On Saturday 4th September my wife Nicola and myself with our friends Gary and Gary climbed Mynydd Graig Goch at the western end of the Nantlle ridge and finished the Welsh Nuttalls. We duly celebrated with a bottle of Purple Moose Snowdonia ale.

For those who you who don’t know the Nuttalls are the hills (mountains) of England and Wales that are over 2000 ft (610m) which have a relative height of 15m. Hewitts are also hills over 2000 ft which have a relative height of 30m. There are currently 190 Welsh Nuttalls; although with the current craze of measuring the heights of our mountains with the most accurate equipment known to man who's to say this number wont shortly change!

We decided it would be a short walk taking in MGG and Garnedd-goch only, rather than do the whole Nantlle ridge, so we could make the most of the liquid refreshments on offer at the Bryn Tyrch Inn, in Capel, where we were staying for the weekend.

We made a circular walk of it starting from a minor road (SH474500) with the aim of ascending Garnedd-goch first.


All set to go with the two hills in the background, Mynydd Graig Goch to the right

Pretty straightforward walk really. A path climbs up the NW flank of G-g which eventually contours round to a wall before the bwlch that separates the two hills. Turn left and follow the path and wall to the summit.



MGG on the way up G-g


Refreshments on the top of G-g


Beyond the rest of the ridge; then Snowdon, Lliwedd and Yr Aran


Looking back to G-g from the slopes of MGG

Then it was return to the bwlch and climb MGG; shortly afterwards we reached the top of MGG. I say the top ‘cos this hill has several rocky tors all vying to be the highest. Which ones the actual top we asked; well I guess we’ll have to scramble up all of ‘em. So on top of what we thought was the highest we took some photos and cracked open the Snowdonia Ale!!






For me it was a quest that took 27 years having climbed Tryfan for the first time in 1983. For Nicola it took slightly less time, starting in the Brecon’s around 1994/5 doing DOE for her school.

Back then we wernt bagging the hills over 2000ft but just out enjoying our love of climbing the hills of the UK. However in the last few years after buying the books we realised we’d done over half of the Welsh hills so it was obvious to bag the rest, especially as it would take us to many areas we hadn’t been to before. And whilst tick lists arnt for some therein lies there appeal for me; the days we've spent on the Berwyns, the Eastern Arans and the Arenigs have been some of the most memorable even if we havnt seen more than a handful of people each day.

We’ve had a marvelous time and whilst our trips to the Welsh hills will become less frequent in the next couple of years as we finish off the English Nuttalls and make trips to Scotland to climb more Munros, who’s to say a second round won’t be on the cards!!