31.08.20 Todleth Hill (SO 288 945), Roundton Hill (SO
294 949), Brithdir Hill (SO 298 951), Cefn Top (SO 317 953), Pen y Mirth (SO
319 948) and Castle Hill (SO 314 945)
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| Roundton Hill (SO 294 949) |
Having visited Corndon
and Lan Fawr two days ago, I was enthused with the prospect of visiting their
adjacent P30s. I’d only been on these
hills once before in January 2004 and remember them giving a good circuit and
outside of the steep sided and popular Roundton Hill, the land is seldom
visited by the hill walker.
I was parked and walking
up the narrow lane leading through the small community of Hurdley by
8.15am. A public footpath led up valley
between the steepening slopes of Todleth Hill to the west and Roundton Hill to
the east. The valley was still in shade
with dew soaked grass heralding the first sign of impending autumn. Above, the two summits cast colour as the
early morning sun spread across their tops from the east.
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| Approaching Todleth Hill |
I followed another public
footpath up through a wood toward the higher southerly flank of my first hill
of the day; Todleth Hill. Numerous
blackberries tempted me to stop and indulge in breakfast, but I concentrated on
reaching the open hillside above and continuing the short distance to the
grassed summit area.
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| Roundton Hill from the ascent of Todleth Hill |
Soon the Trimble was
set-up atop my rucksack gathering data.
With the offset noted between its internal antenna and the ground at its
base, I stood away from the equipment as it gathered its individual datum
points and soaked in the scene with the steep south-westerly slopes of Roundton
Hill looking particularly daunting.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Todleth Hill |
Once the equipment had
gathered and stored its allotted data, I closed it down, packed it away and
headed down the grassed northern slopes toward the hill’s connecting bwlch, which
is positioned on the narrow lane close to houses in the small community of Old
Churchstoke.
All was quiet as I
quickly assessed the lay of land, with the hill to hill traverse and valley to
valley traverse meeting on the road. I
quickly set the Trimble up and hoped that no passing vehicle would demolish it
and my rucksack. Considering its set-up
position it achieved the 0.1m accuracy level before data should be logged
remarkably quickly and I patiently waited for five minutes of data to be
gathered and stored. During this all was
quiet and thankfully no vehicles appeared.
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| Gathering data at the bwlch of Todleth Hill |
The continuation of the
narrow lane first led downhill and then up toward a point that I could access
the open hillside to my east which led directly to the bwlch between Roundton
Hill and its 1m map heighted higher neighbour of Brithdir Hill. The bwlch consists of grass and today it had
a few sheep nonchalantly munching in the early morning sunshine.
I assessed the lay of
land at the bwlch from a number of directions, and having judged where its
critical point lay, I set the Trimble up for another five minute data
collection. During which I stood and
looked up to Roundton Hill, this hill is impressive with steep sides and a
series of small crags with a profile that is easily distinguished from afar.
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| Gathering data at the bwlch of Roundton Hill |
Once the Trimble was
packed away I followed the path from the bwlch as it wound its way up to the
high point of Roundton Hill. After
setting the Trimble up I walked back down a section of the path and took a
series of photos looking out toward Corndon, Lan Fawr and my next hill;
Brithdir Hill. All looked inviting,
bathed in delicate morning colour.
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| Lan Fawr on the left and Corndon on the right from Roundton Hill |
After closing the
Trimble down I had a quick look at the panoramic viewfinder close to the summit
and walked toward the steepening drop to look down on Todleth Hill. I was surprised that on such a beautiful bank
holiday Monday morning no one, except for me, was on the hill. However, the solitude and view were to be
savoured.
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| Todleth Hill from Roundton Hill |
I doubled back for my next
hill, over the bwlch I had just surveyed and up the continuation of a green
track bi-passing gorse on the way. The
summit of Brithdir Hill consists of an attractive small embedded rock. The Trimble was soon set-up aligned with its
high point gathering data.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Brithdir Hill |
My onward route now took
me across country via Barry Llewelyn at Brithdir Farm. This farm is directly below the summit I had
just Trimbled and soon I was rounding the corner toward its front gate, at the
same time Barry was walking down the path toward the gate, our unexpected
meeting made us both jump.
Barry’s family have
farmed from Brithdir since the 1860s and he named many of the hills in the
surrounding area, including Cefn Top which he rents, and which was my next hill
on the walk. I spent a number of minutes
with Barry and enjoyed our time together.
Thanking him for his time I headed down the farm’s access track on to
another narrow lane which took me all the way to the next bwlch, which connects
with Cefn Top.
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| Barry Llewelyn at Brithdir farm |
This bwlch is positioned
just off the narrow lane through a gate and close to another, with copious
amounts of nettles close by. As the
Trimble gathered its allotted data I stood close to a tree and felt the
morning’s exertions starting to catch up with me.
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| Brithdir Hill from the approach to Cefn Top |
The summit of Cefn Top
was close by, and a green track led through a gate close to where I had
accessed its bwlch, and from here up toward its summit. The Tithe map names the upper field as Long
Top, an apt name, as from the direction I approached; the upper part of the
hill has a long flattish top. I took two
data sets, with the second my favoured position for its summit.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Cefn Top with Corndon in the background |
Leaving the summit
dappled cloud cast shadow across the hills; flashes of late summer colour
accentuated the shadowed parts of hillside.
It was a joy to be out on such a day.
Quietness pervaded the land.
However, what I encountered at the next bwlch broke any semblance of
peacefulness.
The next bwlch connected
with the penultimate hill of the day, with an earthen track leading
across a field, where a friendly herd of grazing cows showed interesting in my surveying activities. They heralded my arrival with a
chorus of extremely loud mooing, with one cow after another giving voice. This reverberated around an otherwise quiet
and isolated spot for many minutes. During data collection I sat under a tree and
smiled at the scene.
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| Gathering data at the bwlch area of Pen y Mirth |
A slow plod uphill led
me to the next summit which is crowned by a field boundary and a
misshapen Ash tree. I set the Trimble up
directly over the high point on top of a fence post and waited for the 0.1m
accuracy level to be achieved. This
position was enclosed and directly under the tree. I decided after waiting for about 20 minutes
to reposition the equipment on a part of the tree, and proceeded to gather
data.
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| At the summit of Pen y Mirth |
My onward route took me
down across a large field on to a track leading through forestry to the lane
beside Yew Tree Farm, where I called and chatted with the farmer for 15 minutes
or so.
I had one hill left to
visit, and the farmer at Yew Tree Farm directed me to the best route toward
it. This hill is named Castle Hill and
consists of an old Motte and Bailey. I
took two data sets from its summit area, sitting during both, relaxing in the
quiet surrounds and tempted by more blackberries.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Castle Hill |
I considered surveying
Castle Hill’s connecting bwlch, but on inspection the field where I judged it
to be positioned had a large herd of cows in it. Happy with just the summit having been
surveyed I headed down the steep sides of the upper hill to the Church below
and the lane next to it, toward a series of footpaths leading me back toward
Hurdley.
I suffered on the way
back, partly through the warmth of the afternoon, but also because some of the
footpaths did not seem to exist on the ground and therefore I spent much of the
time wandering through thick grassed fields aiming toward where I thought I
should be going.
Eventually I reached the
small community of Hurdley and a few minutes later, my car, having been on the
hill for over eight hours, with eleven surveys completed, six hills visited and
another local name; Cefn Top, documented.
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| LIDAR image of Castle Hill (SO 314 945) |
Postscript
Since visiting these hills full LIDAR coverage is
now available. The LIDAR (Light
Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height and
positional data that is now freely available for England and Wales. Consequently the numerical details for these
hills have been analysed using this technique, resulting in the LIDAR height
and position being prioritised for some of these hills.
Survey Result:
Todleth Hill
Summit Height: 310.7m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 28890 94518
Bwlch Height: 246.5m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 28828 95012
Drop: 64.2m
Dominance: 20.65%
Roundton Hill
Summit Height: 370.4m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 29408 94952
Bwlch Height: 327.0m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 29531 95067
Drop: 43.4m
Dominance: 11.72%
Summit Height: 371.1m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH
6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 29863 95157 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 312.8m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 29966 95737 (LIDAR)
Drop: 58.4m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Dominance: 15.73% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Summit Height: 354.4m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 31764 95334
Bwlch Height: 313.2m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 31502 95512
Drop: 41.2m
Dominance: 11.62%
Summit Height: 332.2m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 31947 94840 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 299.4m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 31822 94926 & SO 31827 94935 (LIDAR)
Drop: 32.7m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Dominance: 9.86% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Castle Hill
Summit Grid Reference: SO 31430 94540 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 258.6m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 31415 94604 (LIDAR)
Dominance: 8.70% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
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