Author Topic: Walking  (Read 820787 times)

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Offline Pendragon

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Re: Walking
« Reply #495 on: October 28, 2011, 12:57:15 am »
Thank you both I'm glad you like my posts.  I have to get a dog of my own soon.
Only hindsight has 20/20 vision
Angiegram - A romantic notion derived from the more mundane truth.

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." -Bob Marley

Offline stephenprudence

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Re: Walking
« Reply #496 on: October 28, 2011, 11:27:55 am »
I agree with others, definitely book material!

I know how tiring a long walk like that can be, I once did 21 miles from The English side to the Welsh side.. took me 4.5 hours walking fairly fast, to say I was tired would be a horrific understatement


Offline DaveR

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Re: Walking
« Reply #497 on: October 28, 2011, 11:47:34 am »
Just before the old candle factory building on the Henryd road poking through the trees I saw a house up for sale called Plas Iolyn it was advertised as a gentlemens residence? set in 4 acre of land offers over £395k.  I had to take a look it was a huge derelict house.  I took some photos of the exterior.  I looked in through one of the windows into a huge room with a bar in one side and a magnificent old snooker table complete with all the balls this place was awesome.  There were two young lads playing in the garden and one explained it was  his Great Nains house but she was now in her nineties hence the sale.  There was a small court yard at the back with a water pump fixed to the wall.
http://www.robbie-howarth.co.uk/attachment_library/d_3147S_0.pdf

Offline Hugo

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Re: Walking
« Reply #498 on: October 28, 2011, 04:04:59 pm »
Pendragon,I've found the details of your walks quite fascinating and the photos illustrating your walks are great too. I didn't realise how many walks there are in the local area until you started posting them.
When I was in John Bright's School the lads from Pen and Conwy would often talk about their walks on the Carneddau and of the Plane wreckage they used to find up there but I never started walking there until about 15 years ago.
I can't wait to do some of your local walks but at the moment I'm not walking due to a back injury and minor op on the leg. About 18 months ago I got bitten on the calf by a Horse Fly and the little b****** caused an infection and it required 3 stitches when they operated!
 I'll invest in insect repellent in the future.   

Offline Welshmunchkin

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Re: Walking
« Reply #499 on: October 28, 2011, 07:22:03 pm »
Pendragon, I too find the details of your walks fascinating, you seem to be very knowledable about the local area. I would like to ask you, can you (or any other members) sugest any local walks of interest that are on the flat? I have a few health problems and find I can no longer walk uphill ( boy, do I live in the wrong place!) I would love to find interesting walks that I can manage, especially if you can advise me of interesting sites along the way.By local I mean anywhere between say Penmaenmawr, Conwy and around Llandudno. :)
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.  --Stephen Hawking

God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know - it's me!    --John G. Miller

Offline Blodyn

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Re: Walking
« Reply #500 on: October 28, 2011, 08:51:28 pm »
Pendragon, I love the story of your Llangelynin walk!  Your accounts are so informative and entertaining - I'm looking forward to hearing about your next walk. 

Offline Pendragon

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Re: Walking
« Reply #501 on: October 28, 2011, 11:42:52 pm »
My plans for today were to walk over to Penmaenmawr as I haven't seen my mate Ali Gugs for what seems like an eternity.   ZXZ My intention was to walk over the pass to where the ice cream van parks that's where the hill becomes steep on the decent into Dwygyfylchi, then take the mountain path up where the big wooden gate is on the right (through that gate is the most beautiful old woods with a path that leads you down to the reservoir/marsh) then walk over to the Jubilee posts and round the path and take photos of the mine and the cave we used to play in as kids and arrive in Ali Gug's around 4pm then walk home along the cycle path back over to Conwy.
This time Socs and I were prepared I haven't got a small back pack so I improvised with a black canvas shoulder bag, in went Socs shmacho bars, a small plastic bowl, her ball and a bottle of water, with no room left in the bag I settled with a scotch egg (I'm not joking either) and I'd have to share Socs water   ???
We set off around 1ish up towards St Agnes road and headed towards the Sychnant Pass.  As we walked Socs kept turning round and looking at me as if to say "I know you won't throw my ball here"  :( That's when all my plans went out the window, so we took the first footpath just before Pinewood and cut through the field and over the bridge up onto Conwy mountain.  The views from up there are lovely mountains, fields and trees as far as the eye can see.  We'd only just joined the main track when I noticed the wild ponies so Socs ball was confiscated and she was swiftly put back on the lead.  I've never seen the ponies this close before they just stood watching us as we passed, I was quite surprised as they had a foal with them too.

Only hindsight has 20/20 vision
Angiegram - A romantic notion derived from the more mundane truth.

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." -Bob Marley

Offline Pendragon

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Re: Walking
« Reply #502 on: October 29, 2011, 12:34:12 am »
Once the ponies were safely behind us the lead was off and the ball returned to Socs we carried on along the NW trail towards Alltwen (the site of an old fortress) there's a marshy area there and I really want to go with the metal detector one day but I'm not sure if it's legal (and you know me  :D) apparently in pre historic times people used to throw artifacts and the like into marshes as offerings to the gods during buriels and other religious ceremonies.  Lots of items have been found in and around marshes and bogs.
We crossed the road at the top of the pass and followed the track up and over towards Pen.  We got most of the way up the hill and decided to sit on the conveniently situated bench.  Socs was making me laugh as she kept dropping her ball and she'd have to chase it back down the mountain again, well it was funny until she became distracted by the shmachos and the water, off it bounced down the track with me going "Socs Socs get your ball" and her sniffing round completely at a loss as to where it had gone, so guess who had to run down the flaming hill and then walk back up with it.....yep this soppy mare!!
I took a photo from the bench where I finally got to eat my scotch egg....well most of it y'see Socs likes Smachos and scotch eggs  :roll: you can see the path way up to Alltwen in the distance. 
We followed a really narrow path round the side of the mountain above Dwygyfylchi then walked up through a road cut between fields towards the higher ground.  Just round the corner I saw the most idyllic little old derelict cottage it was set at the foot of a field surrounded by a solid stone wall you can see the old stone fire place and where the oven was, the remains of out buildings and a perfectly laid out garden with a gap where the gate was.  The cottage was probably one of the nicest sites I've seen so far as this is the first time I've ever been round this side of the mountain.  What I didn't know either is once you walk up the path a little further it all turns to march lands and you haven't got a hope in hell of crossing it without walking most of the way to the top before you can get to dry land.  I know it's tight but I could see two walkers near the bottom trying to cross and each time they returned as the ground got soggier and soggier.  I think they must have climbed on the wall in the end well that or they sank....I never saw them again  ???
Only hindsight has 20/20 vision
Angiegram - A romantic notion derived from the more mundane truth.

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." -Bob Marley

Offline Pendragon

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Re: Walking
« Reply #503 on: October 29, 2011, 12:50:53 am »
Just before the ground becomes marsh there was a clearing behind a huge split stone, in this clearing is a pile of rocks but positioned around it are large flat leaning stones.  In the distance on top of the next hill are even bigger marker stones (they have to have a name Hugo you'll know) this is when I decided to make use of the mini binoculars with night vision  8) I had to have months ago but never used........they were neither use nor ornament rubbish is what they are, I couldn't see properly in the day so what chance have I got in the dark !!  I decided to take a closer look with my normal eyes at the huge rock behind me, it had a deep crevice running across it and each side was lined with quartz? this was a very significant commodity in pre history people used to put quartz pebbles on buriel sites (according to my very good friend Tony............Robinson that is  :roll:)
Only hindsight has 20/20 vision
Angiegram - A romantic notion derived from the more mundane truth.

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." -Bob Marley

Offline Pendragon

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Re: Walking
« Reply #504 on: October 29, 2011, 01:16:47 am »
After what seemed like ages we managed to traverse the marsh get back on the track and walk over, down towards the wooden bridge over towards the farm and the stile that joins the road down to the Jubilee Pillars.  This extract taken from the Penmaenmawr and Dwygyfylchi tourism page These pillars were built in 1888 to mark the opening of the Jubilee Path. This is a circular walk opened for visitors staying at the popular Victorian resort of Penmaenmawr to enjoy the panoramic views of the area. more about Jubilee path on the link below.

http://www.penmaenmawr.com/historyJubileewalks.html

If you walk around the Jubilee you can see the now almost completely covered entrance to yet another Mine  ;D and I also took a photo of the cave we played in as kids.  I remember once years ago when I was about 13 a group of us were camping and we all congregated up at Jubilee path.  It was really cold so we decided we'd go round the corner to the cave for shelter, it seemed like a good idea at the time until we reached it and realised how dark it was and most of us chickened out and wouldn't go in but there's always one isn't there and he's always called Dave  :roll: he decided he was going in...........calling us all the Mary Ellens as he ventured into the pitch dark cave.  The next thing all we heard was a loud rustling noise and Dave come screaming like a girl from the cave closely followed by the sheep he'd just inadvertently sat on.... _))* proper funny that was.
Only hindsight has 20/20 vision
Angiegram - A romantic notion derived from the more mundane truth.

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." -Bob Marley

Offline Pendragon

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Re: Walking
« Reply #505 on: October 29, 2011, 01:18:22 am »
Just before the ground becomes marsh there was a clearing behind a huge split stone, in this clearing is a pile of rocks but positioned around it are large flat leaning stones.  In the distance on top of the next hill are even bigger marker stones (they have to have a name Hugo you'll know) this is when I decided to make use of the mini binoculars with night vision  8) I had to have months ago but never used........they were neither use nor ornament rubbish is what they are, I couldn't see properly in the day so what chance have I got in the dark !!  I decided to take a closer look with my normal eyes at the huge rock behind me, it had a deep crevice running across it and each side was lined with quartz? this was a very significant commodity in pre history people used to put quartz pebbles on buriel sites (according to my very good friend Tony............Robinson that is  :roll:)

I just hope Hugo doesn't say yes Ang it's called Druid Circle  &shake&
Only hindsight has 20/20 vision
Angiegram - A romantic notion derived from the more mundane truth.

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." -Bob Marley

Offline Pendragon

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Re: Walking
« Reply #506 on: October 29, 2011, 01:25:41 am »
It was time I was getting off the mountain it was nearly half five by now and the sun was disappearing behind Braich Y dinas (the Quarry) I took a photo of my beloved Penmaenmawr from near the cave entrance and walked down Mountain Lane to get a coffee in Ali Gug's house.  The last photo is of Green Gorge a very steep incline on the mountain, believe it or not as kids we used to fly down here on sledges in the snow.  Many a happy time was spent on this mountain it's only when you see them again the memories come flooding back.
Only hindsight has 20/20 vision
Angiegram - A romantic notion derived from the more mundane truth.

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." -Bob Marley

Offline llandudnotrust

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Re: Walking
« Reply #507 on: October 29, 2011, 11:31:07 am »
Fantastic Pendragon just fantastic.

Offline Pendragon

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Re: Walking
« Reply #508 on: November 01, 2011, 09:11:16 pm »
I have wanted to go for a walk up the mountains with my Dad for months but with one thing and another it hasn't happened.  I spoke to him recently and he said we'd arrange a walk for this week then last night he phoned and said the best day to go as far as the weather went was today and he was absolutely right.  He picked me and Socs up half 9 this morning and off we went.  ;D
We parked the car by the old school house just up the road behind the Fairy Glen pub at the foot of the Sychnant Pass in Dwygyfylchi.  We crossed the road from the wooden framed school house and walked over the bridge then took the narrow donkey path up onto the mountain.  It's a steep climb, while on the way up Dad was telling me of an old lady called Mrs Cross who lived in the house called Pen Ffordd Goch at the top of the path (pic 1) Mrs Cross would have to trek down the path with her donkey to fetch provisions from the little shop at the foot of the mountain and then trek all the way back up.  Amazing isn't it and there's us complaining of pot holes  :roll:
Just around the corner is the idyllic derelict cottage I was telling you about in an earlier post (pic 2) In the early 1900s this little house was the talk of the village.  There was old bachelor and his maid living there, the man was very religious and would preach the bible in the village and hold bible readings at his house with the local ladies.  As the weeks went by the ladies grew more and more suspicious of the maid and her relationship with the preacher.  Until one afternoon one of the ladies  could bear it no more and she hid the fire iron in the maids bed.  The next week when the ladies returned for their usual reading the old preacher said "do you know since your last visit I have been unable to find my fire iron" thus proving the maid slept in her masters bed....shock horror  :o
 
Only hindsight has 20/20 vision
Angiegram - A romantic notion derived from the more mundane truth.

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." -Bob Marley

Offline Pendragon

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Re: Walking
« Reply #509 on: November 01, 2011, 09:28:00 pm »
We followed the path up a little further and Dad pointed out a house in the distance (pic 1) it was here that years before squatters claimed rights to this house and land as they had lived in the derelict building for more than 12 years without being moved on....incredible.  I don't know who lives there now but extensive restoration work has been carried out on the house since.  Your probably bored with photos of the ponies but these are special ponies........the smaller grey/white one is a rare Caernarddau pony...... how do I know?  Well as always my Dad told me  :D A Caernarddau pony is white/grey, has a much smaller squat nose with an exceptionally long mane and tail.  Many of the ponies are now crossed with the Exmore variety hence the rarity of the thorough bred.  I never knew that. 
Only hindsight has 20/20 vision
Angiegram - A romantic notion derived from the more mundane truth.

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." -Bob Marley