12.03.16
Pen Crwn (SN 963 736), Cefn Penlan (SN 952 755), Drysgol (SN 946 744),
Bryn Titli (SN 933 757), Garreg y Noddfa (SN 930 761), Garreg Lwyd (SN 942 733),
Mynydd Perthi (SN 953 727) and Yr Wylorn (SN 959 724)
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| Bryn Titli (SN 933 757) |
When contacting people
in regard to the Table of Progress for Y Pedwarau I struck up email
conversation with a number of people, one being Fergal Hingerty. Fergal is a native Irishman who now resides
in Bristol with many if not all of his weekends spent bagging hills.
Fergal’s hill bagging
story is a remarkable one as he was diagnosed with advanced stage one of spinal
degeneration which left him with the prospect of life in a wheelchair. After undergoing a 9½ hour
operation and months of rehab he is now walking the hills and is quickly
amassing his Pedwar total. An invite to
join him on a walk was not to be missed.
We met just to the north
of Rhaeadr Gwy (Rhayader) and parked our cars farther up the minor road that
makes its way to St Harmon. The circuit
we had planned was a horseshoe walk around the valley that encloses the
Marcheini Fawr stream.
As we ascended a muddy
track toward the summit of our first hill of the day; Pen Crwn, the overhead
conditions of grey skies with a steak of early morning brightness gave the
prospect that the cloud would break and give us welcome sunshine.
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| Fergal nearing the summit of Pen Crwn |
The summit of Pen Crwn
comprises moor grass and as the Trimble gathered its customary five minutes of
data we stood and chatted and considered the route ahead. Initially this was following the hill’s broad
northern ridge which gave us heathery and boggy conditions until easier grass
was found which took us down to the hill’s bwlch.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Pen Crwn |
After surveying the
bwlch the first light specks of drizzle closed in on us from the north,
although only light the drizzly conditions then stayed with us for the rest of
the walk. After packing the Trimble away
we continued to the top of Cefn Penlan which is listed as a Sub-Pedwar with an estimated c
24m of drop. This wasn’t a hill on our
planned route but as the conifer plantation at its summit had been felled, it
seemed wise to visit its highest point and gather another data set with the
Trimble.
As the Trimble gathered
data we considered our route toward the summit of Drysgol, between us and it
was a morass of tussock grass and bog, we opted for a route straight through
the tussocks and aiming for a green track that contours this hill’s northern
slopes. Although the going was rough it
was not prolonged and soon we were on the green track and heading toward the
high point of Drysgol which is immersed in deep heather.
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| Gathering data on the summit area of Cefn Penlan |
As Fergal wanted to
visit as many Pedwarau as he could during the day, he decided that as I
continued surveying each summit and bylchau on my way to the top of Garreg y Noddfa, he would head north to the summit of Craig Gelli Dywyll (SN 951 763) on
a there and back walk and catch up with me on the continuing track through the
wind turbines that predominate the central part of our planned route. This was estimated to take an hour; therefore
we made our way through the continuing tussocks, heather and bog toward a fence
junction where I headed north-west and Fergal headed north. Off he went, leaving me to survey the
critical bwlch of Drysgol which I’d wanted to do ever since getting the
Trimble. I’d estimated this hill’s drop
as 102ft (31.1m) from a basic levelling survey that I’d conducted of the bwlch
on the 13th May 2005, and ever since I’d always wondered if this
hill had sufficient drop to be included in the main Pedwar list.
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| Gathering data on the summit area of Drysgol |
The bwlch consists of
more tussocks and is placed to the north-west of where a 457m spot height
appears on current Ordnance Survey maps.
It’ll be interesting to see if Drysgol retains its Pedwar status, I for
one hope it does, as its summit is isolated from the other hills we planned on
visiting during the day’s walk and gives good views and is undisturbed by the
wind turbines that scatter themselves across the next bit of land I now headed
toward.
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| Gathering data on the bwlch area of Drysgol |
As I arrived at the high
point of Bryn Titli, which is listed as having 19m of drop and therefore only
one metre below Sub-Pedwar status, I looked out into the gloom and spotted
Fergal as a small black dot on the summit of Craig Gelli Dywyll. By the time I’d positioned the Trimble on top
of my rucksack to give it elevation above its moorland surrounds he was making
his way back from the summit.
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| The view from Bryn Titli of the heather bound summit of Drysgol |
I quickly made my way
down to another bog which constitutes the area of the bwlch of Bryn Titli, and
stood on tussock grass just above patches of shallow water as the Trimble
gathered another five minutes of data.
Next stop; the summit of Garreg y Noddfa, which I’d previously surveyed
with John and Graham in February 2009, its high point is on grass on the
northern edge of the track that continues its way south between the turbines
that are scattered across this part of land.
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| Gathering data on the the summit area of Garreg y Noddfa |
By the time I’d packed
the Trimble away Fergal had appeared and quickly caught up with me, it had been
just over an hour since he had headed off to bag Craig Gelli Dywyll. The grey conditions were now set for the rest
of the afternoon and the light drizzle continued to fall from a dead pan grey
sky that had descended over some of the higher 500m peaks to our west.
We now had another six
surveys ahead of us, with the first being in another expansive bog and which constitutes
the bwlch of Garreg y Noddfa. Fergal
wisely waited on the gravelled track as I stood in my wellies in water waiting
for the Trimble to do its stuff.
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| Another expansive bog, this one is the bwlch of Garreg y Noddfa |
Beyond this bwlch lay
the highest summit of the day; Garreg Lwyd, which was another hill I’d surveyed
with John and Graham in February 2009.
Its high point is on grass next to a few flat stones which constitute
the semblance of a tiny cairn. By now
the grey conditions had closed in and rain showers slowly ebbed down
surrounding valleys, but it was never wet enough for me to put my Goretex
jacket on and I continued in the hope of trying to keep my camera and surveying
gear relatively dry.
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| Fergal at the summit of Garreg Lwyd |
Only two hills remained,
Mynydd Perthi which is a Sub-Pedwar listed with 26m of drop and the higher Yr
Wylorn which is listed as a Pedwar with 56m of drop. The grassy eastern slopes of Garreg Lwyd took
us down to the next connecting bwlch which is the critical one for Yr
Wylorn.
This bwlch has a grassed
ditch and small raised embankment crossing it and therefore its critical point proved
difficult to judge. After collecting
data we proceeded to the summit of Mynydd Perthi. As the Trimble gathered data from this summit
I stood with my back to the drizzle which was developing into rain and waited
patiently for another data set to be stored.
During the day Fergal and I chatted about a number of things and I
thanked him for being patient, as it isn’t everyone who would wait in grey
drizzly conditions whilst the Trimble recorded all the data sets during the
day, he did so without complaint.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Mynydd Perthi |
On our way to the summit
of our last hill of the day; Yr Wylorn I quickly set the Trimble up on the
connecting bwlch which is the critical one for Mynydd Perthi, and gathered five
minutes of data. The fourteenth and last
data set of the day was on the heathery summit of Yr Wylorn and once the equipment
was closed down and packed away we headed down toward the bwlch and connected
up with a green track that brought us back to my car.
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| The fourteenth and last data set of the day at the summit of Yr Wylorn |
It proved a good day on
the hill with Fergal and as I switched my car radio on to listen to the
uncomfortable goings on at Twickenham, Fergal zoomed off in pursuit of another
Pedwar to add to his growing number.
Postscript:
Since the survey of 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 for some of these hills being
prioritised in
preference to that produced by the Trimble GeoXH 6000.
Survey Result:
Summit Height: 486.7m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 96320 73629
Bwlch Height: 434.7m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 95566 75036
Drop: 52.0m
Dominance: 10.69%
Cefn Penlan
Summit Height: 481.6m (LIDAR)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 95223 75555 & SN 95230 75553 (LIDAR)
Bwlch Height: 458.3m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 94615 75528 (LIDAR)
Drop: 23.2m (LIDAR)
Dominance: 4.82% (LIDAR)
Drysgol
Summit Height: 483.7m (converted to OSGM15, from subsequent Leica GS15 survey)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 94626 74408 (from subsequent Leica GS15 survey)
Bwlch Height: 454.3m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 93907 75683 (LIDAR)
Bryn Titli
Summit Height: 492.7m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 93383 75719 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 472.7m (converted to OSGM15, height relative to Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 93192 76017 (LIDAR)
Dominance: 4.06% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR with height relative to Trimble GeoXH 6000 bwlch)
Summit Height: 495.7m (converted to OSGM15) (from previous Leica 530 survey)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 93038 76169 (from previous Leica 530 survey)
Bwlch Height: 436.8m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 93726 74215 (LIDAR)
Drop: 58.8m (Leica 530 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Dominance: 11.87% (Leica 530 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Garreg Lwyd
Summit Height: 498.1m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000) 498.1m (converted to OSGM15, from previous Leica 530 survey)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 94214 73326 (Trimble GeoXH 6000 & Leica 530)
Bwlch Height: 293.35m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 98249 75097 (LIDAR)
Drop: 204.8m (Leica 530 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Dominance: 41.11% (Leica 530 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Mynydd Perthi
Summit Height: 457.0m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 95321 72719 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 430.5m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 95572 72577 (LIDAR)
Dominance: 5.80% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Yr Wylorn
Summit Height: 473.8m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 95990 72409 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 418.8m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 95208 73205 (LIDAR)
Drop: 55.0m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Dominance: 11.60% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
For further details please
consult the Trimble survey spreadsheet click {here}
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