The Lleyn Peninsula, Anglesey and Bardsey Island
This striking double hill, known to us as 'The Rivals', although sometimes referred to as 'The Twins', is one which we had climbed long before we acquired Dawson's tables.
This one too, standing so close to Porthmadog, was an old friend, ascended more than once in our pre-Marilyn days.
I was determined to beat, or at least equal, Rowland's record of five Marilyns in one day, set in this area three years before, so we made an early start on Carn Boduan. There is parking for a couple of cars at the start of the track, an exceptionally pleasant one, which winds up through the trees to the open summit of this delightful small hill. The top is crowned by a hill fort and gives superb views, back towards the mountains of Snowdonia, capped with mist today, and around the much smaller isolated hills of the Lleyn peninsula with the sea beyond.
This higher hill is very similar to its neighbour although without any trees. A very clear and obviously popular path runs up from the village of Garnfadryn where parking is very limited. It soon emerges onto the open hill and zigzags up through bracken and heather past several ancient cairns to a rocky top crowned by a trig point. The hill fort is less obvious than that on Garn Boduan and the view perhaps a little less striking with the higher hills now further away in the haze.
22/11/00 An email from Carl Legge who lives in the village gives the following helpful information:
We now have a layby for walkers to park in just past the Chapel on the mountain side of the road.
This hill also has a fort but on its lower northern top. Like so many of the minor Welsh hills it is little more than an elevated sheep pasture and there is no right of way to the summit. Parking is also a problem on the very narrow lanes which encircle it Hence I decided to peak-bag it as quickly as possible while Rowland parked in the gateway immediately east of the top and utilised the time harvesting blackberries. So it was literally a ten minute dash up a single rocky field to the substantial wall which passes right over the summit.
It is most unlikely that we would ever have visited Bardsey Island without the lure of this listed hill. It seems that the trip, although expensive for a fifteen minute crossing, is a very popular one for we had to wait nearly a week to get a place on the boat. It is possible to stay on the island, a prospect more attractive to birdwatchers than hill walkers, but day trippers get a stay of three hours, giving plenty of time to ascend the hill and circumnavigate the coast. A path runs up from the ruined abbey where a cross commemorates the twenty thousand saints buried here. The hill is open and heathery albeit drastically over grazed. The summit ridge is very pleasant with a steep drop to the sea on the eastern side. We were too late in the season to see much bird life but there were plenty of seals basking on the rocks near the jetty.
Mynydd Rhiw 304m (999 feet) 31/8/95
Our return from Bardsey Island was delayed by roughening seas so there was only time for one more hill. Both parking and access seemed problematical at first as we attempted an approach from the west where the right of way showed no sign of existence. Fortunately we made our way, on horribly narrow lanes, to the eastern side where a wedge of National Trust land provides rough ground to park and open access to a maze of attractive tracks. There is a radio mast with the trig point nearby, atop a rocky coxcomb. Evening was a lovely time to be on this hill with the gorse and heather glowing in the brilliant light of the sinking sun.
Despite its lowly altitude Holyhead Mountain deserves its title for it is indeed a mountain in miniature, steep and rocky and clothed in heather and dwarf gorse bushes. Its position perched above the sea makes it feel a lot higher than it is and tempts comparison with the hills of Scottish islands. Holy Island is a separate island, connected to Anglesey only by a couple of causeways. Its most spectacular corner is at South Stack where the lighthouse stands on a stack of rock connected to Holy Island by a bridge over the sea. Here are car parks and tourists aplenty and many of them take the short walk to Holyhead Mountain so it's no surprise to find excellent tracks. Nevertheless the way to the top is quite steep from every direction. I swung right as I approached the impressive south face of the hill and came up the east ridge. This gives a pleasing sudden revelation of the seaward view as one arrives at the top. I came down westwards past the walls of the Caer y Twr hill fort and keeping as close to the sea as possible which gave some impressive views of the cliffs.
After the linger on Holyhead Mountain time was pressing so this one became a peak bag. There is parking on the eastern flank and I was at the trig point in only five minutes. I was still able to turn it into a tiny circuit. This hill, previously listed as Yr Arwydd, is the highest on the main island of Anglesey. The summit ridge is rough and rocky, stands up boldly and conspicuously from a surround of rolling fields and gives pleasant views towards the mainland mountains.
Gyrn Ddu was the first hill of my final assault on the Welsh Marilyns so it was appropriate that the walk should begin over a lesser hill, the oddly named Bwlch Mawr. The drop between these two hills is only 144m and so it belongs to a new list which we had recently acquired, the SubMarilyns, which miss out on being Marilyns by less than 10 metres of drop all round. A very grassy col separates the two hills but both have rocky bouldery summits, Gyrn Ddu itself having quite a sharp top with striking views down to the sea and across to the nearby bold profile of Yr Eifl.
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