Guilsfield Hill Walkers

After all the frustrations of the recce the new cobbled together route turned out to be very pleasant indeed, and the weather turned out to be “Goldilocks” – not too hot and not too cold, just right. Four of us left The Oak at 8.00 and we were walking just after 9.00.

The start from Llandrillo is great – free car park and very tidy loos – and just a walk across the road and you’re onto the footpaths. The route heads south from the village gently up through the woods of Cefn Pen-llety then east-ish until you break out onto the open hillside of the western slopes of the Berwyns. The track now turns north up the fence line and then east to near the low summit of Trum y Wern and the gate in the fence – (548m). This is not high but the views are very good, across the valley all the way into Snowdonia and everything in-between. A bit of downhill now, north west to that well known place – Sheepfold – on the Taith Tegid – the Tegid Way, for elevenses. The Tegid way runs 18 miles from Cynwyd, near Corwen, to Bala. To the east of the path on the way down is a Cairn Circle:  we should have gone and had a look at it because it’s quite impressive.

The route follows the Tegid Way generally east-ish on good tracks up to Pont Rhyd-yr-hŷdd. From here the route turns back on itself across a good grassy path down to a very suitable lunch stop at the first fence – complete with gurgling stream, comfy rocks and shady bits if required. The next few miles follow the north bank of the Afon Llynor on good forestry tracks with open woodlands and hundreds of pheasants. The last mile or so back into Llandrillo is on farmland footpaths and stiles of some awkwardness, but it resolves itself into a steep lane back down into the village. About 8 miles of loveliness. Thanks to all who came and all who drove.

The weather forecast was not very favourable: a breezy wet start, then a bit of a gap, followed by a wet afternoon – so the mac was put near the top of the rucksac.  Brian was leading and he had said that his recce was rather damp underfoot and he was right, I think sturdy wellies might have better suited. The route is well known but little visited, particularly in poor conditions, we only saw two other people all day.

The route starts at the top of Cwm Cywarch at the honesty car park (with portaloo) at Blaencywarch, and heads North West up the very steep and rocky cleft to the ridge between Glasgwm and Aran Fawddwy.  This little valley is a wild flower paradise with so many varieties, enough to keep anybody happy. (A few pictures in the gallery) From the top the route turns North East and follows one of the many fences on the ridge. It was here that the duckboards started and Brian’s ‘wet underfoot’ warnings kicked in.  It was a bit of a sloppy trudge up to the summit, but in good conditions the views from the top are stupendous – you can see practically anything in Wales from here – but not today. (Aran Fawddwy 905 m / 2969 ft ) The scramble from the fence up to the summit pile was accompanied by the most ferocious wind, nearly having us off our feet.  Needless to say we didn’t linger long, just long enough to snatch a couple of pics and then quickly back down to the comparative shelter of the rocks below.  All this was achieved in sporadic drizzle, but luckily none of the torrents we were expecting.

From  the summit the route heads south east and then east at the memorial stone with views down to Craiglyn Dyfi (source of the Dyfi) and Llyn Tegid (Bala) away to the north.  The grand sweep of Hengwm below soon opened out, with our route out clearly showing as a dark green line down the slope to the South West and back to Blaencywarch. Brian teased us with ‘a sting in the tail’ – this turned out to be what was once a rocky lane, but was now a steep rocky stream of wondrous slipperiness.

Safely back at the cars we had had a good day – not as wet as we had expected but wetter underfoot then we liked.  Thanks to Brian for leading and to all who came and all who drove.  Pics in the gallery.

Bird list

• Few Skylark
• Innumerable Meadow Pipits
• One Red Kite
• One Wheatear
• Few corvids

Just off the Chirbury Road at Blackford. Picture by Annie.

What an excellent walk – no big climbs – no muddy bits – lots of sunshine – and to cap it all wonderful countryside: thank you Vivien for all the hard work you put into the route finding etc.

A short drive to the car park in Chirbury and then a walk of a few hundred metres back down the Forden road got us out onto the open fields with blue sky and skylarks.  We headed generally westish toward Offa’s Dyke and then south along the Dyke footpath and then east via Whitely and Timberth to meet the A490.  Here we dodged the traffic for 5 minutes or so before climbing a stile to take us down into Marrington Dingle where we lunched on a bridge across the Camlad.

The last paragraph does not do justice to the total ‘niceness’ of the landscape, the views and the flora and fauna – just look at the bird count below.

Marrington Dingle was in fine form on Sunday. If you have not been into the dingle you must go – especially in late spring – it is just gorgeous. Not a place to stride along but just to stroll gently and try to take it all in.

Many thanks to Annie for the pics.  I thought I had got it right with my camera this time, but no: went to take a picture (like the cracking one on the right) and my camera announces ‘Your memory card is full.’ I said “Oh dear me!” and asked Annie to be the photographer for the day.  Have a look in the gallery for her fab pics.

Bird Count – a really good day

• Yellow hammer – lots
• Whitethroat – a couple
• Skylark – lots
• Lapwing – three
• Grey wagtail – single
• Heron – single
• Blackcap – several
• Garden warbler – single
• Tawny owl – single
• Plus all the usual suspects – buzzard – kite – dunnock etc

Those of you who read my e-mail (see below)  concerning the recce for this walk will realise that we didn’t go up the hills to the north of Lake Vyrnwy but we did have a good day on the Long Mynd.

We arrived at the musical loos in Stretton and set out up the Burway and then down into Carding Mill Valley. Weather improving as we climbed to near the top, then a bit of cross county to join the Portway and down to the cattle grid at Duckley Nap for some refreshments. Then a loop round across the shoulder of Haddon Hill and on to the Shooting Box – now just a car park with a bit of a mound, not a tin roofed building that used to be a good waymarker in misty conditions. Then a good step up to the Pole Bank Toposcope (516M) with improving views all round. It was on this rise that we saw a group of 25 ish birds wheeling and calling above us: even Len the Bird man was a bit flummoxed. These turned out to be Golden Plover – a real joy.

Pole Bank is the high point of the Long Mynd so everything from here on should be down hill – well it nearly is. It was then on to Pole Cottage and a left turn onto a small sheep track that joins the path, locally known as Ashes Ridge, that skirts Round Hill and Grindle and down into Small Batch.  We stopped for lunch in the shade some hawthorn bushes overlooking Callow Hollow and enjoyed the total silence that the Long Mynd can offer.

We then plunged down into Small Batch and past the camp site at the bottom in Little Stretton. Bit of climbing from here on, over the ridge to The Owlets and down through the woods to the Ludlow Road and back to the cars.  Before the start I had estimated 8 miles or so, but with a bit of measuring after we got back it was around 10 miles.

Thanks to all who came and all who drove. 

Previous e-mail:

Hi all  –  Just got back from the recce for the 3rd April Walk – Bwlch Sych above Vyrnwy. Could be a good walk but not at the moment.  The first half was fine: forestry tracks a bit of open hillside, lots of snow, but reasonable underfoot. The second half was dreadful.  The guide book says ” … the paths are a little faint and the ground can be wet at times …”  Biggest understatement.  No paths at all, just very wet knee high tussocks,  two river crossings not mentioned as a problem – I ended up paddling.  Also the footpaths lower down on the way out just stop with very high barbed wire and impenetrable undergrowth – climbing over and round was not good.  Suffice to say I will not be leading this walk on Sunday – but will be leading something else, not sure what, but it will be the same start time and distance etc.  I will send out another mailing when I know what I am doing.

Craig Rhiwarth from the zigzags

Damp and windy could sum up this walk.  The complete walk is one of Derek Brockways “Weatherman Walking” series.  I shortened it a bit and altered the route to cut out a steep downhill followed by a steep uphill.  We were going to do this walk last year but the weather was so foul we held it over to this year – the weather was a bit better this year, but not a lot – ocassional thin drizzle.

Starts in Llangynog and heads up the Bala Road for a mile then up a track to the back of Craig Rhiwarth.  Two ‘ups’ in that sentence and that’s most of  the climbing done for the day. From the top of  Craig Rhiwarth we headed north across some damp country to Bedd Crynddyn.  The wind was now getting up and so were the clouds, we even started to see a bit of blue sky. There is a long track heading just north of east across the tops, but whoever put in the new fencing forgot to put the stiles back: so we had a bit of clambering to do. The way is rough under foot and the track indistinct – not good in thick mist, but a bearing of around 75° will do no harm.

At the final fence we democratically decided to head back towards Llangynog. Bit more bog trotting and wet tracks brought us to the top of the zigzags down into Cwm Glan-hafon – very gently here. A walk out through the beautiful old oak wood under the cliffs that peregrines nest upon, none today but soon will be, and returned to the cars.  A damp walk but just great to be out again.

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