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An Arans Round of 7 Hewitts

An Arans Round of 7 Hewitts


Postby Alteknacker » Tue Apr 19, 2022 3:17 pm

Hewitts included on this walk: Aran Benllyn, Aran Fawddwy, Erw y Ddafad-ddu, Esgeiriau Gwynion (Foel Rhudd), Foel Hafod-fynydd, Llechwedd Du, Moel y Cerrig Duon

Date walked: 21/03/2022

Time taken: 12

Distance: 25.1 km

Ascent: 1386m

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I'd been getting progressively more restless as the unsettled and largely wet weather in the West (ie in Snowdonia and the Lake District) discouraged forays into the hills - at least if you try very hard to be a fair weather hill walker, as do I.

But eventually a day popped up with a forecast that looked like it might be worth venturing out on.
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I wanted to spend more of the day walking than driving, so pointed in the direction of North Wales.

There are a few hills to the East of the Arans which I thought I'd once visited, but that many decades ago, and since this is anyway a very attractive area necessitating but a relatively short drive, I decided that's where I'd go, possibly finishing with a bit of scrambling on the east face of the Aran cliffs. In my diminished state I wasn't sure how long it would take me, so I resolved to do the route clockwise, tackling the unfamiliar ground first, and leaving the longish but straightforward descent from the Arans to Llanuwchllyn to the back end of the day when, even if it was dark, it would easy to find.

The route I took seems not to have been reported on (except, of course, for the Aran Ridge), so I thought it might be worth publishing this report.


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Arriving at the car park in Llanuwchllyn shortly before 7.00am, I tuck into a bit of breakfast before setting off. Shortly after arriving, another car pulls up in the car park, and to my surprise, it's another walker - in fact the only one I see all day, notwithstanding the excellent weather.

There's only a short stretch of path that bears off right immediately after crossing the bridge, after which it's either a kilometre along the road to Pont Afon-fechan, or a yomp across the fields; so I go for the latter. On my way I hear a quad bike, just behind me and a bit further up the hill, but don't pay it any attention; however, as I'm climbing over one of the walls, I'm hailed and I see that the bike has driven up. I brace myself for a confrontation, because sure as hell I'm not going back!
"Are you lost?" the farmer asks, but in a not unfriendly voice.
"No", I reply.
"You know there's no path here...??"
"Yes. But I'm not doing any harm or damage."
"There are sheep lambing", he persists.
"OK, but I'll be very careful" (I'm not at my articulate best in these situations!).
He pauses a while. Then: "OK", and he turns around and drives off, apparently not put out.

Yet another reasonable exchange with a farmer - I really must trim my predisposition towards them. Having grown up in the Dales, I always expect farmers to be aggressive when they encounter people walking across their land, but all my recent experiences with farmers have actually been positive. :shock:

And this view of the Arans in the morning sun lifts my mood further...
Image20220323-071035.
A little further on I pick up the track that leads off up the valley of the Afon Fechan, and am treated to steadily changing views of these superb hills - which are only a handful of metres short of the magic 914.4 metres mark :roll: :wink: .
Image20220323-073147. Same, viewed across the Afon Fechan valley.

Image20220323-073356. The same, zoomed. Some tasty looking cliffs there!

Image20220323-074045. Looking up the Afon Fechan valley from the track. I follow the track on the north side of the valley for a further kilometre or so before dropping down to the stream and up to the woods on the RHS, and past the house at Bryn-melyn.

I continue then on the south side of the Afon Fechan valley for another kilometre until I get to the forestry. The map clearly shows a path through it, but... well, forestry always has it in for me! The path up to the forest work track is straightforward, but at the confluence of the track and the path I simply cannot find the continuation of the path. 20 minutes of searching achieves nothing. So reluctantly I head through the forestry following a bearing. The trees are only 4 or 5 metres tall, so the going is nowhere near as bad as it can be in forestry, and although it's slow, I emerge some time later on to the moor pretty well exactly where I intended.

Image20220323-085149. There in front of me is Cefn Coch, and in the background, Moel y Cerrig Duon, the first Hewitt of the day.
Image20220323-085607. Over to the West, the Arans continue to dominate the skyline.

Once out of the blessed forestry, I sit down for 10 minutes or so to enjoy the place and the views. After which I set off again east, with a view to picking up the path that - according to the map at least - runs just south of Cefn Coch...

Image20220323-092622.... along the north side of Nant Bwlch-y-pawl (this view looking west down Nant Bwlch-y-pawl) towards - yes! the Arans!

I follow the path to a point a little to the South of Cefn Coch, at which point I turn 90 degrees to head south in the general direction of Moel y Cerrig Duon via the 606m spot height. Now it's pretty rough going - turf and heather clumps, and solid ground really nowhere visible - so it's slow, slow, slow... This next pic is taken looking roughly south from the point at which I pull off the path and into the rough....
Image20220323-094214. ....which it starts be be very hard going: endless tussocks, one next to the other, and the gaps between randomly deep, and randomly full of boggy water.
So it takes a good old while to get to the 606m spot height, meaning I have to pause quite frequently to ... to....to take a few pics ...

Image20220323-102037. ... like this, for example, looking back north towards Cefn Coch (the hump just west of which I turned off across the rough).

Image20220323-104352. The terrain on the other side of the 606m spot height is still quite tussocky (as can be seen on this pic looking at Moel y Cerrig-duon from the descent from the 606m spot height), but nowhere near as tough as what went before.

Image20220323-111419. A short but (for me) quite steep and therefore intense slog sees me on the summit "ridge" - if you can call such a flat-topped thing a ridge - where I take this pic looking back at the 606m spot height.

Image20220323-111922. The actual summit is - well, interesting! (This shot is looking just east of north.....

Image20220323-111941. ....and this is looking approximately south east towards Lake Vyrnwy, ....

Image20220323-112006. ...and this looking west towards - yes, you guessed - the Arans! My excuse is that it is pretty photogenic, especially on a day like this). And looking at it definitely lifts the spirits greatly.

Image20220323-112926. From the summit an easy path (not shown on the OS, but very clear and anyway easy to follow because it follows the line of a fence) runs southwest to where it crosses a minor road, which in the southerly direction down to Pennant offers one of the most exhilarating (very steep and very bendy) bike descents I think I've ever made - well worth experiencing if this is your bag :roll: :shock: .

Image20220323-114450. Looking back north east towards Moel Cerrig y Duon from the high point shortly before the road crossing.

It's a straightforward walk to the next Hewitt summit, Llechwedd Du.

Image20220323-123619. Which is, in the best Welsh traditions, thoroughly underwhelming in itself, though the setting is superb...

Image20220323-123641. Same view in Pano.

Image20220323-123740. And looking north, the next Hewitt summit, Esgeiriau Gwynion. I sit for a good while and enjoy the sunshine and the views, before heading off again.

Image20220323-130811. Close up, Llechwydd Du is, as noted above, pretty underwhelming. And viewed from the approach to Esgeiriau Gwynion it's equally underwhelming. Perhaps the most positive thing one can observe is that the route between the two avoids the peat hags!

Image20220323-131748. Underwhelmed again, I don't linger...

Image20220323-132655. .... but head towards the beckoning Arans cliffs.

Image20220323-133703. It's a steepish descent from the top, and then a short sharp ascent to the flat ridge, the high point of which is Foel Hafod-fynnydd (RHS on this pic) ...

Image20220323-133730.

Image20220323-134906. ... sharp enough for me to take a breather at the bottom to gather my resources before starting out - and to take this pic looking back towards Esgeiriau Gwynion.

Image20220323-142839. Foel Hafod-fynydd summit has a few more quartz boulders than the usual high point, but is otherwise at the unremarkable end of the very-dull/super-spectacular scale. So I don't linger to search out its well-concealed good points, but continue along the fence line and drop down towards Creiglyn Dyfi....

Image20220323-150643. ...where a guy with a great deal of monstrous scale professional looking photographic gear is taking pics of the Llyn - for what reason is unclear. Apart from the farmer at the start, this is the only person I actually see on the walk itself. Which causes me to reflect that we may be one of the most crowded countries in Europe (England alone is THE most densely populated), but one can still fine real isolation in beautiful countryside without having to try too hard.

Now I have to choose a route up the cliff face, some of which doesn't look like the sort of scrambling it would be wise to rush at. It's well over 200m of ascent, some of which could be quite challenging and therefore time-consuming...

Image20220323-153806. ...so in the interests of not still being on the cliffs as dusk falls, I opt for a moderate route, with no finger-tips and toes sections. This shot looking back down at Creiglyn Dyfi is taken at the point at which, after transiting something of a boulder field, the scrambling proper has started just a bit earlier.

Image20220323-154934.

Image20220323-154945.

Image20220323-155856.

Image20220323-160231. Alternating rock and grassy sections, both steep, make for quite a strenuous climb.

I reach the ridge about an hour later, at 16.30, topping out about 100m south of ...

Image20220323-163610. ...the Aran Fawddwy trig point, the highest point of the day at 905m. This pic is looking north along the ridge, with Llyn Tegid just visible in the far background.

Image20220323-163925. Onwards!

Image20220323-164907. Looking back south towards Aran Fawddwy...

Image20220323-164922. ...and ahead, north, along the ridge towards Erw y Ddafad-ddu. There's an easy-to-follow path along the ridge, so there'd be no fear of getting lost in the mist that frequently encloses this ridge.

Image20220323-165837. Again looking back south to Aran Fawddwy shortly before reaching ...

Image20220323-170255. ....the summit of Erw y Ddafad-ddu; which follow the best Welsh tradition, being underwhelming in every way (except for the superb views to be had).

Image20220323-173444. It's a short hop to Aran Benllyn; from which point, it's all, as the philosopher remarked, downhill from there.

Image20220323-174644. View down to Llanuwchllyn, some 5 or 6 km distant. The path is easy to follow, so the descent is fairly speedy.

I arrive back at the car park at just before 7.00pm, and it's already twilight. So the original decision to walk the round clockwise proved to be the right one - I wouldn't have wished to be blundering through forestry as night approached!

It has been a long and warm day; which implies a significant loss of fluids and minerals through delicate perspiration and what my doctor brother terms "insensible loss". And so following the best medical advice, I repair to an establishment of cultural, historical and architectural distinction, there to make up said loss of fluids and minerals.
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User avatar
Alteknacker
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Posts: 3473
Munros:176   Corbetts:33
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Joined: May 25, 2013
Location: Effete South (of WIgan, anyway)

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