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Cairn(s)
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At 1,713ft Gyrn Ddu - together with its slightly lower neighbour Gyrn Goch - may well not feature upon the itineraries of those route-marching muppets who pigeonhole the Great Outdoors by the sole criterion of 'height' above Ordnance Datum... however, more fool them, I say. Particularly if one happens to possess a penchant for ancient upland cairns... a Citizen Cairn, you might say?
Now Gyrn Ddu has not one, but a trio of such enigmatic monuments perched upon its eastern (two) and western shoulders, all of which can be visited by way of a circular walk starting from the A499, below to the west. In addition, a number of ancient hut groupings can be seen along the way... hey, the former homes of the folks who erected the cairns back in the day, right? Makes sense to me.
Beware of the so-called 'experts' who may tell you this is an 'easy walk'. For sure, the logical anti-clockwise route from Rock Cottage, albeit a touch steep in places, may well be upon grass all the way to these two eastern cairns.... but any punter making the progression to the summit and subsequent descent to the fine western monument will encounter far rougher terrain more reminiscent of Y Rhinogydd. So watch those ankles...
The cairns upon this eastern shoulder are unfortunately bisected by parasitical drystone walls clearly sourced from the monuments, yet nevertheless remain pretty substantial: Coflein reckons both are c45ft in diameter, the southern somewhat higher nowadays (although whether there was originally such disparity is a moot point, given the damage). Interestingly, I noted another, smaller cairn immediately beyond the northern monument. Do we have a cemetery here?
Whatever, it is the utterly wondrous vistas towards the rest of Lleyn - Tre'r Ceiri and Mynydd Carnguwch taking centre stage - not to mention more-or-less the whole of Northern Snowdonia, which form la pièce de résistance of this place.
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Posted by GLADMAN
23rd November 2022ce
Edited 23rd November 2022ce
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