Carnedd Llewelyn Cairn(s) View all content for Carnedd Llewelyn

We ascended the Carneddau via the twin lakes of Dulyn and Melynllyn. Whilst sheltering from the absolutely ferocious winds we consumed some butties in the refuge on Foel Grach. En route from Grach to Llewelyn we stood and admired Yr Elen for a while whilst momentarily out of the wind. Ive seen her through the winter mist from Dafydd but this is the first time I've seen her from above, and she is very pretty. But tearing our selves away we carry on towards the third highest mountain in Wales and England, and therefore the highest cairn in Wales and England. The mountain top is a wide area as big as a football pitch, strewn with wind and frost tormented rock formations that strangely reminded me of Gaudi's Sagrada Família in Barcelona. Everywhere is covered in shrapnel from these rocks leaving us in no doubt where all the material for the cairn came from, none of this carrying stones from miles away, there's enough material here for half a dozen Loughcrew type chambers, and wouldnt that be very cool. So why such a comparatively small cairn, ten meters from the cairn is a wind shelter, perhaps they took these stones from the cairn, surely the cairn on Llewelyn can't have been smaller than Grach's or Dafydd's, or just perhaps the preeminent mountain top was enough, pole position is pole position it doesn't have to be bigger because it's already on top as it were. But if a beard clothed giant were interred here you'd expect a bigger cairn, wouldn't you. There was quite a lot of people up here, some were definitely not suitably attired, but what is suitably attired on such a hot day, i'm used to wrapping up warm and hiding from the rain. It was time to go, still many miles to cover, we sadly bid adieu to Carnedd Llewelyn and made our way down to Tristans cairn then further down to Craig yr Ysfa, the narrow ridge between Pen yr Helgi du and Pen Llithrig y Wrach, going down on to the ridge and back up the other side was not too taxing but it was certainly no walk in the park, but it was absolutely the best part of the walk, apart from the moment when Alken stumbled whilst fumbling with his camera, "whoa whoa whoa" said I. Legs shaking and muttering the occasional swear word we made it, now for a scramble off the mountain at Bwlch y tri Marchog and a long walk along the Cwm Eigiau and the reservoir. Staggering, in more than just one way.

Posted by postman 28th May 2012ce

Comments (1)
I think the little stumble focussed my mind nicely for the scramble, as Wainwright said, just watch where you're putting your feet.	Posted by thesweetcheat 28th May 2012ce
You must be logged in to add a comment