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Thursday 18 August 2016

North East Arans

Walk Summary
Esgeiriau Gwynion [Foel Rhudd] from Bwlch Sirddyn.
Easy enough navigation handrailing fences
to three of the days four Nuttalls
Not the route as planned due to not being able to find suitable parking anywhere along Cwm Croes between Talardd and Nant-y-Llyn. So a quick re-plan on the hoof heading back to Talardd and see if I can find a start point to the south.
Heading south towards Dinas Mawddwy, ascending to Bwlch y Groes and looking to my right it soon became obvious I could save myself a fair bit of ascent by starting from this side if I could find a parking spot. I should not have been surprised after all the pouring over maps, but was when I came across the the car park at Bwlch y Groes viewing point.
Starting from here meant there was only about 200m of ascent and easy navigation by following the fence to the first summit of Llechwedd Du. There was still the steep descent and slightly less steep re-ascent to Foel Hafod-fynydd but by then on this route over half the route had been walked.
Although not enjoying the bright sunshine of the weeks other two walks it was still clear enough to see a descent route down to Bwlch Sirddyn to again resume handrailing the fence to the summit of the days high point and Marilyn Esgeiriau Gwynion [Foel Rhudd].
At this point I was still intending to pick off the Dewey Llechwedd Llyfn but somehow the idea did not seem so appealing so I headed for the fourth and final Nuttall of the day Foel Rhudd.
Now I am back writing this up I am somewhat disappointed I did not pick up this isolated peak, but hey, I am not even doing the Deweys so why am I feeling frustrated I did not show a bit more resolve on the day. Probably because when I have finished the Nuttalls followed by the Munros, Corbetts, Grahams etc I will probably return to the Deweys. Who knows, well I do actually, I will be returning to this list when I want a break from north of the border and fancy a bit of hill walking closer to home.
Anyway that is for the future. For now I can see the van parked across the upper reaches of Cwm Cynllwyd but rather than heading down then up I will descending Foel Rhudd to the bwlch then contouring along the 580m contour on south side of Clipiau Duon more or less below the heather line and back to the van at Bwlch y Groes.
More or less the same distance walked on this improvised route but quite a lot less ascent. All in all a better route if you don't count not including Llechwedd Llyfn.

Walk Statistics
Walk Date - 18 August 2016
Walkers - Steve Smith

Accommodation - Bala Camping and Caravan Club Site
Start Point- Bwlch y Groes viewing point (SH 91301 23268)
Finish Point Bwlch y Groes viewing point (SH 91301 23268)
Total Duration - 3hrs 37mins 
Overall Average pace - 1.76mph
Total Distance Walked - 6.36 miles
Total Height Ascended - 524.88 metres


Peaks visited
Nuttalls (189W - 443E&W)
Llechwedd Du (159W - 413E&W)
Foel Hafod-fynydd (160W - 414E&W)
Esgeiriau Gwynion [Foel Rhudd] (161W - 415E&W)
Foel Rhudd (162W - 416E&W)
Hewitts (138W - 318E&W)
Llechwedd Du (111W - 290E&W)
Foel Hafod-fynydd (112W - 291E&W)
Esgeiriau Gwynion (113W - 292E&W)
Marilyns (158W - 1556E,W&S)
Esgeiriau Gwynion (91W - 258E,W&S)
Deweys (241E - 421E&W)
NONE
HuMPs (364E - 2975EW&S)
Esgeiriau Gwynion (107W - 341E,W&S)
Historic County Tops (413E - 93E,W&S)
NONE
W: Wales. 
E,W: England & Wales. 
E,W&S:England,Wales & Scotland

Other walks on this trip
2016
August
15th Central Arenigs
16th North Arenigs
18th North East Arans


Route
GPX can be downloaded from
More Photographs
First cairn on Foel Hafod-fynydd. Foel Hafod-fynydd summit on next hill towards Aran Fawddwy in cloud
Click on photograph to view slide-show