Guilsfield Hill Walkers

A  0700  start from The Oak for 5 early risers, we must be keen.  First stop Llangurig, then south for the Brecon Beacons Mountain Centre near Libanus.  This is an excellent facility with a café, car park toilets etc, plus the food is good.  Here we met a most helpful National Park warden (related to the author! Ed) who pointed us in the right direction to visit the most beautiful and wildlife-rich National Nature Reserve known as Craig Cerrig Gleisiad and Fan Frynach.

0915 and off we go along the common towards Pyllin-brwnt before crossing several ancient meadows, (on the recce 4 weeks earlier these meadows were a mass of colour with every wildflower that was a familiar sight in the countryside pre C1960) breathtaking.  A quick sprint across the A4215, a step over stream and now for the serious business, a reasonably stiff climb for the next couple of hours on open mountain, a real delight to walk on ground that is dry underfoot but has a bit of give in it.

Plenty of pauses on the way up to admire the views back towards Brecon.  Unfortunately approaching the summit of Craig Cerrig Gleisiad we now had persistent rain, but not enough to spoil the day.  Chris spotted an overhanging rock about 10 metres below the cliff edge, we clambered down to the perfect shelter for lunch.  The cliff face is extensive, wild and steep, with panoramic views. Fortunately the rain eased and we spent a pleasant half an hour chatting and keeping an eye out for wildlife before continuing our walk along the cliff top, so many plants, over 500 species recorded.   Chris drew our attention to 2 lichen highlights:- Devil’s Matchstick and Fairy Cups (members of the Cladonia family.)  Having traversed the cliff we now looked down to the A470 where there were cars parked as far as the eye could see and across the valley a continuous line of people plodding up Pen y fan. What a contrast with this side, we met 2 other walkers all day.

Time now to retrace our footsteps for a gentle half hour walk before heading due west to reach the trig point on Foel Frynach.  So far so good, we now headed towards Craig Cwm Du, picking up the faint outline of a footpath that is only marked on early editions of OL12, our intention being to drop down to the hanging valley known as Cwm Du.  To add to our difficulties the heavens opened, however navigation was straightforward, just head for the base of the cliffs to our west and hope for the best.  Oh boy, were we rewarded, Cwm-du is a delight, hanging valleys are rare in the Brecon Beacons and this one is quite simply stunning, narrow sides, fast flowing stream, native wild Welsh Poppies, masses of Purple Saxifrage, too many Stonechats and Linnets to count and young Peregrine Falcons food calling from a nest on the cliff face.  The warden back at the Mountain Centre (related to the author! Ed) had informed us that a temporary village had been built here as a 17C Exmoor set for the film Lorna Doone.

All that remained now was a level, if rather long, walk back along a green lane and minor road to the common where we started.  Fortunately by this time the rain had ceased.  A walk of 10+ miles that will live long in the memory.

Thanks to Len Lewis for leading and for the report.

Another good Annie-walk starting from Tre’r-ddôl, up Cwm Clettwr to the misty tops and back down with a sighting of otters: not to mention plenty of new-born lambs and tiny Welsh Black calves.

We welcomed Annie’s young friends – Kay and Matt – who joined us for the day and Yvonne joined us at Tre’r-ddôl making eight in all. Started walking at 9.30 up a good sunken lane heading generally east passing through some stunning oak woodland coming out on upland grazing with sheep and beef and fine views back towards Aberdyfi. (Not a pedalo in sight!) In bright and warm sunshine we continued east on a fine track with the vast empty hills of northern Ceredigion in front of us. This is a fabulous area and you can have it to yourself at any time of the year. It’s not amazingly high – 400 – 500 M – but a great empty landscape. Len the bird man spotted the first wheatear of the year plus a beautifully singing skylark.

We clambered over a seriously locked gate to face the leaping from rock to rock of the river crossing: most of us got to the other side  reasonably dry. Here we veered north and then north west onto the open hillside and scrambled up onto the ridge and by now the cloud was coming down as was the temperature.  Lunch was declared at the ‘armchairs’ – two arrangements of slabby rocks to make some rather comfy chairs for Kay and Matt. (Pics in the gallery) These are just to the west of Foel Goch on Carn Wen.

From here on it was generally down hill and back into Cwm Clettwr.  This is a nature reserve managed by The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales (Link) and is rich with wild flowers –  violets, wood sorrel, primroses, one or two bluebells just starting to show, wild strawberries in bloom, winter aconite and all sorts of wildlife – worth a visit on its own just to spt the otters – well done Len.  It was then back down the sunken lane and to the cars at Tre’r-ddôl.

As our route home passed the Dyfi Osprey Project we had to stop and have a good look at Glesni and Monty and all the other delights of The Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve, including the Osprey Cafe. Do follow the link to the Live Streaming and  watch, in glorious HD with stereo sound, all the goings on at the Osprey nest.  So a bit of a late depart but a very good day all round.

Thanks to all who came and all who drove.  Pics in the gallery 

Resting Hill Chimney – Snailbeach

Well – did you see it all on Countryfile? (Sunday 8th Jan – Episode 1404 – Shropshire) What a coincidence, Matt Baker leaning on the Gate at Blakemoregate Cottage and talking about the Snailbeach mine.  Go here to have an extensive read about the history of the mine area – scroll down to the bottom of the screen to see many more excellent links.

We assembled at The Oak and who should be in the car park but Charles – a great pleasure to see you again – hope to see more of you, and Maggie, this year. The weather wasn’t looking that promising but six of us set off to Snailbeach, picking up Graham on the way, arriving at about 9.40 with the weather still not making up its mind. We started up towards Lordshill through the old workings and turned off to pass the Engine Shaft building and Resting Hill chimney to break out onto open country above the village.  The views from here were extensive but the weather was slowly  coming in from the south west.  We followed the rather mucky paths up onto the tops at Blakemoregate and started on the ridge walk proper.

The mucky weather started now – thick very wetting drizzle and low cloud – so it was on with the wet gear and on to Shepherd’s Rock.  Here we turned downhill heading to my first intention, the track from The Hollies through to Stiperstones Car park.  But on the recce I found that this was not a good idea –  timber work around the Gatten Plantation had turned parts of the track to slurry – so the path that runs parallel to this and the Stiperstones Ridge was the best alternative.  This was a bit slack in parts, but very much better than the lower path.

We paused for coffee etc at Cranberry Rock and decided to take the ridge path as the return route rather than an alternative that involved a loss of a lot of height (via Black Ditch and the Reservoir Road by Perkins Beach back up to the ridge). We negotiated the rocky ridge and joined the open paths back to Blakemoregate and from here set a route across the Hollies (read about the ancient holly trees here) and past Lordshill Chapel back to Snailbeach.  Have a look for some of the lichens that were showing very red amongst the rocks and heather – Cladonia. The strange circular structure that we saw in the field above Lordshill Chapel is a ‘shaft cap’ – it has a grill on top to let the bats in and out – the one we saw was ‘Paint Shaft’, there are two others in the area: Sheep Shaft and Chapel Shaft. Bird life was not thick on the ground but we did put up a pair of grouse and heard a few others, but the best was on our return to Snailbeach – a peregrine being mobbed by corvids etc over the mine workings. (Len has just informed me that it was not a peregrine but a Goshawk – even better!)

A very good walk for a dry sunny day when you could spend and hour or two poking around the mines.  Pictures here. Thanks to all who came and all who drove.

Other links to Snailbeach Mine information:

Large number of good photos and knowledgeable description here:

A pdf of probably the definitive account of the mines here. (171 pages of excellent stuff)

In Priest Weston – photo by Annie

A damp December day – no rain, but wet leaves, brown rushing streams, skeletal trees and a fleeting low weak sun occasionally easing through the gloom was the order of the day.

Annie led us East out of Chirbury and down into Marrington Dingle then South following the Camlad for a while. Annie was temping us with a ‘…bit of a climb out of the Dingle.‘  When it came it was like the side of a house – and covered in wet leaves. But we all made it, some in better fettle than others, to the top and out into the open fields. We crossed the fields and climbed many very slippery/wobbly stiles and bridges and hove to in the middle of Priest Weston for early elevenses.  Christmas sweeties did the rounds and we set off again heading North West-ish towards a feature called The Ridge.  This involved more wet n wobbly woodwork plus three, or was it four, electric fences in succession – and some cows, but we made it to The Ridge and was very pleased with view that opened out before us.  We plummeted down into the Dingle again and crossed the Camlad at Whittery Bridge.  It was then the final dose of wet n wobbly before we hit the tarmac that led us back to the cars in Chirbury. Just the sort of walk we wanted at this time of the year: not too long, not too far away, not too taxing (except for the side of the house bit!)  Thanks Annie for leading and all who came and all who drove.

Back to The Oak for a bit of a very much delayed (my fault) 2017 progamme planning session.  Got all the date filled and will be putting out a provisional programme shortly.

Don’t forget the Christmas Detox.  28th December, 9.30 from The Oak – Gaer Fawr and round the fields etc and back to Swn y Nant for mince pies and mulled wine stuff.  If you don’t want to walk just turn up at Swn y Nant a bit later and help Jean in the kitchen. 

This was the swap walk between Brian and Graham with Graham leading the Derek’s “Weatherman Walking” route in the Afon Rheidol gorges around Devil’s Bridge. For a detailed description of the route, with picures and background information follow this link to Derek’s page.

Five of us had a cosy drive over the hills and far away to park in the Waterfalls car park for a 9.15 start into a bright day with a chilly east wind. The walking is on mainly good tracks and paths all the way and the first section takes you down across the Vale of Rheidol Railway  and through the most remarkably tall conifers to the banks of the Rheidol. If you want scenery and views this is the walk for you, but take a spare memory card for the camera as everywhere you look is a picture postcard view. We headed North East down the gorge to cross the river by a narrow footbridge to the north bank and into the land of old lead mines. There is a remediation project on-going to prevent the tomato soup coloured mine drainage getting into the river and poisoning things, but nature is taking back much of the spoil with birch, heather and conifers beginning to get established.

The next section takes you through good woodlands and upland grass to a high point at Pant Cerrig and then up the gorge of Afon Tuen to the farm at Penrhiew. It was on this section, and following, that we saw probably in excess of 1000 Redwing flying overhead – not making a sound: also a few Fieldfare showed up to complete the picture. Other sightings – plenty of Red Kite and Buzzard, one Kestral and lots of small birds calling in the woodland. It was then across the tops and down to a very impressive Parsons Bridge – very narrow and very high!  This takes you up to the little church at Ysbyty Cynfyn – read the sad story of this church on Derek’s page.

The final section back to Pontarfynach is lanes and fields but then another gorge and river crossing – this time the Mynach – and then out onto the road and final fields back to the car.

This walk could be very busy in high season but probably looks it best on a sunny late Autumn day as the ‘Golden October’ colours are out in full force.  Thanks to all who came and Graham who drove.