22.10.20 Pen Felin Wynt (SN 725 759) and Banc (SN 721 762)
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Pen Felin Wynt (SN 725 759)
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It was 12.20pm when I
arrived at my designated parking place to visit Pen Felin Wynt and Banc. My first walk of the day had started at just
past 8.00am and after visiting these two hills I had one more hill and walk
planned; Banc Cwmnewydion (SN 718 749).
In all there were seven hills on my day’s bagging agenda consisting of
six walks, and this walk was the only one where there was more than one hill to
visit. Each had been analysed via LIDAR
beforehand and the ten figure grid references produced helped in both height
and position for each summit and bwlch.
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LIDAR image of Banc (SN 721 762) and Pen Felin Wynt (SN 725 759)
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There’s a certain joy in
visiting one small heighted hill after another, and doing so by driving between
each. However, many of the hills I would
visit today could be easily combined in a circular walk. The latter gives much greater appreciation of
the land, whilst the former can be more convenient and at the end of the day
usually gives a greater quantity of hills bagged. There’s joy in each approach, but an extended
circular walk combining such hills usually gives greater fulfillment.
By the time I left my
car and followed a public footpath which is also a paved narrow road leading past
a small disused quarry toward Pen Felin Wynt, the forecast afternoon sunshine
had broken through the stubborn high grey cloud and flashes of colour
highlighted the adjoining hillsides.
The road led past a
number of small houses, all squeezed in to the land, quietly sitting beside the
narrow strip of tarmac. I found this
whole area reminiscent of parts of Ireland with a quiet and relaxed feeling to it. From the end house another footpath is marked
on the map supposedly marching up the hillside and heading toward the bwlch
between Pen Felin Wynt and Banc. If the
footpath still exists on the ground I lost it almost immediately and spent the
time negotiating high barb wired fences and locked gates.
Arriving at the bwlch
the western slopes of Pen Felin Wynt reared up grassed and steep. A track passes over the bwlch and this would
give me an easy approach toward the second hill of the walk; Banc, but before
this I plodded up the steep slope toward the high point of the day; the summit
of Pen Felin Wynt.
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Banc from the ascent of Pen Felin Wynt
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Not surprisingly, this
hill had been picked out from many other summits during the day’s previous
walks, and arriving at its high point I was met by a quick scud of a breeze-blown
shower. Its high point was easy to
determine and within a couple of minutes the Trimble was set-up gathering data.
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Gathering data at the summit of Pen Felin Wynt
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During data collection I
turned my back to the breeze and scribbled all necessary surveying detail in my
notebook. To the south Llyn Frongoch
gave an attractive foreground and framed the grassed summit of Banc
Cwmnewydion, this hill looked tantalisingly near and yet would have to wait for
another 90 minutes until I was at its summit.
By the time the allotted
data were gathered and stored the shower had passed and sunshine heralded a
feeling of contentment. I closed the
equipment down, packed it away and retraced my steps back down the steep
grassed slope to the track at the bwlch.
This gave easy walking toward Banc with autumnal colour highlighting
patches of hillside, whilst others remained embedded in dark shadow. This caused dramatic effect and I stopped to
enjoy the scene and take photographs. At
this point I met a local runner who was out on the hill. We stopped and chatted for a number of
minutes and she told me of some of the places she visits. Outside of two local farmers who I had talked
with, and a young woman who answered a door when I made place-name enquiries, she
was the only other person I met when on the hill during the day and the
conversation was welcome.
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The track leading to Banc, with Pen Felin Wynt in the background
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A mast dominates the
summit area of Banc, but thankfully its high point is in a different field to
the compound surrounding it. I was soon
at the hill’s high point and the Trimble was again set-up and gathering its
allotted data.
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Gathering data at the summit of Banc
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Once data were gathered
and stored it was only a short walk on the continuation of the track down from
the summit of Banc to the narrow lane that led in a few minutes back to my
car. The walk had taken 1 hour 40
minutes and was the longest of the six I would do during the day. One hill now remained before I headed home
for Wales’ second Covid-19 lockdown.
Survey Result:
Pen Felin Wynt
Summit Height: 373.2m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 72558 75970 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 251.2m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 73402 76225 (LIDAR)
Drop: 122.0m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch)
Dominance: 32.69% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch)
Banc (significant name change)
Summit Height: 350.9m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH
6000) (significant height revision)
Summit Grid Reference: SN 72127 76209 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 329.1m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SN 72361 75991 (LIDAR)
Drop: 21.7m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch) (Sub-Trichant addition)
Dominance: 6.20% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch)
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet
