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SwanseaWalk Details: Top details: The Walk: |
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On awakening at Manorbier Youth Hostel, we thought Justin was dead. Eventually he emitted a few grunts which we took to mean that he wasn't coming to breakfast. He later claimed that he always looked this way in the morning, and that he'd had an awful nights sleep because the sheet sleeping bag was too short for him, and he therefore had no room to stretch out his legs. Given that he'd been sleeping about halfway down the bed, we felt that there might be another reason, but we didn't like to say so… For several days they'd been forecasting that today was going to be atrocious weather - strong gales and heavy rain. This wasn't what we wanted to hear before we went off county-topping, but we felt that there wasn't any way it could be worse than what we'd battled through on Craig y Llyn the previous day. In fact, on leaving Manorbier YHA in the morning there was nothing worse than a light drizzle and gentle winds. Despite this we decided that in the circumstances we would stick to the lower hills in the area. We briefly explored Manorbier before leaving - nice castle, shame about the pebbly beach. We skimmed a few stones & watched the surfers out in the bay (they never seem to do much but bob on the waves), before heading back home (via a couple of hills, of course). Penlle-r-Castell would be our third marilyn of the weekend. Despite being the highest point of an "urban" unitary authority, and therefore akin to the awful Reading & Slough tops, it looked pretty nice from the map, being well away from Swansea itself. It looked like it had a nice treeless & fairly pointy top, with an "ancient site"l nearby. If the weather cleared up, the views should be good - if it didn't, it could be horribly exposed. I'd have like to have walked up Penlle-r-Castell, but there was no obvious short circular route we could take; there was a road running straight over the top, and given the weather I was quite happy to take the easier option for once! The road up Penlle-r-Castell from Ammanford to the north-west was steep and winding; tough going for my Fiesta carrying three blokes and all their stuff. After passing the Scotch Pine pub we could see what looked suspiciously like moorland each side, and a few car parks for "viewpoints" were signposted. We pulled into one put couldn't make out the view through the dense cloud and driving rain. This did not bode well for the summit… After a slight descent, we turned right and went up a steep hill. When the road started to drop again we knew we'd passed the summit, and I reversed perilously back up the road and into a space at the edge. As we were trying with some difficulty to put on all the waterproof clothing we owned whilst remaining inside the car, we saw a bizarre sight. You know that scene out of the film "Outbreak" where dozens of military helicopters rise over the horizon at once to seal off a plague-ridden town? Bear that in mind, and now imagine dozens of ramblers, clad in identical blue macs drawstring'd up to their noses, suddenly rising over the crest of the hill. They looked a weary and miserable bunch as they trudged over the hilltop without even stopping to look at the "Castell". We waited for them to leave before getting out of the car, just so we wouldn't look as stupid to them as they did to us!
According to other sources on the web, the highest point is only meant to be a few metres away from the road. To us, the Castell a hundred or so metres further on looked higher, and so we went there - a very easy walk given the wind was behind us! On reaching it we ascertained that it was definitely higher by a metre or so (unfortunately without a GPS system we couldn't determine the exact grid reference, so the one above still shows the point nearer the road). Penlle'r-Castell turned out to be the grassy hump-and-bump remains of a medieval village. It was more substantial than many of these hump-and-bump sites are - it even had its very own sign! We took our summit photo here. Given that the camera clearly had to point away from the wind and rain, the photographees crouched and tried to block out the rain until the photographer shouted "TURN!" at which point they would briefly and bravely jump up and face the camera (and the rain and wind!). Heading back to the car we faced the wind and rain, and were consequentially soaked through to our rude bits. In just a hundred or so metres struggle we got as wet as we had in several miles walking on Craig y Llyn the previous day. I have a theory that there's spectacular views from Penlle-r-Castell, it's just that we couldn't see any today. The abundance of car parking reinforces this theory, and if I'm ever back in the area I might pop up here to see if I'm right. The open moorland vegetation certainly suggested the kindof hill I like… as long as those scary hikers aren't there next time!
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Stepping
out of the car was like stepping into the spin cycle of a washing machine
- sheets of water (it was to wet to be mere "rain") were being
driven across the hilltop by gale force winds. This was the weather we
were promised and no mistake! Refereshing, I'd call it. Justin didn't
concur and refused to leave the car, and then bizarrely joined us a few
minutes later.