22.04.21 Rhos Crug (SO 167 743), Pool Hill (SO 177
753), Cnwch Bank (SO 178 746), Pt. 487.8m (SO 184
751), Beacon Hill (SO 176 767) and Stanky Hill (SO 163 764)
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| Beacon Hill (SO 176 767) |
Seasonal change can bring beauty to the hills,
be it the greens and warmth of summer merging to autumn’s chilled morning’s and
coloured display or this then turning in to the deadened winter months. The merging in to spring is always welcome when
that first seasonal warmth heralds new growth and when walking in the hills winter
gear is dispensed in preference for short sleeved tops and shorts. Although winter can bring magical days when
new crisply laden snow is almost ethereal in nature, its passing in to spring
brings radiance with longer daylight hours and the strengthening of the
sun. And today, with ever present blue
skies above, welcome warmth offset by a cooling breeze and the constant
background sound of serenading Skylarks, there were few other places that I
would prefer to be other than on the Radnorshire hills.
The higher Radnorshire hills are moorland in
nature, with heather and rough grass dominating. However, many of these hills have good tracks
and paths leading between them and in many instances to their summits. They are in the main open hills, with few
fences enclosing their land. And with
that ever present song of Skylarks chirping against a brisk early morning
breeze with an unadulterated blue sky above and no one else on the hill; today I
could not imagine any other place so welcoming and giving tranquillity and peace
of mind.
Today I had a circuit of six hills planned, with
each summit and many of their connecting bylchau to survey. I’d visited four of these hills before, but
not as a combined walk. The highest;
Beacon Hill I had last visited in 2005, and prior to this only once before in
2000.
I was parked to the west of my first hill of the
day; Rhos Crug, and walking up the narrow lane leading north by 8.20am. Rhos Crug is easily identified from its
surrounding hills as it has the remains of two distinctive ancient tumuli on
the area of its summit, and as I walked up the lane these and the hill they are
a part of rose above the valley and the River Aran which gently flowed down valley
below me. I soon headed down to the
river, which at this point is no more than a stream and found a crossing place
before quietly making my way up through pastured fields where lambs scampered
in the early morning sunshine.
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| Looking toward Fforest Glud from the ascent of Rhos Crug |
The pastured fields gave way at a fence boundary
to the upper part of the hill where a good track follows the western ridge of
Rhos Crug ever upward toward its high point, only merging to a narrower path
near its summit. I made good progress
toward the summit with its high point the top of the westerly tumulus and soon after
arriving the Trimble was set up gathering data.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Rhos Crug |
During data collection I stood below the tumulus
and looked out on the moorland surrounds and wondered how much of my onward
route would be through rough grass and heather.
I also picked out the next two survey points, each a contender for this
hill’s bwlch position and after the Trimble had gathered its allotted summit data
I sauntered back down the narrow path toward a dried pool which constitutes one
of the potential bwlch positions.
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| Gathering data at the first of two positions surveyed for the bwlch of Rhos Crug |
Having gathered the allotted data beside the
dried up pool I wandered over grass and between clumps of heather to the
continuation of the ridge that connects Rhos Crug with its higher neighbours of
Pool Hill and Beacon Hill. This route
now consisted of what for these hills is one of the main earthen tracks. The second point surveyed for the bwlch
position of Rhos Crug was just to the south of this rack. Progress was being made but there were still
many summits and bylchau to survey.
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| Gathering data at the second of two positions surveyed for the bwlch of Rhos Crug |
My next objective was the summit of Pool Hill
which from this direction looked a bulk of a moorland hill with little weakness,
with it protected by moor grass and heather, but again one of the beauty of
these hills are the tracks and paths leading from one to another, and
approaching the summit of Pool Hill from the direction of Rhos Crug was a
relatively easy affair.
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| Rhos Crug and the source of the River Lugg |
The summit of Pool Hill consists of a large
patch of closely cropped grass which is at contrast with its moorland
surrounds. The Trimble was soon set up
gathering data. During data collection I
basked in the morning sunshine and looked back on my inward route and that of the
route ahead.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Pool Hill |
My next two hills lay in the opposite direction
to the main continuation of this walk toward Beacon Hill, one lay directly to
the south of the summit of Pool Hill and the other toward the east, both are
listed as 400m Sub-Pedwar hills and I had not visited either.
The route down from Pool Hill toward the bwlch
connecting with the first of these two hills; the 499m map heighted Cnwch Bank
could easily have been rough, but it wasn’t.
Tracks, paths and moor grass led between the heathered slopes down to the
connecting bwlch. The area of the bwlch after
prolonged rain would no doubt be an uninviting boggy realm, but today the moor grass
was crisp and dry. The land hereabouts
is quite wild, although it does have another one of the arterial routes between
these hills crossing over it.
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| Gathering data at the bwlch of Cnwch Bank |
The bwlch and summit of Cnwch Bank had
previously been LIDARed by Aled. I had
for many years wanted to visit this hill as its map height is a tantalising 1m
below the 500m height and today after surveying its bwlch I followed sheep
paths up its heathered slopes to its summit.
The connection between Pool Hill and Cnwch Bank
was the roughest underfoot conditions I experienced during the day, but this
was never difficult. The ground was dry
and the moor grass crisp and the going relatively easy.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Cnwch Bank |
Once summit data were gathered and stored I left
Cnwch Bank and retraced my route back to its connecting bwlch and followed the
path north-eastward toward the next bwlch that connects with the second 400m
Sub-Pedwar, which remains unnamed on the map.
As I crossed the bwlch I quickly assessed the lay of land and decided to
press on to its summit, leaving the bwlch survey for my return.
The summit of this hill was relatively easy to
pinpoint and as the Trimble gathered data I watched a tractor chug up the track
leading to Beacon Lodge, which is positioned close to a conifer plantation
taking in much of the southerly domain of this hill. The tractor disappeared around a corner and
that was the only other human movement I saw on these hills during the day. I always find meeting a fellow hill walker welcome
when on the hill, even if only a wave of recognition is given, it is an
acknowledgement toward someone of like mind, greetings and conversation are
again always welcome, but it is also a pleasure to be on a hill and not meet or
see another person, this form of fleeting solitude brings a perverse sense of contentedness
and comfort.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Pt. 487.8m (SO 184 751) |
I was soon back at the connecting bwlch and
having picked my preferred position for its critical point I set the Trimble up
and listened as it quietly beeped away collecting its individual datum
points. This bwlch is placed close to
another one of the main tracks that head through these hills, but whereas the
tracks from earlier in the walk were earthen and green, this one was gravelled
and its route was easy to follow as it meandered above the upper reaches of
Lawn Brook toward the hill named as Fron Rocks on contemporary Ordnance Survey
maps.
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| Gathering data at the bwlch of Pt. 487.8m (SO 184 751) |
Once the Trimble had gathered and stored the
allotted data I joined the gravelled track and followed it toward the eastern
flank of Beacon Hill, only diverting from it to explore the connecting bwlch of
Pool Hill. I had thoughts that this
bwlch would consist of a large moorland bog, but in reality it was a short walk
on closely cropped grass to another dried up pool. This was the last bwlch survey of the day and
as the Trimble gathered data I sat and looked up at Beacon Hill and marvelled
at the blue sky above, which from this position was now a deeply rich colour.
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| The track leading toward Beacon Hill |
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| Gathering data at the bwlch of Pool Hill |
During much of this walk the song of the Skylark
accompanied me. These little birds are a
delight during spring time. They flutter
and chirp against a blue and radiant sky bringing solace to wearied legs. Whilst sitting on a clump of grass scribbling
all necessary details in my surveying notebook as the Trimble gathered its last
bwlch data set of the day, I looked up and watched one of these little birds as
it sang. Its wings flapped against the
breeze and its song pieced the quiet surrounds and gave such a beautiful
background sound to the day.
I was nearing the end of the walk, but still had
two summit surveys to conduct and having left the connecting bwlch of Pool Hill
I re-joined the gravelled track for a short distance as it began to gain
height, only leaving it in preference for a green track that headed up toward
the summit of Beacon Hill.
Once at the summit I positioned the Trimble on
top of my rucksack with its internal antenna aligned with the highest ground
which is about 1 metre from the base of the triangulation pillar that marks the
summit of Beacon Hill. Then after
measuring the offset to the ground at its base I waited for the 0.1m accuracy
level to be attained before data should be logged and once the equipment was
activated to gather data, I again sat and soaked in my surrounds. It was good to be back on this hill after a
sixteen year interval.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Beacon Hill |
All that remained was the summit survey of
Stanky Hill; which I had surveyed on two previous occasions, once with my old
basic levelling staff and the second with John, Graham and Aled when we
gathered data with the Leica 530 and also line surveyed the hill for drop. This time I wanted to Trimble the summit.
Leaving the summit of Beacon Hill I followed a
good path down to its connecting bwlch with Stanky Hill and then continued up
to the last summit of the day. When we
had gathered data from this summit with the Leica 530 we positioned the equipment
on an area of loose stones close to a small pool. I knew where this position was, but when I
arrived I examined the surrounding land and compared this position to that of a
small grassed hummock that when I stood on its top, was solid. This small grassed hummock was higher than
the position where Leica data had previously been gathered, the grassed hummock
was solid, natural and definitely a part of the hill and therefore it was where
I positioned the Trimble to gather summit data.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Stanky Hill |
Once the allotted data were gathered and stored,
I packed the equipment away and descended the south-westerly slopes of Stanky
Hill, veering eastward to join the main greened path heading down toward
Rhydhir farm.
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| Beacon Hill from the descent of Stanky Hill |
By now the chilled morning breeze had been
replaced by afternoon warmth and by the time I arrived in the farmyard at
Rhydhir I was looking forward to a few minutes rest. This soon turned in to a welcome 20 minutes, as
I met Roy and Mair Wilson and their son; Rhys, a lovely family more than
welcome to give their time to a stranger who had just turned up at their home.
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| Rhys, Mair and Roy Wilson of Rhydhir farm |
Local farmers are usually a hive of information
and we chatted about the hills and their names and also names of lower places,
all around the valley that Roy and Mair call home. It was a delight to meet them at the end of
this walk and having thanked them for their time I headed toward the narrow
paved lane that wound its way back to my car.
Survey Result:
Rhos Crug
Summit Height: 508.9m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 16712 74388
Bwlch Height: 488.5m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 16625 74662
Drop: 20.4m
Dominance: 4.01%
Pool Hill
Summit Height: 514.9m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 17726 75373
Bwlch Height: 450.6m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 17761 76003
Drop: 64.3m
Dominance: 12.48%
Cnwch Bank
Summit Height: 499.2m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 17876 74628
Bwlch Height: 473.6m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 17840 74933
Drop: 25.6m
Dominance: 5.12%
Pt. 487.8m
Summit Height: 487.8m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 18492 75116
Bwlch Height: 465.8m (converted to OSGM15)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 18226 75154
Drop: 22.0m
Dominance: 4.51%
Beacon Hill
Summit Height: 547.6m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 17644 76792
Bwlch Height: 368.0m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 07104 84228 (LIDAR)
Drop: 179.6m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch)
Dominance: 32.80% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch)
Stanky Hill
Summit Height: 506.9m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH
6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 16394 76419 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Bwlch Height: 476.4m (converted to OSGM15, Leica 530)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 16861 76416 (Leica 530)
Drop: 30.5m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and Leica
530 bwlch) (Dewey addition)
Dominance: 6.02% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and Leica
530 bwlch)
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet
