26.02.14 Mynydd
Eglwyseg (SJ 231 464) and Pt. 452.4m (SJ 229 443)
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| Mynydd Eglwyseg (SJ 231 464) |
The beauty of light and colour,
days on the hill can sometimes give unexpected moments when radiantly rich
colour is back dropped by luxuriant grey where the deepness of colour makes you
marvel. Today was one of those days.
The forecast predicted an
occasional rogue shower in the afternoon, but as it sounded as if it was going
to be mainly dry I packed the Trimble and headed off for Mynydd Eglwyseg (SJ
231 464), the only Dewey in the Bryniau Clwyd that I hadn’t visited for a
second time.
Google Maps had indicated that
a number of ‘passing places’ are situated on the narrow road north of
Llangollen as it makes its way towards the World’s End (that must sound rather
dramatic for those that don’t know the area).
I chose one ‘passing place’ to park in that had another within a hundred
metres or so, hoping that by doing so any cars meeting one another could easily
reverse to the next ‘passing place’.
To the east of this narrow road
are Creigiau Eglwyseg, this is a fortress of limestone cliffs with few indents
for the walker. One way through is
indicated on the OS 1:25,000 map as a black dotted line heading directly east
from just below the house of Bryn Goleu (SJ 219 454). I’d wanted to investigate this path for many
years and by combining the summit of Mynydd Eglwyseg with that of the hill
situated at SJ 229 443 it would give an alternate descent route down through
another stream gully at SJ 225 441.
I made my way up beside the stream
above Bryn Goleu on a good path that gained height quickly. Above were terraced blocks of limestone
cliffs which are a favourite haunt for the rock climber but are out of bounds
during nesting times. I’d only visited
this hill once before with Huw in September 2002, when we did an extended two
car walk over all the 500m hills from Moel Morfudd (SJ 159 457). My memory was of a torturous heather bound
pathless hill, it hasn’t changed in the intervening years.
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| The upper part of the stream gully above the house of Bryn Goleu |
Once above the cliffs the
scenery changed from dramatic to wild as the vertical limestone had been
replaced by miles of undulating almost featureless heather. One or two sheep tracks made their way in to
the morass; fortunately I found what looked like the remains of a vehicle track
that contoured around the hillside. This
gave good progress until the time I had to leave it and strike out for the high
point. A few minutes of stumbling
heather bashing brought me to the summit, this consists of a domed bit of land,
almost certainly an ancient tumulus that is heather free and has the start of a
small cairn on it. The Trimble was set
up and wedged in place with a couple of small rocks and I busied myself noting
how many satellites had been locked onto, the margin of uncertainty associated
with its placement, the time the equipment had started to gather data, what
terrain constituted the summit, the hill name, was it the summit or the bwlch
and how long the data collection was going to be for. This procedure is followed for every survey –
oh the joys of hill walking! Mind you
that Barnard chap really goes to town when the G&J team are out on a
survey, he catalogues everything that moves, and also many things that don’t!
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| The view north from the summit of Mynydd Eglwyseg |
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| The view south from the summit of Mynydd Eglwyseg |
As the Trimble was reaching its
allocated ten minutes of data collection the hills to the south started to
disappear behind a grey winter shower which was heading my way. I quickly packed the Trimble away and as the
first rain drops drove in I donned waterproofs and continued on the small path
that connects the upper ridge of this hill.
I soon came across snares that had been laid across the path. These had been pre-warned as I’d looked on
the Hill Bagging website the night before and Douglas Law had posted ‘Watch out for snares’ on his visit
dated 17.09.12. This is the first time I’ve
ever come across any snare on a hill in Wales, there were three or four of
them, all positioned immediately next to or on the small path itself. I pity the animal that is caught in one and
also the person who laid them.
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| One of a series of snares on the path just below the summit of Mynydd Eglwyseg |
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| An unwanted addition to the hillside, a snare on the path just below the summit of Mynydd Eglwyseg |
After the shower whizzed
off to the north the downhill heather stomp began. Soon I was deposited next to a fence with a
lovely green field in front of me, oh the beauty of green fields! I decided to keep to the heather for another
five minutes as a small path was leading me to the start of a stream gully,
when this was reached I turned 180º and marched up in
to the field and followed the valley to valley direction of the land until it
met the hill to hill direction of the land.
This turned out to be beside an ancient stone circle which is marked as
a Cairn on the map. This is also next to
a minute contour ring on the OS map that implies that there is a hummock hereabouts;
it turned out to be a sink hole. The
Trimble was set up at the spot I judged to be the critical bwlch and gathered
11 minutes of data. This is the bwlch
for the next hill I was heading toward, if having a minimum of 20m of drop it
would enter the ranks of Sub-Pedwar hills, it currently has an estimated drop
of c 19m.
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Pt. 452.4m (SJ 229 443) a new Sub-Pedwar
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| The stone circle (SJ 228 451) at the bwlch of Pt. 452.4m |
From here to the summit of the next hill was all on close cropped
grass – yummy! This hill’s name is given
the Pt. notation as we have found no appropriate name for it. It’s crowned by a fairly large cairn. The Trimble was set up on an embedded rock
next to the cairn which I judged to be the highest ‘natural’ ground of the
hill. During this time another shower
was pushing north, by the time the Trimble had achieved its required 0.1m of
accuracy before pushing ‘Log’ to start data gathering, the sky was turning a
luxuriant dark grey, the deepness of colour almost reached black, one of those
colours that you just want to dive in to and immerse yourself in. I stood and watched as a rainbow cast itself
over the cairn and the dark heather of Mynydd Eglwyseg. It was all rather scrumptious!
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The dark heather of Mynydd Eglwyseg
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| The Trimble GeoXH 6000 at the summit of Pt. 452.4m (SJ 229 443) |
Once the Trimble was packed away I headed due west and found a good
path that descended steeply past a small rock strewn waterfall. I slithered down on my backside as the rock
was slippy and only got up when feeling safe to do so, this didn’t help as within
a few seconds I went flying as vibram soled boot touched something it didn’t
like and deposited me beside the water.
Thankfully rounded stomachs can sometimes be an advantage and it seems
that this time the impact was cushioned somewhat. Soon the steep path led down beside bushes of
gorse to the narrow lane and after a further ten minute walk I was back at the
car. An excellent little circuit.
Survey Result:
Mynydd Eglwyseg
Summit Height: 512.1m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 23158 46420 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 424.2m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SJ 23479 49574 (LIDAR)
Drop: 87.9m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Dominance: 17.17% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)
Pt. 452.4m
Summit Height: 452.4m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 22903 44310
Bwlch Height: 429.9m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SJ 22811 45134
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