46467
Drop: 9.9m
Dominance: 1.92%
Pt. 519.2m
Summit Height: 519.2m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SH 72188 46369
Bwlch Height: 509.6m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SH 72312 46434
Drop: 9.6m
Dominance: 1.85%
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet
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