Weather: Sunny intervals clearing to sunshine. 16 degrees on first hill, probably a little less by the third, but still feeling warm.
Stingwern Hill (SJ 133 014; 358m)
I’m not generally a fan of driving to the top, or almost to the top, of a hill, usually preferring to make a bit of a walk (or sometimes a cycle ride) of it. However, I’m also on an arbitrary mission to bag 22 more Marilyns by the end of the year, and I’ve been scuppered by having an unserviceable car for the last 4.5 months.
I had, in fact, intended to make this outing a tiny bit longer, by approaching from the road to the south, butI even though I’d identified a gate I could hop over (there are allegedly rights of way around here, but none of them seem to involve such amenities as stiles over barbed wire fences nor are they signed or waymarked), it turned out not to be a big enough gateway for Mick to wait. So, around to the N of the hill we went – only 1km out of our way.
Once round there, I left the car, reached the summit 4 minutes later and was back at Erica 7 minutes and 15 seconds after I left. The don’t get much easier than that, do they?!
That said, the 30m of ascent was (clearly, given the short distance) steep, and the hill did have merit – the views were good.
I’d read a comment that the ‘barbed wire fence has been enabled for access’. Sure enough, the strand of barbed wire between two close-placed posts had been snipped and bent back, and a couple of rocks were on the ground for those with legs of at least 30” to be able to step straight over.
Garreg-Hir (SN 999 979; 485m)
Mick only joins me on hills that have merit, but often that’s not something that can be accurately assessed until after the event. This is one that he would have enjoyed: a really easy walk, interesting terrain (first cropped grass, then a landscape of small rocky outcrops) and good views.
There’s not much else to be said about it: it was good; I enjoyed it!
View down to the two llyns
Bryn Amlwg (SN 921 973; 490m)
The first thing I then did was to head steeply downhill, dropping 40 metres before I could climb up to the windfarm and take advantage of its roads (unsurfaced, but in better condition than many a tarmac road) almost the whole way to the summit.
I contemplated on the way back: did I really want that steep re-ascent at the end? I concluded that no, not really. Thus I went past my outward route, cut across to the next dead-end turbine access road, then headed directly downhill from there. It was only 400m across country, the first half was really rough, the rest was cropped grass. I then only had a gentle 10m reascent to get back to Erica, reaching her an hour after I left.
Now that I think about it, it’s a long way to drive for less than 2 hours in total spent on all three hills. Good job that we weren’t driving straight back home!
There are two more hills on the agenda tomorrow. There are also weather warnings out for strong winds (gusting 50+), heavy rain and flooding, so I’ll review in the morning.
My outward track between road and windfarm was mainly a pleasant grassed-over affair. If you zoom in you may notice that the right hand side of the front of that old farmhouse is being held up by some boards and an angled telegraph pole.
Summit selfie
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