11.11.23 Esgair Hengae (SN 815 686) and Pt. 516.1m (SN 811 693)
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| Esgair Hengae (SN 815 686) |
With the weather set
fine I met Aled on the outskirts of Dinas Mawddwy and having left my car close
to the Brigands Inn, we continued south to the minor dead end road heading
toward the wild surrounds of Llynnau Teifi.
The prioritised hill of
the day was Esgair Hengae; which was my penultimate Welsh Highland P15. It had been a long journey getting to this
point, with my first 500m P15 hill purposely bagged in April 2004. There have been many walks since, some of
these involving surveying the marginal hills that make up this list. However, Esgair Hengae easily made the
criteria for this list with Aled confirming it as a P20 via LIDAR analysis.
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| The last of the early morning mist |
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| Claerddu bothy |
We were walking by
9.00am having left Aled’s car parked on a grass verge adjacent and close to the
end of the paved section of road. On our
way here we passed many cars pulled up either in passing places or on the grass
verge. We found this odd, but later were
to find that two parties consisting of 18 people were staying in the near bothy
of Claerddu. The last time I was here
was with Mark Trengove and we parked on a small gravelled section adjacent to the
end of the paved road, today this had been extended and cordoned off with all
manner of small buildings signifying works in progress.
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| The small parking area used to be where the work units are now situated |
Our planned route
followed the track that continues from the end of the paved road, heading down
to what is marked on the map as a ford. As
the last three weeks have been particularly wet I had come prepared wearing my
winder walking gear of wellies. I was
thankful I had done so, as the ford was awash with fast flowing water. This is a part of the Afon Claerddu which is
fed hereabouts by a multitude of streams, all heading down from their higher
reed infested bogs, which we encountered later in the walk!
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| The ford was awash with water |
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| How did he get across so quick!?!? |
Aled was soon over the
water having jumped to one small grassy island and then on to a rock and finally
over on to the opposing bank. I knew
this was not for me, maybe 20 years ago when my limbs and body were more subtle
and lithe, but now the knowledge that I am not as young as I was has bred a
lack of confidence in such activity and therefore I walked up stream looking
for a narrow section to wade through. I
quickly found what I thought was appropriate and slowly submerged myself in to
the water. Each step proved hazardous
with slippy rock underneath, however I was soon through the water with it only
once coming over the top of one of my wellies and even then none soaked my leg or
foot.
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| This time of year many of the quad bike tracks were no more than wet runnels on the moor |
Beyond the stream were two quad bike tracks which left the main track which in time heads down to one of Wales’ wildest and remote farms; Claerwen. We opted for the nearest track and slowly made progress uphill with much of it infested in water and bog.
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| A particularly wet section of moor (Photo: Aled Williams) |
We then used another track on the moor to contour the upper part of the stream and headed up the final section toward the summit of Esgair Hengae. By now we had heard the distant rumbling of a vehicle and spotted it heading off toward a small stationary digger lower on the moor to our west. It then turned and headed our way. We waited for it to arrive. The vehicle had two people and two dogs in it, by the time we arrived next to it they were out on the moor admiring the view. We chatted with them for ten minutes or so with me asking if they could take us over the next bog between us and a sub hill that Aled wanted to visit. They couldn’t as the connecting bwlch was full of newly created pools with each damned with peat and moss. The couple were from Skipton and were working for the Elan Valley Trust creating wetlands. They had done similar work in Lancashire and Cumbria and also in Eryri. It was fascinating listening to how they created these new wetlands and what purpose they would fulfil. Sadly as they could not take us further we waved them off toward their digger and we turned and sauntered the few remaining metres toward the high point of Esgair Hengae.
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| The newly created wetlands are in the background on the left of this photo |
The high point of this
hill consists of grass amongst a deluge of moor and bog. Toward our south-east the lonely farm of
Claerwen stared back; an incredibly remote habitat for Wales which is surrounded
by some of the most wild and desolate land in the country. In all directions, except for the confines of
the farm were miles of Elenydd grassland, now turned from their summer
greenness to a dulled fawn colour, this spread in all directions, a marvellous
but also forbidding sight.
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| The green oasis of the remote farm of Claerwen with Drygarm Fawr beyond |
As I set the Trimble up
to gather data Aled put his rucksack on the tranquillity of grass and had a
bite to eat. As the screen of the
equipment faced the sun I could not see whether the 0.1m figure before data
should be logged had appeared and therefore asked Aled if he could activate the
Trimble to gather data. As it quietly
beeped away gathering its individual datum points I looked at the unremitting
land and tried to recover my breath from the ascent.
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| The Trimble GeoXH 6000 gathering data at the summit of Esgair Hengae |
Once the equipment was
packed away I now had a choice, either return via the ford and reclaim height on
the inward track back to Aled’s car, or join him on the main ridge heading
toward the next two summits, I opted for the latter as this probably consisted
of less ascent. I soon regretted my
decision as the next bwlch was horrendous.
This was where the wet land and its small pools was situated and
although one or two bog bound quad bike tracks took us past the pools we were
soon immersed in an absolutely horrendous bog.
At one point one of my wellies sank deep in to bog bound water and
refused to be brought back out with the suction of slime keeping it firmly in
place. It took me a number of minutes to
extricate it and still there was more bog to negotiate. By now Aled was on the other side lying on a
patch of welcome grass enjoying a burst of direct sunlight. I eventually made it through the bog and
joined him lying on the ground soaking up the welcome warmth.
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| Crossing the wet lands |
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| This proved a particularly gruesome bog |
Ahead was the summit of
the sub, Aled was soon on top and as for me, well, I very slowly joined
him. The bog had taken its toll and I
was already knackered. However, there
was one more summit to visit; Esgair Garreg Naw Llyn. I had visited this summit before and remember
the view from its high point, looking over near lakes as they disappeared off
in to the distance. Today its summit
still looked a long way away.
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| Nearing the summit of the sub |
Thankfully the crossing
of the next bwlch was not as problematic as the previous and we were soon on
patches of grass with the worst of the terrain now behind us. As I slowly plodded behind Aled a quad bike
appeared and just as quickly disappeared behind a ridge. It then materialised again and headed our
way, Aled shot down to meet the farmer.
The next 15 minutes or so was spent listening to Aled and Tom speak
Welsh, I was aware of many of the names being given and one or two relating to
drowning pools, remote summits and horses.
However, by now I was more than happy just to stand and rest and
listen. It turned out that Tom was one
of the farmers I had contacted when doing the bulk of my place-name research
many years ago. I was only aware of this
when Aled emailed me the following day; I replied that if I had known I would
have given him a big hug. I’m not sure
what Tom would have made of this.
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| Crossing the next bwlch |
As Tom left looking for
some stray sheep, I knew that I would not be visiting the summit of the next
hill and as Aled sped toward it to scribble all the names Tom had given him in
a notebook, I indicated that I would make my way to the southerly descending
ridge and wait for him there. Aled was
soon out of view. Having found a
convenient and helpful sheep track that contoured the steepening slopes I was
now able to plod at my own pace to the lower ridge. Once there I found a perfectly placed rock
jutting out of the grass which made a convenient place to sit and wait for Aled
to come down from the summit.
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| The track leading down to Claerddu |
I was amazed that Aled
had done this walk wearing walking boots as the ground had been sodden. I was thankful I had chosen my wellies which
I would recommend to any hill walker for the late autumn and winter season.
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| Claerddu bothy |
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| Claerddu nestled amongst the hills |
Once Aled had joined me
we followed a delightful quad bike track down the steepening southerly grassy
ridge toward the old farm house of Claerddu.
This is now a bothy and as Aled headed up the green track beyond it, I
popped my head around the corner to say hello to its occupants. They proved very friendly with good conversation
and an offer of a cup of tea. This was
so temping but my walking buddy was now up the track so I had to decline.
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| One of the Llynnau Teifi |
For me the plod back to
the awaiting car was slow. I eventually
made it with my mind wandering to hot mugs of tea and a relaxed and comfortable
sit down. Esgair Hengae did not
disappoint. It is a marvellously
positioned hill at the end of a wildly situated ridge overlooking many others
of similar composition. It also proved
to be my penultimate Welsh Highland P15, 629 of the little rascals done, just
one more to go!
Survey Result:
Esgair
Hengae
Summit Height: 509.8m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH
6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 81511 68622 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 488.3m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 81209 68976 (LIDAR)
Drop: 21.5m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch)
Dominance: 4.22% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Pt.
516.1m
Summit Height: 516.1m (LIDAR)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 81146 69347 (LIDAR
Bwlch Height: 504.0m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 80795 69399 (LIDAR)
Drop: 12.1m (LIDAR)
Dominance: 2.35% (LIDAR)
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet
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