25.05.23 Esgair Llwyn Gwyn (SN 885 790)
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| Esgair Llwyn Gwyn (SN 885 790) |
Out with Mark Trengove
today visiting a Pedwar to the west of Llangurig, which is one of only a few
Pedwarau in the northern part of Mid Wales that I had until today not visited.
For me it was a
relatively late start as it was past 3.00pm when we set off from the car park
on the southern periphery of the small village of Llangurig. The predicted high cloud soon pushed in over
the land, the hills remained clear, but the dry heat of recent days was now
replaced with mugginess.
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| Llangurig |
Our route followed the
course of the Afon Gwy (River Wye) on its southern bank for a few minutes
before the bridleway leading up the eastern ridge of Esgair Llwyn Gwyn veered
south-westward and gradually gained height.
Except for a few people walking beside the river the only other people
we saw during the afternoon were a couple descending the ridge close to Llwyn-gwyn
farm who were doing a part of the long distance Wye Valley Walk. We stopped and chatted for a few minutes
before continuing uphill.
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| Mark heading toward Llwyn-gwyn farm |
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| The outskirts of Llwyn-gwyn farm |
Nearing the summit of
Esgair Llwyn Gwyn the manicured green of grazing fields gave way to the reed grass
and moorland surrounds of the upper hill.
We were soon on the summit wandering around trying to discern its
highest point for Trimble placement; LIDAR analysis give three summit positions
of equal height, all within a few metres of one another. Having chosen the spot for Trimble placement
I set the equipment up to gather data.
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| Nearing the summit |
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| The last bit of uphill |
The summit area of Esgair Llwyn Gwyn consists of patches of rough grass and high reed grass, for such examples I usually prioritise the Trimble result over that of LIDAR, as comparison of results show the latter consistently higher than the former; implying difficulty with the LIDAR model when encountering tussock grass and reed grass.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Esgair Llwyn Gwyn |
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| LIDAR image of Esgair Llwyn Gwyn (SN 885 790) |
During data collection
Mark headed toward a trailer where he happily sat for a bite to eat. I joined him once the Trimble had gathered
and stored data. We chatted and laughed
as I sat on a part of the trailer which made it move similar to a swing, with
the whole thing moving up and down with the slightest movement.
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| Heading down toward the bwlch |
Leaving the summit
surrounds Mark used his hand-held GPS to head down to the connecting bwlch with
the ten figure grid reference produced via LIDAR zeroing us in to the critical
point. However, once we were down near
the bwlch we headed toward where we thought the critical point lay without the
aid of the grid reference produced by LIDAR.
Once there we then consulted the grid reference, we were about 10 metres
away, which proved a good estimate considering the area of the bwlch and its
surrounds.
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| Gathering data at the bwlch of Esgair Llwyn Gwyn |
As I set the Trimble up
atop my rucksack and noted the offset between its internal antenna and the
ground at its base, before creating the file for data collection and once the
0.1m accuracy level was attained before data should be logged, I set it to
gather data and watched as Mark headed through the reed infested mayhem of the
bwlch toward a lone small tree before hopefully continuing toward what we
planned as our descent route via the Pant Gwyn Hill ridge. As Mark headed in the direction of greener
ground and our path leading to the ridge he veered leftward and continued down
through the tussock laden bog of the bwlch.
I wondered what he was doing, and only found the reason for this once I
had packed the equipment away and stumbled my way through the tussocks and bog
down toward him.
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| Through the bog |
The reason for
continuing down through the bog instead of heading toward our planned path and
descent route was one of a barb wired fence.
These pests are getting harder to cross as I am getting older. The older fences I can stride over, but the
newer taunt ones require climbing, which nowadays I do not enjoy. Mark now has a pair of dodgy knees and barb
wired fences are something to definitely avoid and I’m afraid one of these
stretched across our planned onward route and necessitated a diversion down
through copious amounts of reed infested bog.
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| The expanse of bog and rough ground at the bwlch |
Eventually the bog was
overcome and we reached drier and easier ground. As Mark headed up to a section of collapsed fence,
I continued to contour using what looked like an old water course, this headed
toward a wood which gave variety to our unplanned descent route. We met at the far side of the wood.
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| Looking back toward the bog from just within the wood |
All that now remained
was a slow wander back in the early evening light down our inward route past
the farm of Llwyn-gwyn and the continuation of the track beside the river and
the small section on the minor road leading to the car on the outskirts of
Llangurig.
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| Nearing the end of the walk |
We rounded the day off
with an excellent meal in The Raven in Welshpool, which gave a welcome last
couple of hours to enjoy good food and continued good conversation; it proved a
fine way to end an excellent day.
Survey Result:
Esgair Llwyn Gwyn
Summit Height: 435.9m (converted to OSGM15) (significant height revision)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 88577 79070
Bwlch Height: 402.3m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 88120 78849
Drop: 33.6m
Dominance: 7.71%
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet
