Aran Fawddwy

Recommends for route up? Was thinking of going from main road to the west onto the ridge a little south of the summit, then following the ridge north all the way down to Llanuwchllyn. Feasible? It's about 9 miles but I don't know the terrain at all.

Cheers :)

Yes, that would be the route. Sounds possible and decent from what you've said.

Unfortunately it would've been over the last three days, but just spent a complete washout of a long weekend in Dolgellau where several inches of rain fell every day with fog down to 100m. Bit gutted, so will have to wait until next year now. Oh and my camera decided to pack up too :(

Sweetcheat, one of those strange things..... I read your comment prompted by GLADMAN's photo while watching one of the Wainwright Walks on late night telly just now, and something made me then read your profile - which turned out to be a Wainwright quote wherein was the line 'seek and find while there is still time'. In the last seven weeks I have had cause to doubt the length of mine on three occasions, when I've thought I was gone: a ladder incident while working through lack of usual caution and not obeying gut instinct which prompted me to decide it was time to stop and go to Galloway, being charged by cattle at Torhouskie Stone Row while there, and, six days ago, a brake malfunction at speed while driving my Landy. I will spare you the full details save to say that I screamed and cannot quite comprehend how both me and my vehicle are not now in pieces. My prattling on HH may be even more than usual at the moment as a consequence. Somewhat shook up, quietly...I've only told my garage, from where I'd only recently collected it having asked them to check for braking efficiency. Thank you for those words which I intend to take to heart, and thank you and GLADMAN for your pics and fieldnotes. I hope I can join you in a small way. You have my respect for your efforts. Cheers.

Got to agree with that. The reason I enjoy coming to TMA so much is that it's a 100% community effort, rather than one person's vision or version. Every new contribution adds to the pot and purely on a personal level the must-see list gets ever longer. I reckon we all inspire each other, whether it's to get out and see something we haven't seen before, to try to take better pictures to share here, or to capture something in a note that might inspire someone else to get out there after us.

I think Wainwright got it pretty much spot on in that quote. Your recent brushes with an alternative existence certainly reinforce it too.

I'm constantly humbled by the sites I visit, I'm both in awe of the minds that built them with such limited tools and resources, but also of the wonderful landscapes around them. The further they are from all the crap of day to day modern life, the better. Another quote probably sums up my other reasons for heading for the hills:

"The movers move, the shakers shake, the winners write their history, but from high on the high hills it all looks like nothing" (Justin Sullivan)

To pick up Gladman's point about "without having an adverse effect upon others", Moss once asked if there's a risk that by sharing all this information we are inadvertently advertising locations and directions to the unscrupulous, the diggers, the robbers. I'm sure there is a risk, but in my mind it's outweighed by the ability of places like TMA to raise awareness of what's there for the good. Awareness - knowledge - of these places makes them better protected, ironically. An unvisited site, forgotten and untended, is far more likely to escape notice when it's ploughed out, or dug into, or flattened with a bulldozer, than one where the evidence is noticed and reported and maybe accompanied by a bit of public outcry. And someone who understands that these things are far more than bits of stone and lumps and bumps is more likely to show a bit of respect and leave the place as they found it (obviously there are always exceptions, sadly).

Sorry, that ended up being a longer response than I intended :)

I am a bit concerned about the unscrupulous fraterniy at the moment, it has to be said. Half of me wants to contact an official body and stay schtum about something - actually plural - at the moment, but I would at the same time hope that images on TMA would result in an official inspection, if this place is as widely read as I would hope. I do not know who to contact. As well as a triple rampart gorse covered hillfort I have found a site which, although I'm not learned I'm veering towards sacred and/or ceremonial as opposed to astronomical for which I can still find no other example on the net in Scotland or elsewhere on mainland UK, plus also what looks like a settlement of approximately ten hut circles of a size, after genning up, apparently typical of the late Bronze Age. Aerial pix for all - cropmarks, shadows and physical features if viewers know what to look for. They do exist. A farm's nearby and in sight of the latter and is only access without one hell of an alternative hike. Still 'twitchy' though.. and, yes, accutely aware that I'm a newbie and have come on here and have started blathering about things I don't fully understand and that others would praps have given their eye teeth, if confirmed, to have come across. Another reason why a bit of me just wants to just contact whoever is the right body, say no more and let things take their course, whatever that may be. I only wanted to take some pics of a few sites and have a bit of a potter about and a chill...