{"id":212,"date":"2009-12-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=112"},"modified":"2011-01-24T21:30:18","modified_gmt":"2011-01-24T21:30:18","slug":"import112","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=212","title":{"rendered":"Plynlimon, West Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">window.onload = setupZoom; function popwalk(walk) {var url = \"\/Walks\/amap.php?f=\"+walk;\nvar walkwindow=window.open(url,\"walkwin\",\"height=700,width=800,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes\"); if (window.focus) {walkwindow.focus()}}<\/script>First published in: The Times <a href=\"javascript:popwalk('Plynlimon.gpx');\" title=\"Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window\">Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/4095688794_d5695bcded.jpg\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/4095688794_d5695bcded_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/4094928429_24ae88607f.jpg\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/4094928429_24ae88607f_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/4094928725_43c7aa5b69.jpg\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/4094928725_43c7aa5b69_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/4094928863_046b0ca0ca.jpg\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/4094928863_046b0ca0ca_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/4094929049_505a474cf9.jpg\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/4094929049_505a474cf9_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/4094929267_c99569626f.jpg\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/4094929267_c99569626f_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/4095689950_09605e88c7.jpg\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/4095689950_09605e88c7_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nFacebook Link: <script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=212\" layout=\"button_count\" show_faces=\"true\" width=\"200\" colorscheme=\"dark\"><\/fb:like><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0.35cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"JUSTIFY\">When the supreme egotist and ferocious walker George Borrow ascended Plynlimon in 1854, he called at the Castell Dyffryn Inn to engage a guide, &lsquo;a tall athletic fellow, dressed in a brown coat, round bluff hat, corduroy trowsers, linen leggings and highlows.&rsquo; This splendid chap proved reluctant to take the East Anglian writer to the source of the River Rheidol &ndash; &lsquo;the path, sir, as you see, is rather steep and dangerous&rsquo;. But Borrow, collecting material for his classic travelogue <em>Wild Wales<\/em>, was in no mood to be gainsaid. &lsquo;It is not only necessary for me to see the sources of the rivers,&rsquo; he informed his guide, &lsquo;but to drink from them, that in after times I may be able to harangue about them with a tone of confidence and authority.&rsquo;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0.35cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"JUSTIFY\">Three rivers have their source close together on Plynlimon&rsquo;s rough summit &#8211; Rheidol, Wye and Severn. Jane and I, having no need to harangue about them, were aiming simply to get to the top of the mountain. Our walking companion, Liz Fleming-Williams, surveys the region&rsquo;s peat bogs for the Countryside Commission for Wales, a calling that has led her to the kind of revelation on the hilltops that Burrow would have empathised with, a sense of how closely Welsh poetry, music, art and language are bound up with this beautiful and sombre landscape.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0.35cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"JUSTIFY\">We strode up the old miners&rsquo; track towards a long-abandoned lead mine in the southern flank of the mountain; then on up a faint track through heather and bilberry, reindeer moss, black peat hags and bent grass. &lsquo;Listen!&rsquo; said Liz, holding up a finger. Not a sound, bar the complaints of sheep and the hiss of wind.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0.35cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"JUSTIFY\">Up in the summit shelter, two Cornish surfies had arrived from their camp on the shores of Nant-y-Moch reservoir below. Hospitably they poured us tea, and we took in the hundred-mile view: Preseli Hills in far off Pembrokeshire, a huge arc of Cardigan Bay, the Ll&#375;n Peninsula misty on the horizon; Cader Idris, the Brecon Beacons, the mountains of Snowdonia. Only the semaphore arms of a windfarm, sited smack in the middle of an ecologically sensitive peat bog nearer at hand, told of the greedy crassness of man. George Borrow would have had a crisp harangue suitable for the subject at his fingertips. But for now we had to make do with the cheep of pipits and the sigh of the cold mountain wind.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><u>Start &amp; finish<\/u>: Eisteddfa-Gurig car park (OS ref SN 799841) &#8211; &pound;3 charge <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><u>Getting there<\/u>: 4&frac12; miles east of Ponterwyd on A44, Aberystwyth-Llangurig<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><u>Walk<\/u> (5 miles, moderate, OS Explorer 213): From car park, up farm drive past &lsquo;Caution, children playing&rsquo; notice. Right through yard past dog kennels. In 30 yards, bridleway sign points left; bear right through gate (797841) along stony track. Ignore first right turn; follow track as it curves right over stream and climbs for 1 mile to old mine. Just before it swings right to cross Afon Tarennig (795897), white arrow\/green background on post points left up faint track. Follow this for &frac34; mile to summit of Plynlimon (789869).<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"JUSTIFY\">Descending: turn back with fence on your right, and keep near it. Cross stile at 787857. Left at forestry (784851):  follow fence with trees on your right. Cross stile at 786849; continue along fence, to meet rough road back to car park.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"JUSTIFY\">NB: Family-friendly. Hill-walking gear. Track from mine to summit hard to find in mist.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><u>Lunch<\/u>: Picnic  <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><u>Accommodation<\/u>: Ffynnon Cadno B&amp;B, Ponterwyd (01970-890224; <font color=\"#0000ff\"><u><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ffynnoncadno.co.uk\/\" class=\"western\">www.ffynnoncadno.co.uk<\/a><\/u><\/font>)<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><u>Dinner<\/u>: George Borrow Hotel, Ponterwyd (01970-890230; <font color=\"#0000ff\"><u><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thegeorgeborrowhotel.co.uk\/\" class=\"western\">www.thegeorgeborrowhotel.co.uk<\/a><\/u><\/font>)<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><u>Information<\/u>: Aberystwyth TIC (01970-612125); <font color=\"#0000ff\"><u><a href=\"http:\/\/www.visitwales.co.uk\/\" class=\"western\">www.visitwales.co.uk<\/a><\/u><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><em>Wild Wales<\/em> by George Borrow (Bridge Books)<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"JUSTIFY\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three rivers have their source close together on Plynlimon&#8217;s rough summit &#8211; Rheidol, Wye and Severn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-walks","category-3-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}