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We nearly didn’t make it to this one. On the approach road to Garth Hill from Gwaeloo-y-garth there’s a double black arrow shown on the OS pink map (at grid ref ST 114 839). The steepest section comes just after a sharp turn, and Jim’s Escort nearly didn’t make it. The wheels span frantically trying to hold on to what appeared at first glance to be a tarmac cliff and it was only after laying an inch or so of tyre onto the road that we managed to gain purchase. Given the sharp bend behind, you couldn’t really give up and roll back down as you couldn’t see what was coming up behind you. We could smell burning rubber for some time afterwards! If you’re coming from the M4 and like your current tyres I’d strongly recommend using the longer approach road via Pentyrch and Soar instead.
As soon as we got out of the car the heat hit us. I don’t know if the temperature had increased since the previous top, or if it was just that we were at a much lower level, but it was horrifically hot. It turned what should have been a fairly easy stroll into a bit of a gruelling ordeal. We followed the “Ridgeway Walk” up the eastern end of the hill. The views quickly expanded as we climbed, with the turrets of the impressive Castell Coch visible behind us. By the time we reached the top of the short ridge of Garth Hill, the view was unbelievable, one of the best we’ve had from a county top yet. We could not only see the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, we could see right across the Bristol Channel to the coast of Avon and Somerset. This on a day when the Met Office had forecast just “moderate” visibility! We walked along the ridge towards the highest point. There were surprisingly few other walkers around – I assume everyone was too busy skulking in the shade. On the way we marked several large mounds shown on the OS map as tumuli, any of which could have been the basis for “The Englishman who…”. A trig point on top of the largest tumulus marked the summit of the hill. Sweating profusely and feeling headachy from the heat and sun we tried to shelter in the very small patch of shade afforded by the trig. Needless to say, it wasn’t enough, but it was an opportunity to gulp down plenty of water! An information panel nearby said that the tumuli were ancient burial mound, but astonishingly didn’t mention the film – perhaps the locals had got fed up of tourists coming to see the hill. We left the hill still on the Ridgeway Path, where it ran off the western
end of the hill, and returned to the car. We had been planning to do another
top today but I had succumbed to my usual heatstroke – I don’t
know why I’m so vulnerable. I felt absolutely terrible, to the point
that I actually threw up (fortunately into a bag) in Jim’s car on
the way home. He was remarkably understanding in the circumstances, but
it was a poor end to what had been an excellent day’s bagging, and
a sad way to see in our 80th county top.
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We’d
been looking forward to Garth Hill for some time – this was the
hill featured in the book “The Englishman who went up a hill and
came down a mountain”, the film of which starred Hugh Grant. The
film told the tale of nearby villagers who had always been proud to call
Garth Hill “the first mountain in Wales”. That was, until
the day the Ordnance Survey turned up to measure it. As it clocked in
at just a shade under 1,000 feet the OS said it couldn’t be called
a mountain. The villagers immediately formulated a plan to reinstate their
precious mountain. Coming up with a series of excuses to keep the surveyors
in the village, the villagers set about building a huge mound on top of
the hill to bring it up to the requisite height of a mountain. The story
is, of course, just that – a fiction. But I’d thoroughly enjoyed
the film, and felt that this added dimension would make the hill a suitable
venue to celebrate our landmark 80th county top.