A damp walk on the Cambrian Way in Wales taking in Plynlimon, and the sources of the rivers Wye and Severn but not seeing very much apart from sheep. 

Distance: 13 miles to Dylife, 10 from there to Commins Coch

Dates walked:  14th and 15th August 2018

Maps used:

OS Explorer 213: Aberystwyth&Cwm Rheidol

OS Explorer 214: Llanidloes &Newtown

OS Explorer 215: Newtown & Machynlleth

OS OL 23: Cadair Idris and Llyn Tegid

Guide Book: Cambrian Way – The Mountain Connoisseur’s Walk by A.J. Drake

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Hardly a day goes by without one of my avid readers asking me when I am going to return to the Cambrian Way. I left off last October when Paul and I had a miserable first day’s climb to Plynlimon, involving soaking feet, followed by a glorious second day.  If you like to see people suffer, here’s the link. But  Neil couldn’t make it then so I resolved to return with him and hope for a better Plynlimon climb. Well you would expect that August should provide decent weather, wouldn’t you? Ha ha.

This had been one of the driest summers recorded so I had hopes that the boggy, squlechy ground that Paul and I had encountered had dried up somewhat. The forecast wasn’t great, though.

We were Ok for the first half a mile or so as we made our way up the steep path from Dyffryn Castell.

He’s a stickler when it comes to checking we ware on the right path

But by the time we had reached about 1,000 feet, the view down to the A44 below us was pretty murky…..

… and in another half a mile and 500 feet higher, the only view we had was of the sheep on our path.

I need to get a sheep pic in early or I know some readers attention will drift.

The route plateaus for a while and follows the edge of the wood  called Dyll Faen. At this point last year we had already got thoroughly wet from driving rain; this year it was much firmer underfoot.  A  curiosity was an artificial Christmas tree with lights attached to the fence; a seasonal gesture, I assumed, from a farmer to his flock and/or Yuletide walkers.

No, the lights weren’t still working, obvs.

Leaving the wood, we returned to a moderately steep climb, as as we did, so visibility declined.

By the time we were approaching Plynlimon’s summit of 2,467 feet it was probably about 30 yards.

This was disappointing; at least I had once had the glorious view from the top on a previous walk with my friend Bob, but Neil had waited a long time for this and there were just no “oos” and “ahhs” to be had. Pictures were taken nevertheless.

Triumph!

Oh dear, there is so much wrong here

Plynlimon is strewn with boulders and in this damp weather they were very slippery, so we beat a careful retreat to the adjacent cairn…

Thanks to Neil for the pic

…., for, in my case, a banana; Neil’s snack of choice is usually a pasty (hence his tummy being more prominent than mine).

Thanks to Neil for the pic

We were joined by some solitary walker who had taken a different route up than ours; we left him to his lunchbox and plodded on. There isn’t a lot to see for the next few miles at the best of times but we paused at one of several  boundary stones one comes across of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynne. 

I should have been wearing gaiters

When Paul and I were getting drenched last year we had no enthusiasm for searching out the source of the rivers Wye and Severn, both of which are close to the path. Neil and I were keen to find these spots.  There is no marker of any kind for the Wye. We left the path and dropped down the side of the hill though long tusscoky grass and made for the the point shown on our map.  And there it was!

Clever of us to find it, don’t you think?

It was strange to think that the fifth longest river in the UK starts from this little trickle out of the side of a hill. I thought it would be fun to do a little video and I was standing by it, Neil says “look there’s a sign”.  Here’s the clip on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=Xy2Omn2-dQM

Neil is such a sweetie!

The source of the Severn was two miles further on and the only thing we passed that I thought of interest was a huge bank of peat.

OK, not very interesting

The Severn source is signposted and was only a hundred yards or so off the path. At 220 miles long, the Severn is the longest river in the UK, so I suppose it is understandable that more is made of its boggy beginnings than that of the Wye. It also has a long distance path – The Severn Way –  that starts (or finishes) here. Nevertheless I was still surprised by the paved stones and sturdy post.

Thanks for the pic, Neil

And as Neil pointed out….

He loves a point

… the actual source is at least 20 yards above the marker post. But that’s me just being a bit picky.

Back at the path there was a stile crossing a fence and a path not marked on the map. Our route is supposed to head for a feature due north called Carn Fawr, though no path was discernible to it. Last year Paul and I were flummoxed as to what route to take, tried both briefly, and found neither satisfactory, leading to a very unpleasant mile of wading through very boggy and rutted terrain and to Paul picking up a groin strain.  Neil and I resolved to keep to the official route come what may.

By hook or by crook we did find Carn Fawr -which proved to be a large cairn….

One might ask why anyone bothered to make this

…. with a hole in the middle.

Not a very deep or indeed comfortable hole

Half a mile north of that we were supposed to reach a bridge over a stream. Well, the path ceased to exist and the boggy, tussocky ground familiar to me was as tiresome (though not as boggy) as I remember, but the cloud had lifted somewhat, so we could, at least see the direction we were making for.

In a while we could make out the River Hengwm we needed to cross…

Nice meanders

… and pressing on, with next to nothing to go on on the ground…..

….the bridge was found (despite it being well camouflaged).

From here a path of sorts was more obvious and we arrived at a wide gravel track not nearly as exhausted as we might have been, though with little appetite for more bog walking.

Our path took us by the boat house on the shore of the lake called Bugellyn…

Rubbish pic – full zoom so camera shake

….the path passing between this and another lake to rise to a ruined cottage.  The map shows a short cut path here, but our guide book and our inclination was to avoid it.

Avoided even by sheep

From here on it was the walking equivalent of plain sailing as we joined Glyndwr’s Way and tacked East to wards Dylife. Our only encounter was with a cyclist who we observed had been fiddling about with a marker post; my theory, backed up by a plastic box of rattling stuff that she had on a rack behind her was that she was checking/replacing marker post signs.

Below us was the gorge of the river Clywedog.

Ahead the obviously mad-made remains of the mine workings. Bob and I had explored these a little on a walk we did in 2015 – here’s a link to that post.

Lead was almost certainly mined in this area from Roman times, though the busiest period of exploitation was in the early 1700’s. But whereas Dylife ended production in 1901, here, the mine being owned by Germans, the Franco-Prussian War caused it to close in the 1870’s. It got a second lease of life in the early 1930’s but this was short-lived and it was finally dismantled in 1935 as the price of lead had fallen making it uneconomic to continue.

When Bob and I had done this walk the deviation to the lead mine workings had got us way off course so I was careful to ensure that we took a left fork in the path that headed direct for Dylife. Having done that, this path was elusive but the grass was short and the ground firm and we made our way easily enough to wards the road that leads to Dylife.

In theory there is a short path that avoids a half a mile detour, which at this time of the day was compelling. Except that no one appeared to have walked it since Bob and up struggled up it three years ago and Paul and I had struggled down it last year. Powys County Council please note.

After leaping a small stream we did find a track that through by a couple of properties to Esgair-galed farm, where I was very taken with their distressed shed….

…. and by a neat stack of bundled moss.

My theory was that this was  gleaned from the surrounding boggy ground and destined for hanging baskets. Neil’s was that the farmer would scatter them around his land as decoy sheep and that sheep numbers were assessed by aerial photography for the purposes of assessing EU subsidies. And he was a Reamainer.

We were staying at The Star at Dylife – there is no where else to stay for miles.

At £85 a night for a room I think that they are slightly exploiting their position. On the other hand you have to give it to them for trying to make a living here at all.  I do have some quibbles, though.

Our rooms were comfortable and my newly done out en-suite bathroom was brilliant with an excellent shower and huge bath (but no door on the clothes cupboard). Neils bright pink bathroom was not only en-suite but his massive roll-top bath sat opposite the bed with no division between bed and bath. So no bathroom privacy at all. The food is OK bar food (though things drop off the menu pretty quickly). They have no draught real beer which is a big downer. They have a good range of bottled beers but are are too cold from the chiller cabinet , so if you want a beer specify it to be off the shelf. And finally I have not been given tinned tomatoes in a cooked breakfast for years. I took this up with the breakfast cook who told me that a lot of people prefer tinned to fresh tomatoes. I thought that this was a load of bulls–t. What do you think?

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I hope Neil will not be offended but  although we did do the second days’s walk through to Commins Coch, I don’t propose to devote a separate post to it. The reason being that the weather wasn’t nearly as nice as when Paul and I had done it and I took relatively few pics. 

We did come across a lot of sheep, though, so here’s a group sheep shot……

You can’t have enough sheep

….a nice pic of Neil wanting the next hill to disappear….

…. and one of him pointing out that the map was just wrong and there is no path through the corner of the wood.

I told you he likes to point

The garden at Commins Coch was still there and Neil, like Paul, found no objection to it….

… but the steep path down to the village that had been recently strimmed when Paul and I had walked it was completely overgrown. 

So to finish off, here’s a pic of Neil without this trousers on…

Discreet, eh?

… and a celebratory selfie.

Count the wrinkles

And that’s it from the Cambrian Way for a while.  There’s some serious hills ahead of us and for various reasons we have decided to return, with Paul, all being well, in the Spring. Toodle pip.