Guilsfield Hill Walkers

Roughly the same view on Spring Hill: left on the recce by Peter, right on the walk by by Chris.

Peter SG has assured us that this was a grand walk with lots of distant views of the hills.  It was a grand walk but distant views there were few. Welcome back Richard Rees: Richard had his first outing with the walkers on Sunday 17th November , and very good it was to have him back.  2014 will see him leading a good selection of challenging walks again.

A good turn out enjoyed this localish walk in a very much unexplored and interesting area. We parked up in the Glyn Ceiriog  car park and set out though a cool and damp village and up to the west and the hills beyond. It was that time of year for the fungi to be seen in profusion – pics in the gallery. We turned at the top and came down the valley of the Afon Teirw and ended up in the picturesque village of Pandy. We leaned over the bridge for a while and didn’t see any grey wagtails or dippers so we crossed the river and hit the old tramway and headed up the delightful valley to Spring Hill. By now Peter was waxing lyrical about the views he had on the recce: all we saw was a few glimpses through the gloom. (see above)

The party split just after lunch, two taking the shorter route back to Glyn Ceiriog and the others stepping out on an eastely loop, but both getting back to the cars with 10 mins of each other. It was then back to The Oak – now reopened, refurbished and looking good once again.

Thanks to Peter for leading and all who came and all who drove.

Sunday 29th September turned out to be a day of amazing contrast. Seven of us travelled to Tanygrisiau, just by Blaenau Ffestiniog, and parked up at the south end of the Cwmorthin valley by the waterfall: weather dry and cloudy, not too hot, not too cold, Goldilocks weather – just right. An easy walk in through the slate tips and along old tramways lead us to the incline that took us up to Rhosydd Quarry.  If you want to see a good account of the quarry and lots of great photographs, go here. Some of us had a bit of adventure here by crawling into the bottom of a water wheel pit and just marvelling at the size and construction of this stuff. Up onto the great open space of the dressing floor for an early elevenses and a bit more scratting around the old workings and bits of rusty metal.

From here the ground changed from slate quarry trackways to nigh-on invisible paths across the very broken land dotted with numerous lakes and boggy bits. The sky now was starting to open and the visibility improving all the time, we could even see down Cwm Croesor to Porthmadog and the sea: a bit late in the year for pedalos.  We made the ridge cairn by Llyn yr Adar and paused for thought.  The view to the north was stunning: right round from Siabod in the east, via the Glyders and the bulk of Snowdon, through to Moel Hebog and down the length of the Lleyn Peninsular. We decided that it was a bit early for luch here so we would take it on the summit of Cnicht, so off we set up the long ridge that heads south west.

This is where the day became a bit more exhilarating: wind!  Wind like you’ve never felt before, tugging at everything, pushing us around, sending some of us on to hands-and-knees or bottom-shuffling, but not cold, just bracing.  We made the top and squashed down behind the rocks and had lunch with some of the best views this year. Then it was out into the wind again and more crawling and shuffling for some of us back to the cairn by Llyn yr Adar. Wow – we all felt suitable braced and headed back down the way we had come, well out of the wind.

The paths across the boggy bits came and went and we made it back down to the Rhosydd Quarry and the tracks back through Cwmorthin to Tanygrisiau and the cars.  A good walk in a very interesting, and at times, challenging area.

Thanks to all who came and all who drove – pics in the gallery.

Third time lucky – and it all worked, apart from missing the second half of the initial tiny track and having to a bit of heather bashing – sorry about that.  For those who don’t know the area, it is to the NW of Wrexham, between Minera and the Llandegla Forest – with heights around 500M (1600 ft) and stunning views to the north and east: a bit like the Long Mynd in places.

We parked up on the mountain road and set out on a tiny path, that kept disappering, across the heathery wastes to the large wooden black grouse on the edge of Llandegla Forest. Here we joined one of the mountain bike trails that criss-cross the forest and had to keep eyes in the backs of our heads for a while as the bikes came thick and fast. We turned south off the trail where it met the Offa’s Dyke path.  This section is nearly all boarded so it makes for a fast easy section – a few little lizards basking on the boards. Where it rejoins the mountain road we met a chap walking from Land’s End to John O’Groats the hard way – ie across country – he seemed to be enjoying it. We stopped for elevenses here.

A bit more mountain road and then across the moors above World’s End to a high point where it was decided that lunch would be taken at the bottom of the track as there was a bench to sit on. The walk down from here is delightful with grand views over Wrexham, The Wrekin, Stiperstones and beyond. After lunch the next bit passes between the reserviors and across farm land towards Fron-dêg, here we turned NW and up across the moors – pausing for a drink and a last look at the views.  (Those turquoise blue roofs we were wondering about are on the large shops around Wrexham Central Station – Asda, Argos etc.)

A short drop down the other side – with views of the Dee Estuary – and back to the cars.  A good day.  Thanks to all who came and all who drove. Pictures by Graham in the gallery, thanks Graham – I forgot my camera.

Hi all
Re the walk scheduled for Sunday 18th August.  On the programme it is down to Richard leading a traverse of the Carneddau, but as Richard is not available at the moment I will be leading another walk.
You may remember back in the snowy wastes of earlier this year we changed the Wrexham Hill Route because the roads were blocked.  I will lead this walk on Sunday 18th August and hope the snow holds off.

So the new fixture will read:

Sunday 18th August – Wrexham Hills, Esclusham Mountain – 8 miles – Easy/Mod – 8.00 am NOTE CHANGE OF TIME.

Put this in your diary.

Solving the problem of when the wind stops blowing

This was Peter Barton’s ‘change of plan walk’ and a walk with wonderful views it turned out to be. Penrhuddlan is the windfarm you can see on your left as you drive south through Llandinam.  We accessed this area by driving through Newtown, turned towards Mochdre, through Stepaside and up to Pentre where we parked in a very accommodating lay-by just before the village sign.  From here we set out heading south west-ish up to Dugwm and on to the windfarm on the top.

The wind was blowing well and the turbines were spinning – but what a noise! These are the little ones coming to the end of their working life, the ears boggle at what the big new ones will sound like. But apart from the turbines the views were incredible – The Breiddens, Long Mountain, The Wrekin, Bromlow Callow, The Stiperstones and so on.  Had elevenses at one of Peter’s research project locations – saw some old timbers and stonework plus an odd shapped brick or two.

From the windfarm we headed north east-ish across open country to Penthryn and then out across the fields towards Mochdre Brook.  It was here that Peter told us that the a new game was to start: called ‘hunt the footbridge.’  The first to find it was to shout for all the others. Well we spread out and dropped into the dingle and crashed about in the trees and splashed in the brook.  Shouts were heard and the ‘Acme Thunderer’ was blasted upon but none of us actually crossed the brook by the bridge and only two of us even saw it. All reassembled on the far bank lunch and was declared – we lolled on the grass like Edwardian gentlemen.

From here it was a short step back to the cars at Pentre.  Thanks to Peter for a grand walk – pictures of the adventure in the gallery.  Thanks to all who came and all who drove.