The Rivals - Llyn Peninsula

Roaming The Rivals on the Llyn Peninsula

22nd August 2009

Map: Landranger 123

Weather: Afternoon sunshine, clouding over later

From a car park near Mount Pleasant up to Mynedd Gwaith, back down to the col and up to Garn Ganol, down and up to Tre’r Ceiri Hillfort, back down and around to the start: 5 miles by Satmap Active 10 gps

Click on the map to enlarge, then use back arrow

Number one daughter’s wedding was looming large at the end of the month; I had arranged to meet several walking companions up in Langdale to go up Jack’s Rake on Pavey Ark. But as usual this summer the fickle weather had other plans, and the promised sunshine turned to bucketfuls of water. But every cloud has a silver lining and all that, so I abandoned my golf sticks and took the opportunity of a good weather forecast for the weekend and set off down to the Llyn Peninsula for a little stroll instead.

Three sculpted standing stones at the start of the walk

The first two hills in view

The Welsh language centre is down below here on the coast

On the way down I decided to cut down to Rhydd Ddu and have a look at the Nantlle Ridge in the sunshine, as I’d only ever seen it in the rain. So I stopped and took some pictures of the glorious views and vowed to come back later in the year – 3^rd time lucky I hope. We drove down the peninsula to Porth Tocyn and dumped my bag, had lunch and then scarpered back up through Abersoch to the Rivals walk – the 3 hills are close together and called Yr Eifl. This was a 5 mile stroll and very easy going, but I was surprised by the views it afforded. I parked the car just beyond the village of Llithfaen and Mount Pleasant, the road continues down to the Welsh Language Centre.

There is a recently installed sculpture of three standing stones – presumably representing Yr Eifl, with a granite plinth with some Welsh verse inscribed. A nice start to a nice walk, in nice weather, nice. The first two of the rivals - Mynedd Gwaith & Garn Ganol are in view from the start and the wide path with a steady gradient up towards it. The land to the west drops steeply down, but you can’t see the cliffs from up here, and down below in the bay is a small hamlet. There is a lot of work going on to restore the buildings of the National Welsh Language Centre at Porth y Nant. The old quarrying and mining works and buildings are much in evidence, almost typical of the landscape in North West Wales.

Strong mauve colours of the heather

Mynedd Gwaith approaches on the left

An easy track up to the old quarry

The heather was a splendid mauve against the golden grasses, but off the path the ground was very boggy after the summer rains. We plodded up the hill at a leisurely pace to reach the col between Mynedd Gwaith and Garn Ganol, with the views to the head of the peninsula opening up – absolutely glorious. The old quarry works have taken a big bite out of this hill in the past, and they have installed a communications tower on part of the site. There is a concrete ramp and stairs leading up to the mast, but also an old stone stairway to the left side, but now mostly in ruins. This led up the side of the old quarry and made progress up the steep hillside relatively easy, despite being a bit tumbledown in places. A stone cairn marked the top of the hill and there were great views all around – down the rest of the peninsula to the hillfort hills of Garn Boduan and the bigger Carn Fadryn, both nicely shaped conical hills. To the North West the Snowdonia range towered above all and looked impressive from this distance.

I also got a good view of the next objective and the distinct path rising to the top. It was very peaceful up here, a few hares haring around and a pair of Buzzards floating on the breeze, shrilly calling to each other, with the underside of their wings looking like eyes staring down. I quickly made my way down the old steps/ rocks and over to the new stairway and down to the col. Then it was a steady plod up to the top of Garn Ganol, the second hill of the day – it was steep enough to raise the heartbeat. I stopped for a breather now and again and to wait for my OH to catch up, and had a look over the old settlement remains lying around – not much to see just old stone wall lines in amongst the heather. Looking back to the first hill you can see the extent of the quarrying that has gone on here in the past, and it has chewed up a good portion of the hillside. To the right is the small town of Trefor nestled down on the coast far below.

The comms tower with an old path up the left side of the fencing

Looking down and across to Garn Ganol

The wonderful view to Snowdonia from Mynedd Gwaith

The view down the Llyn peninsula to the SW coast

Another view across to Garn Ganol with Tre’r Ceiri Hillfort in the background

As we got higher the views up the Llyn peninsula became ever better, and the path became ever steeper towards the top as it passes over the scree below the summit. The last pull to the top crosses over some loose bouldery scree up to the summit and the unusual Trig point comes into view. It has some ironwork on top of it shaped in a figure 4 with the letters A and H attached to it – it reminded me of the ironwork on Texas ranches, but I’ve no idea what it represents – possibly some radio ham type of thing? There is a nice summit shelter to hop into and snuggle down out of the wind for some refreshments, and I took plenty of time to enjoy the all around views. They were far reaching today and all of Snowdonia, The Rhinogs and Cadir Idris were in sight, as well as the next objective of Tre’r Ceiri Hillfort – a mixture of purple and grey – stone and heather.

Zooming in to Snowdon in the distance

Mynedd Gwaith is not so big now

The summit cairn on top of Garn Ganol

Far reaching views over to the Rhinogs

I contemplated this while I munched my way through a packet of Marmite flavoured cashew nuts – fantastic. Like a packet of fruit pastilles, you just can’t eat one, eat them all! The paths off the top are not clearly marked, so I took a compass heading off the top and picked up a path that cuts away to the North East heading down a steep slope to the next col before the hillfort. You could follow the wall down and then hop over the style and up to the fort itself. But I chose the steeper flank of the hill and followed a narrow track down through knee high heather and across the occasional boulders. At the bottom of the slope between the two hills the ground became a bit boggy across to the hillfort, and we needed to hop across reed clumps in places. This part would be a real splodge in the winter months, but still worth it I think.

The route down and over to the hillfort

You can see the outline of the walls of the fort

Approaching the walls

The Tre’r Ceiri hillfort is a scheduled ancient monument, and one of the best preserved, most spectacular stone hillfort in Britain. On the approach up to the fort you can see what appears to be a massive dry-stone wall, and it is a couple of metres wide in places. There is a distinct flagged entrance between two high walls, probably just about big enough to get an Ox and cart through. A very atmospheric place with the interior of the fort holding the remains of up to 150 hut circles – some better preserved than others. Many of the circles are huddled together, which provided some protection against the weather I suppose – I wonder which side of the fort the loos were on?

The fort entrance – not that wide really

And a picture looking back from the inside of the fort

Well preserved hut circles

The width of the dry stone wall

Apparently the Romans pinched it for a while before being turfed out, a readymade fort and not a bad posting I suppose. The stone work is a little bit loose and the advice is not to walk on the walls or hut circles to help preservation. We wandered through hut circles to the crest of the fort with a vista of Snowdonia facing us – there are the remains of a Bronze age burial cairn as well – what a way to go. After a good mooch around we walked down to the south west to exit the fort & make our way downhill on a clear path through the resplendent purple heather – it reminded me of Burnley FC on a good day.

Fantastic views from up near the cairn

Looking down the full length of the peninsula

Looking up to the fort from the SW

A part paved path eased the way down

As the path came out onto grassland there was a big boulder by the path, which may have been a marker stone in the past. It has some rock carving on the underside, that must be a fair old age as there has been plenty of weathering since and lichen growth covering it – it’s almost like a big A. The gorse and heather looked great together, and we followed the farm track down to the first house before turning uphill towards the car. One more surprise lay in wait – a group of three granite plinths, inscribed with an outline of the surrounding landscape, naming all the hills in view – great work and very informative.

Which led to a farm grass track down to the first houses

The gorse contrasted vividly with the heather

Almost back to the car

The new information plaques

Shortly after this point we returned to the start at Nant Gwrtheym – the Welsh Language and Heritage Centre. Then it was back to Porth Tocyn for a lovely nosh, but next morning it was back to reality – rain, mist and traffic. Walking in Wales – brilliant whatever the weather.

A Helvellyn Traverse

A Helvellyn traverse

14th July 2009

Map: Landranger 90

Weather: Showers to start, cold up on the top and finished in sunshine

Clough Head down to Wythburn, taking in Calfhow Pike, Great Dodd, Watson's Dodd, Stybarrow Dodd, Raise, Whiteside Bank, Lower Man, Helvellyn, Nethermost Pike, Dollywaggon Pike, down past Grisedale Tarn to Raise Beck and on to Wythburn car park: 14.5 miles by Satmap Active 10 gps

Click on map for large version, then use the back arrow copyright OS

Click on map for large version, then use the back arrow copyright OS

We set a day for this walk via the walking forum and the usual suspects turned up for a very pleasant walk. It’s becoming a bit of a tradition to send pictures via mobiles to anyone who couldn’t make the walk – and it always seems to be a picture of a nice refreshing pint at the end of the day. That’s not so good on a wet day, but I don’t get too many of those. We met up at the lay-by at Scales, and I followed Paul down to Wythburn car park, in the forest far below Helvellyn. I parked my car and found the ticket machine to be out of order – the day was looking good already. We all drove up to park close to Hill Top Farm, where there was room for a couple of cars, one of them being Paul’s – result#2.

Blencathra to the right from the start of the walk

Our route up the old coach road – clear towards Keswick and beyond

Dark clouds gather over Blencathra

We got kitted up and the sun was shining although there were some dirty scoundrel type of clouds floating around towards us. The weather forecast was a bit of a mixed bag – a lot of rain with a bit of sun thrown in. As it turned out we only had a brief shower, and most of the rain was dumped on Keswick in a big storm. It missed us completely and the cloud base was well clear of the summits for most of the day. We set off in pleasant sunshine and gently ascended up the old coach road past Skiddaw and Blencathra – it felt like the old corpse road to me though.

Great Mel Fell and the little one, beyond White Peak

Skiddaw to the right, Keswick in the middle before the rain started

All kitted up on the top of Clough Head

Beautiful views of all but the highest peaks

The air was clear today as it hasn’t exactly been that warm lately, so the views for the most part were awesome. Today’s route was around the base of Threlkeld Knotts before cutting up a steeper slope leading up to some cairns at white peak. Originally I had planned to go up to Clough Head via Fisher’s Wife Rake, but we decided against this and when I saw it this morning I was quite happy we didn’t go up that way – very steep. I was feeling less than full of energy today and discovered to my cost that fish n’chips the night before does not constitute energy food! Today was the first time for ages that I found myself lagging behind the others, but I blame it on the age difference – they’re getting fitter and I’m getting older – harrumph – and that was confirmed when they started calling me Grandad. After admiring Blencathra’s curves and having some H2O it was up at a steady pace to the first wainwright of the day at Clough Head – not much to look at but a grassy top.

Looking back to Clough Head with Blencathra and Skiddaw out the back

Cogstar waiting patiently – he didn’t take many pictures – just borrows a few

The gentle walk over to Calfhow Pike

We’d had to don waterproofs as it looked like it we were going to get a soaking judging by the gathering clouds above. It started to rain and Blencathra put on its fuzzy hat. We kept the waterproofs on for a while, but eventually it eased off by the time we had squelched across to Calfhow Pike – 8 lords a leaping as the song goes, except there were only 4 of us. It was still a bit chilly and I kept my gear on, while Paul got his legs out for an airing. I reckon Paul must have stuffed a couple of Duracell batteries up his jacksy today, as he just kept going and going all day long – I think I had a couple of flat alkaline up mine.

The path ahead to Stybarrow Dodd

Me lagging behind on the way up

Looking back to Keswick and the rain storms - ha

The gently undulating ground led us along to Calfhow Pike, a not very inspiring nipple of a hill. What was inspiring were the views all around us, with the clouds scudding by giving a chance of some good photos. It was easy walking along the tops, hopping over the boggy patches, but after Calfhow Pike the undulations took on an altogether sinister guise – they went up and down a little more steeply. By no means were they too steep a gradient, but I didn’t have the legs for it today and by the time we were on the way up to Little Dodd I was lagging a little behind the others, and calamity struck we walked straight past Great Dodd without realising it. So like all good baggers we made a beeline for the summit behind us, but I think it was this extra yardage that slowed me down so much – honestly it was. Onwards from Great Dodd, the views were magnificent all around us with the base of the clouds above the highest peaks. Next along the line was the summit of Watson’s Dodd – well summit of a sort – I use the word loosely, about as loosely as the pile of stones. After this my ‘flat’ ridge walk became a little more undulating up to Stybarrow Dodd, down on a good path to Sticks Pass, and then huffing and puffing up again to Raise. Here we had a good view of the Lake District Ski Club lift & ski run down the slopes of Raise.

Striding out to Raise

There goes the Duracell bunny – next stop Sticks Pass before Helvellyn

Catstye Cam and Keppel Cove – see the dam

Looking back along our route today

And this monster cloud tried to grab us, but it missed - ha again

Coming up to the summit with Swirral Ridge down to the left

Hardly alpine, but better than nothing I suppose - They probably had too much snow to run it earlier this year, but their website shows some people skiing! Beyond Raise there are good stone paths to prevent erosion and as we got nearer to Helvellyn the traffic also increased. There were many DOE’s walking up here, some enjoying their challenge and some patently not. Up to Whiteside Bank next and my pace slowed as I took more pictures and enjoyed the views all around. I was feeling knackered, and we had to decide if we were going down to Catsty Cam and across to Striding Edge and up again.

Taking in the views at Hellvellyn cairn waiting for yours truly

Not the shortest for a change

It would be a 2hr diversion for us and personally I wasn’t up to it. The siren call of a pint beckoned, so we binned the idea until a later date. That later date was soon after for Paul and Mike as the swine’s did it as soon as I went back to work. We made our way to the summit admiring the views down to Keppel Cove and the burst dam, and weaved through the throng towards the summit cross shelter. Obviously it was very busy, so we sidled our way into a quarter, sat down for lunch and admired the general walking public, walking up to the summit – a fine achievement for many – Graham pointed out the ones wearing tennis outfits! After a quick bite and some Marmite snacks, we stood by the summit cairn and were snapped posing, and for once I took the high ground and didn’t look like a wee man.

Looking back to Striding Edge, with Catstye Cam behind and Helvellyn to the left

Looking over to St Sunday Crag from the slopes of Nethermost Pike

Along the towards Nethermost Pike – easy walking

Looking towards the top of Nethermost Pike

Down a rubbly slope to High Crag and then on towards Dollywaggon Pike

The wide summit area led us onwards towards Nethermost Pike and afforded us good views passing Striding Edge and over to St Sunday Crag. We stood and pondered the Pinnacle Ridge route up the side of the crag, and I decided in my mind that was a ridge too far for me. Other’s had a different idea though and I look forward to hearing their stories in sometime in the future. It was refreshingly easy ground over to Dollywaggon Pike and as we came to our descent towards Grisedale Tarn we had to make another decision to take on Seat Sandal or not – that’s the trouble with wainwright’s hills – they always beckon to be climbed and ticked off.

Looking back to the pointy peak of Catstye Cam

Coming down to a peaceful Grisedale Tarn

Mike and Paul carried on in the lead and we decided as it was steep anyway, the best way down was straight down. Paul and Mike led the way and in my new found enthusiasm to join the race downhill, I proceeded to do a passable impression of a backward moonwalk down the scree slope, complete with sound effects. What a tribute to Michael Jackson – I didn’t fall over but worryingly it was another senior moment, accompanied by much guffawing from the other three. We had a great view down to Grisedale Tarn and over to Seat Sandal, which was to be our last wainwright of the day. But for self and Graham it was a hill too far, and the consensus was to save it for another day. Besides that we could hear the cider at Threlkeld calling ‘ooh arrr’. We had saved some time coming down directly off Dollywaggon Pike alongside the wall, even if one of us tried to fall over a couple of times – no names mentioned here – eh Graham. We got to the col and abandoned all thoughts of Seat Sandal - we just admired the wild camping spots chosen alongside the tarn. We turned down to Raise Beck and dropped down 1100ft of descent in a mile, but most of it was along a good path by the beck. There were lots of stops for photos, as there are plenty of falls down the valley.

One of the falls down Raise Beck

And another

Through the bracken looking down to Helm Crag

The route down Raise Beck

A glorious view up towards Thirlmere

A look back to Helm Crag

And back to the car – what a day

As we came out onto the lower slopes we passed through some high bracken before reaching the road. We had good views up and down the valley through the pass of Dunmail Raise, with Helm Crag elegant in the distance. There was a minibus parked up by the roadside, but no one knew how to hotwire it so we carried on towards the parked car. It was another mile and a bit back to the car park at Wythburn, but most of it was through a cooling forest ride. As we walked along a jet came zooming with a terrific roar, at about 10ft off the ground – it felt like 10ft anyway and I’m sure it’s a good cure for constipation if you have any! It was a nice stroll back to the car, and after a quick return to Paul’s limo we retired to the pub at Threlkeld for a nice pint of cider. Great walk, great end, great company – B tiring though.