07.01.18 Upper Park (SJ 189 052) and Cromwell Hill (SJ
182 048)
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| Upper Park (SJ 189 052) |
Ever since getting the
Trimble I’ve wanted to visit Upper Park and survey its high point. This hill has a certain reputation in the
hill bagging community as some in the past have been asked to leave by irate
estate workers; because of its reputation many ascents are clandestine. This saddens me as the grounds where Upper
Park is situated are beautiful and ideally the estate should open the hill up,
even if only for selected weekends where ascents could be managed.
Realising that an ascent
of this hill is frowned upon by the estate I waited my time, as the high point
is in a deciduous wood surveying this hill would have to wait for the winter
months when lack of leaf coverage on trees would enable a greater opportunity
for satellite reception, I also wanted to visit the hill early on a Sunday
morning, hopefully when few in the estate were working, there were other
periphery ideals such as clear visibility and little wind. The forecast for the 7th January
was ideal and I packed all necessary gear having noted all grid references.
I locked my front door
and quietly walked up the road at 7.10am, I’d had a fitful night’s sleep and
felt as if I was coming down with the dreaded lurgy, so my pace was slow and
plodding.
I’d visited Upper Park
twice before, and had wanted to re-visit the hill via its north-east ridge,
this ridge heads toward the summit from the confines of the Maes Gwastad
cemetery. As I left the cemetery through
a small wooden gate giving access to open hillside the conditions were
perfect. All I could hear was the
crispness of touch as my wellies slowly plodded upward across a frost encrusted
and steepening field, across the valley Cefn Digoll stretched northward as the
first glimmer of orange hue materialised beyond its high point.
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| Heading to the top of Maes Gwastad |
I knew I wasn’t feeling
good as all I could hear when breathing was a rattling wheeziness from my chest
which sounded like an old bubbling dysfunctional radiator. At the top of Maes Gwastad I entered Lloyd’s
Bank wood to pay my respects to my father as when a child he lived in Park
Cottage, with his father then a gamekeeper at the estate, the cottage is now no
more than a forgotten ruin, I still find it amazing that my dad once lived
there, it is also where I scattered a part of my father’s ashes.
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| Somewhat unwelcoming |
The access to the higher
part of Upper Park was via a wooded track, I’d visited the gate giving this
access a few weeks ago when wandering the park in stunning snow
conditions. Once on the track in the
wood I thought I probably wouldn’t encounter any estate workings, and I wanted
to reach this point before sunrise.
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| The gate giving access to the wood and muddied track that leads to the summit |
The wood proved
beautiful, I slowly plodded on the muddied track with occasional bird call and
stillness pervading, and everything seemed at peace. The sun crested the high point of Cefn Digoll
and cast its spell through the mature trees, its rays dancing as I made slow
progress up the hill.
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| In the wood |
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| Sunrise |
I broke out of the
wooded confines beside Umbrella Wood and the Dark Nursery, names given two of
the many plantations in the park.
Rounding what I was later told was referred to as Windy Corner I had my
first view of Crown Wood; it is this wood where the summit of Upper Park is
situated.
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| Approaching Windy Corner |
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| Crown Wood where the summit of Upper Park is situated |
The continuation of the
track from the forestry headed toward the wood and within a few minutes I’d assessed
the lay of land and assembled the tripod and attached the Trimble. I’d brought the tripod as this gives over a
metre elevation when compared to approximately 0.44m when the Trimble is set up
on my rucksack, it also looks much sexier.
As I patiently waited
for the 0.1m accuracy level to be attained before data should be logged the
north-easterly breeze chilled my fingers, it took about ten minutes for the
accuracy level to be attained and once the 0.1m mark showed on the screen I
pressed ‘Log’ and wandered back to stand behind one of the mature trees on the
leeward side out of the chilled breeze.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Upper Park |
It was beautiful in the
wood, very peaceful, with winter colour highlighting the trees, just below the
wood is the renovated old summer house of Lady Powis and beyond is the Breiddin,
again all was quiet as I took a few photos and waited for data to be gathered.
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| Lady Powis' old summer house |
I decided to gather ten
minutes of data and therefore occasionally left my sheltered position next to
the mature tree and wandered in the wood, when it was time to store the data
and close the Trimble down it felt as if I should stay in the wood and immerse
myself in its beauty and peacefulness, but other surveys were planned.
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| The Trimble set-up position at the summit of Upper Park |
I next wanted to gather
a data set at the high point of the adjacent field where the Ordnance Survey 352m
spot height appears on the 1:25,000 Explorer map, it took a relatively long
time for the Trimble to attain the desired accuracy level before I pressed
‘Log’, once it was beeping away gathering its individual data points I stood
beside a fence next to a felled tree that gave a little protection against the
chilled breeze.
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| Gathering data at the high point of the field where the 352m spot height appears on Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer maps |
My next port of call was
the summit of Cromwell Hill which is the adjacent P30 to Upper Park, on the way
I passed over its critical bwlch and quickly assessed the land for the return
journey. The summit of Cromwell Hill is
a few metres north-east of a small covered reservoir and as the Trimble
gathered five minutes of data I looked out toward the snow bound Aran and
Berwyn.
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| Cromwell Hill (SJ 182 048) |
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| Gathering data at the summit of Cromwell Hill |
Retracing my steps to
the bwlch I quickly assembled the Trimble atop my rucksack and gathered another
five minute data set, I now wanted to visit Pan-y-parc which is the large house
situated just under the bwlch between these two hills. Within a couple of minutes of knocking on the
door Tara had invited me in and I was sitting supping a large mug of tea – pure
bliss! I seldom get the opportunity to
have a mug of tea whilst on a hill walk and if one is ever offered it’s hard to
resist.
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| Gathering data at the critical bwlch of Cromwell Hill |
Tara and her husband are
local to the area but unfortunately could not help with names for the two
hills, although she did tell me that the open hillside between what is named as
the Dark Nursery and Crown Wood on the map is known as Windy Corner.
It was good to meet and
talk with Tara, and she kindly directed me toward the forested track that would
take me all the way down toward Powis Castle.
By the time I reached the castle I felt exhausted, my chest rattled and
I’d developed a stinging cough, I sat on a park bench and tried to recover with
a club biscuit sandwich!
It was a slow walk back
through Welshpool toward the canal tow path and my bungalow, once home I
ditched the tripod and external antenna and jumped in my car and drove to Castle
Caereinion, and sauntered up the road to a public footpath sign that gave
access to a series of relatively flat and large waterlogged fields where the critical
bwlch of Upper Park is positioned.
I’d come prepared with a
number of ten figure grid references where contour interpolation suggests the
critical point may lie. I took four data
sets in all and ended up on a track leading to Pen-y-bryn farm.
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| One of four data sets taken for the position of the critical bwlch of Upper Park |
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| Gathering data at the critical bwlch of Upper Park |
When at the farm I
chatted with Steve Smith who was out in the farm yard, Steve proved very
helpful and as ever with the farming community was only too pleased to impart
the knowledge he has built up in relation to place-names.
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| Steve Smith |
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| Upper Park (centre of photo behind trees) and Cromwell Hill on the right |
It had been a magical
day on the hill and Upper Park had finally been surveyed, I headed home happy
in this knowledge and then spent the best part of the next three days in bed
feeling completely washed out as the dreaded lurgy got the better of me.
Survey Result:
Upper Park
Bwlch Height: 177.0m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SJ 16792 05090
Drop: 177.0m
Dominance: 49.99% (Lesser Dominant status retained)
Summit Height: 343.2m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 18222 04885
Bwlch Height: 303.8m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SJ 18565 05114
Drop: 39.3m
Dominance: 11.47%
