14 July
Start Point: Glanusk Estate Caravan Park
Distance and Ascent: 8.5km; 270m
Weather: sunny intervals and windy
A tricky hill this one, as it features neither Access Land nor Public Rights of Way, it also rather lacks somewhere for a Bertie-sized vehicle to park. I'd therefore put it on the list of 'hills I will just not bother visiting' (I'm never going to visit all of the Marilyns, so missing out ones with access issues isn't a problem). Then I noticed that Glanusk Estate, on which the hill lies also has a campsite. Thus the plan: stay at the campsite, request permission to visit the hill, and solve both issues in one go.
I'd originally thought I'd nip up it tomorrow morning, but the location of the camping field, combined with the inconvenience of a river lying between me and my objective, meant that this 'short outing' measured a surprising 8.5km. Added to that, this trip is going to get cut short by a few days (for good reasons - some paperwork we've been waiting for and that we didn't expect to arrive until next week at the earliest was delivered today). Those factors combined made me think that a late afternoon excursion was the best bet - even though the wind rocking Bertie wasn't entirely enticing (as it turned out, I didn't notice it at all once I was out - either there was a lull that entirely coincided with my outing or, more likely, I was well sheltered the whole way).
A permissive path most of the way through the Estate, followed by a bit of trespass, took me to the road, then up a series of tracks, of varying quality, I went.
In the final approach to the top I passed an area of felled forest and thought perhaps my objective lay within that, but no, it was within a stand of natural forest beyond. For the second time today, I concluded that this was a hill best visited in winter, when the undergrowth is less of an impediment, and it took me a while of back and forth along tracks to decide on the best route (i.e. least bracken and brambles) into the trees. Once in, the going wasn't too bad (as in 'it could have been a whole lot worse'. I had flashbacks to Mount Eagle on the Black Isle ).
Happily, I found a clear summit marker on this one:
Gad you persisted. A lot of these Welsh Ms are highly defined on the OS map as stand alone peaks. With some Ms I have often wondered about the mechanics of defining them when the required all round drop is spread over a large area with fairly widely spaced contours.
ReplyDeleteAll of the Marilyns around this area look rather good on paper - and I'm sure most of them are in reality too. This was the only one on this trip that was lacking, due to the summit being in woodland.
DeleteI'm sure I read an article once about how the relative hills were identified, but unfortunately I now can't remember where it was that I found it.