06.04.17
Moel Llaethbwlch (SJ 113 167), Craignant Hill (SJ 119 165) and Craignant
Hill (SJ 118 164)
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| Moel Llaethbwlch (SH 113 167) |
With the fine weather
continuing I wanted to edge my Welsh P30 total up from 997 to 999 and picked
two hills relatively close to one another above the town of Llanfyllin.
I parked close to the
bwlch of my first planned hill; Moel Llaethbwlch squeezing my car onto the wide
grass verge, as I laced up my walking boots a quad bike zoomed round an
adjacent field, I made a mental note to try and talk with the farmer if he was
still around after the first of three potential bwlch positions for Moel
Llaethbwlch had been Trimbled. This
proved to be beside the minor road a few metres south-west from where I had
parked.
As the Trimble gathered
the last of its allotted 300 datum points the quad bike reappeared and I waved
and shouted over, a few minutes later the Trimble was packed away and I was
chatting with Mike Evans who farms the land to the west of the narrow lane where
the bwlch is situated on or near to. It
was good to speak to Mike, he proved extremely friendly and helpful, confirming
the name of Moel Llaethbwlch and Moel y Fronllwyd, but could not help me with the
name of my second planned hill of the day which has twin map heighted summits
of 329m. I told Mike all about the
Trimble and the place-name research I conducted and he kindly gave me
permission to head over his fields toward the summit of Moel Llaethbwlch.
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| Gathering data at the first of three potential bwlch positions for Moel Llaethbwlch |
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| Mike Evans |
As Mike zoomed off on
his quad bike I proceeded to gather a further two data sets at the remaining
potential bwlch positions for Moel Llaethbwlch and then headed toward its
summit.
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| Gathering data at the second potential bwlch position and what turned out to be the critical bwlch of Moel Llaethbwlch |
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| Gathering data at the third of three potential bwlch positions for Moel Llaethbwlch |
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| Craignant Hill from near the bwlch of Moel Llaethbwlch |
When speaking with Mike
we both commented what a fantastic view was all around, with the shapely up
thrust of Cadair Idris on the horizon and the high Aran dominating the view north-westward,
but he told me the view from the summit of Moel Llaethbwlch was even better and
when I arrived on top it didn’t disappoint.
Occasionally a relatively small hill is positioned just so, with its
prominence seemingly more dominant and its views spinning ones head in all
directions, and Moel Llaethbwlch is such a hill, a little beauty.
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| The distant Cadair Idris |
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| The distant Aran |
By now the sun had burst
through the morning’s high cloud and blue skies and warmth predominated. After the customary five minutes of data were
gathered from the summit I headed down steep grassed ground to the next
connecting bwlch. I judged the critical
point to be positioned on the edge of the minor lane and set the Trimble up on
my rucksack and hoped that no cars would come this way for the duration of data
collection, none did.
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| Gathering data from the summit of Moel Llaethbwlch |
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| Gathering data at the critical bwlch of Craignant Hill |
I now thought that only
two surveys remained, the figure proved to be five as I gathered two data sets
from the northerly summit of the next hill.
During the time that the Trimble beeped away collecting its
all-important data I stood back taking in the view and watching the sheep
sometimes watching me.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Craignant Hill |
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| Looking across from the northerly higher to the southerly lower of the two tops of Craignant Hill |
On a whim I decided to
survey the connecting bwlch between the two 329m map heighted summits and
decided that as the valley to valley traverse was relatively extensive I should
take two data sets, the second of which proved visually to be lower than the
first. However, I didn’t really care how
many survey I took as the sun gave welcome warmth and the land was peaceful and
the views were distant.
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| Gathering data at the connecting bwlch between the two tops of Craignant Hill |
After the second bwlch
survey I gathered the Trimble up and proceeded to the top of the southerly of
the two 329m map heighted summits and gathered the last five minutes data set
of the day. All that remained was the walk back to my car on the minor lane as
the sun gleamed down.
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| Gathering data at the lower of the two top of Craignant Hill |
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| Looking across from the southerly lower to the northerly higher of the two tops of Craignant Hill |
Arriving at my car a
farmer and his two sons were busy unloading sheep in to the adjacent field, I
chatted with the farmer; David Evans for ten minutes or so and he suggested
that I should visit John Evans at Tyncelyn and showed me on my map where this
farm was. John farms the land where the
two 329m map heighted summits are positioned and David explained that he should
be able to confirm the hill’s name.
As I approached Tyncelyn
a quad bike shot down the entrance drive, I flagged it down and spoke with Aled
Watkins, who works for John. After
explaining my interest in upland place-names he whizzed off and said that they
were bringing a number of sheep up the lane and that John would be following
him up in ten minutes or so. I waited in
the sunshine, took my walking boots off and opened the gate for Aled as he
reappeared with a small lamb under his arm; he then waited for John to appear heading
up the lane with 30 – 40 sheep and four sheep dogs in attendance. When John appeared we shook hands and he
quickly abandoned his quad bike in favour of shepherding the sheep on foot, I
followed in my car. Half a mile up the
lane and the sheep were penned in to their field and John and I chatted about
the twin map heighted hill, he immediately told me that it’s known as Craignant
Hill, with the old farm of Craignant-mawr being just north of the northern
summit. John pronounced the name as
Crugnant Hill, and told me that he could speak just a little bit of Welsh; the
hill is a part of John’s land and was easily pointed to over the near hedge.
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| Following John up the lane |
Before leaving John and
Aled, the name of a 200m Sub-Twmpau was confirmed, Aled had already told me its
name when waiting for John to appear up the lane with the sheep as we were
looking directly toward it and its unusual pole which is the lower remains of a
wind turbine whose blades no longer exist, this hill has a 261m summit spot
height and is positioned at SJ 110 151 and its name is Pentre Hill, with the farm
of Pentre positioned to its north-west.
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| (L-R) Aled Watkins and John Evans |
It was good to meet
Mike, David, John and Aled and also good to investigate land that is close to
where I live and yet I hadn’t been on these hills before. It was also good to nudge my Welsh P30 total
up to 999, just one more for the 1,000th.
Survey Result:
Moel Llaethbwlch
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 11335 16724
Bwlch Height: 328.8m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SJ 11484 17236
Drop: 43.3m
Dominance: 11.63%
Summit Height: 329.5m (converted to OSGM15) (confirmed as higher than Craignant Hill positioned at SJ 11893 16416)
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 11926 16590
Bwlch Height: 299.2m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SJ 11692 16648
Drop: 30.3m
Dominance: 9.21%
Summit Height: 329.3m (converted to OSGM15) (confirmed as lower than Craignant Hill positioned at SJ 11926 16590)
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 11893 16416
Bwlch Height: 311.4m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SJ 11967 16505
Dominance: 5.45%
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