Geo-Trips :: Tough country above Vyrnwy
West of Lake Vyrnwy
A walk from Cwm yr Hafod, Tue, 4 Jul 2017 by Richard Law
A word of warning from the start. This is seriously rough country. Despite wandering in the area in the past, I rather under-estimated how tough the going would be - once up on the hills, it's pretty much relentless deep heather and tussock grass in the summer, with very little respite, and no vehicle tracks to speak of, just the occasional sheeptrack.
Maybe because of the hard going, it's obviously an area that's little-visited and you soon get to feel well away from the crowds, simply 'cos there ain't anyone around for miles.
The whole walk is about 9.5 miles, and apart from an initial climb of about 900 feet immediately to the north of Hafod Fudr, it's almost level for most of the way around.
Click the blue circles to see a photograph taken from that spot and read further information about the location. The blue lines indicate the direction of view. There is also a slideshow of this trip. ( )
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What are you doing here?
"Waiting for Christmas" by the look of it. One of a handful of escaped,... more
On the road around Vyrnwy
Very close to the Hirddu bridge, looking back to the east in the general direction... more
OS benchmark - Vyrnwy, Hirddu or Cwm-yr-Hafod bridge
An OS cutmark (and an adjacent mason's mark) on the parapet wall of the bridge... more
Stacked timber in Cwm yr Hafod
The forestry block to either side of this haul road is being felled; stacks of... more
Timber stacks on the forest haul road
This forest block is actively being harvested in mid 2017, so there's a lot of... more
Edge of forest block above Hafod Fudr
This steep and bracken-infested hillslope leads up onto Creigiau'r Llyn.
Edge of the forest above Hafod Fudr
From the valley of the Afon Hirddu, this hillside leads rather steeply up onto... more
Hafod Fudr farm buildings
Relatively modern, in the sense that the present stone building was erected in... more
Sheeptrack through the bracken
One of the less problematic routes up this hillside - a direct assault, whilst... more
Broken wall
A short stretch of the old fridd wall across the hillside, which is marked on the... more
High on Creigiau'r Llyn
A shallow drain through the deep heather and moss that comprises the surface of... more
Modern fence on Creigiau'r Llyn
This may well be a replacement for an older fence, although there wasn't any... more
Fenceline above Fridd Fawr
A modern fence on the hillside above the Eunant valley.
Summit area of Bryn Mawr
At 534m, this is just about the highest land for some distance in any direction,... more
Along the 'ridge' of Bryn Mawr
Bryn Mawr forms the northern side of the Hirddu valley; this location lies on the... more
On the top of the Bryn Mawr ridge
Deep heather and long grass & moss; hard walking country, which involves a lot... more
More moor
The summit ridge of Bryn Mawr here is an extensive heather-and-moss moorland, a... more
Cattle up ahead
Roughly half a mile away on the moor, there's a herd of about 10 hardy Welsh Black... more
Moorland above the Eunant Fach
High on the ridge of Bryn Mawr, this deep heather-and-moss moorland grows lush in... more
Towards Moel y Cerrig Duon
High moorland above Eunant Fach; little visited and almost completely trackless.
Cattle on the high moor
A small herd of hardy Welsh Black cattle high on Bryn Mawr. I saw several such... more
Unnamed lakes on the ridge
Actually, 'lakes' is pushing it a bit - it's little more than a small boggy puddle... more
Sheep on Blaen Hirddu-Fawr
On this walk, there were more cattle than sheep up here, so these two seemed a bit... more
A rare track
High on the ridge of Bryn Mawr, the going underfoot is almost exclusively deep... more
Junction of fences on Bryn Glâs
The hills here are grazed by a few sheep, but also a small herd of Welsh Black... more
Welsh Blacks
In this case, Welsh Blacks legging it down the hillside because they don't get to... more
A really boggy bit
Here on the saddle between Bryn Glâs and Carreg y Bîg, the maps mark a... more
Up the hill towards Carreg y Bîg
On the old county border fence, climbing towards the substantial hill of Carreg y... more
Down hill to the bwlch
The flat ground in the middle distance is the saddle between Cwm Hirddu Fawr on... more
Carreg y Bîg triangulation point
A cairn built (or at least, augmented) in the late 19th century and used for... more
Along the fence to Carreg y Bîg
The fence marks the rough line of the boundary between the historic Welsh counties... more
Moel Llygoed summit
Recorded as 598m (1962ft), this is an western outlier of Mynydd Coch.
Fenceline down to Mynydd Coch
A relatively new fence (my evidence being several pieces of the wrappers from the... more
Fenceline below Mynydd Coch
A new fence running across the moor between Carreg y Bîg and Mynydd Coch.
Substantial corner-bracing
On the new fence across the moor, no-one's taking any chances with the bracing at... more
Moorland below Carreg y Bîg
Taken from more or less the same place as [[1238712]], but looking NW across the... more
Down the Hirddu Fach
Barely detectable on the ground in mid summer except as a boggy trickle through... more
Approaching Mynydd Coch from the SW
A little way below the summit trig, this new fence runs across the watershed... more
Mynydd Coch flush bracket
Flush Bracket 10331 embedded into the trig on the summit; originally levelled when... more
Mynydd Coch trig
A fine viewpoint, here looking over to a glimpse of Lake Vyrnwy. The entire area... more
North of Blaen Cownwy
Endless moorland between the Hirddu and Cownwy valleys.
East of Mynydd Coch
This is not country to be taken lightly. Every mile walked has to be fought for;... more
Towards Blaen Cownwy
Looking down the SE hillside of Mynydd Coch towards the valley of the Afon Cownwy.
Marker cairn above Blaen Cownwy
Unmarked on the maps, and not noted by any of the historic artefact surveys... more
The Blaen Cownwy cairn
Perched on a small rocky eminence (there's a bit of an outcrop in the dead ground... more
The Blaen Cownwy cairn
Overlooking the upper Hirddu Fach valley
Moorland in the upper valley of the Hirddu Fach
Across the Hirddu Fach
More or less the opposite view to that taken 8 years ago in [[1238689]] - I think... more
Hillside above the Hirddu Fach
On the northern side of Mynydd Coch, looking across towards the end of the Cefn... more
Headwaters of the Hirddu Fach
Fairly high up in the cwm where the Afon Hirddu Fach rises, it's clearly becoming... more
The upper Hirddu Fach
Small cascade on the Hirddu Fach
Mostly this stream runs deep and reasonably slowly, but there's the occasional... more
The Afon Hirddu Fach
Rowan in the valley of the Hirddu Fach
The first broadleaf tree seen for miles. I noticed none upstream of here at all,... more
Waterfalls on the Afon Hirddu Fach
Marked on the 1:25000 map, these small falls are where the river tumbles over a... more
Old mine workings
A small exploratory mine in the right bank of the Afon Hirddu Fach, with a few... more
Lluest-wen farmstead
Described by the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust as a 'post-medieval farmstead'... more
Well, it's that or paddle
Means to cross the Afon Hirddu Fach just above the confluence with the Hirddu... more
Footbridge below Hafod Fudr
A much more substantial affair than either of the ones off-shot to the left,
one... more
Confluence of the Hirddu rivers
Having been in sight of one or other of these two streams most of the day, it was... more
All images © Richard Law and available under a
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