Images

Image of Carn Bwlch Corog (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

The cairn visible upon Pen Carreg Gopa was a siren call... but a very difficult ask owing to the terrain.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Bwlch Corog (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Looking towards the similarly cairn-topped Cerrig Blaencletwr-Fawr and Foel Goch..

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

Articles

An audience with this small, yet well-formed proved much harder than it looked...

Miscellaneous

Carn Bwlch Corog
Round Cairn

Bwlch Corog is a 1,266ft outlier of Pumlumon (despite the somewhat misleading name suggesting ‘mountain pass’) which, together with its more imposing neighbour, Pen Carreg Gop, overlooks the north-eastern aspect of Cwm Einion... Ceredigion’s celebrated ‘Artists Valley’. Hey, for once the moniker checks out, too, the locale having received formative visits from one JMW Turner and, much more recently, being home to a certain Mr Plant who (apparently) was inspired to write ‘Stairway to Heaven’ here with some other bloke amongst the ancient tilio-acerion native woodland. Just so you know.

The cwm is indeed aesthetically pleasing, the cascading Afon Einion engaging in all manner of gymnastics within the dense foliage. This was The Citizen Cairn’s first venture into this artistic realm, having viewed it from the heights of Foel Goch and Esgair Foel-ddu to the southwest previously, both crowned by prehistoric cairns. I park beside Badge Lodge and head along a forestry track to the isolated farm of Pemprys to the northeast, this name-checking the river flowing through the isolated cwm.

Heading east now, exchanging waves with the cheery, turban-wearing occupant, I cross a tributary before beginning what in the end proves a very tiring ascent to the summit. Yeah, this is Mid Wales, blanket bog and purple moor grass (Molinia caerulea) ensuring the going is very, very difficult indeed and making a mockery of the ‘limited height gain’. Not before time, I arrive at the small Bronze Age round cairn not quite at the summit.

Occasional thundery showers rake me with their aqueous content... but this is nonetheless a good place to be. To the west rises the aforementioned Pen Carreg Gop, perhaps surmounted by another such monument not marked on my map? I hadn’t intended to visit; however, somehow the undertaking now becomes an imperative...

Sites within 20km of Carn Bwlch Corog