Unknown hills

Can we find somewhere that will be quiet? With a clear blue sky and pleasantly-warm temperatures, the better-known destinations will be busy. But it’s quiet here. Really quiet! We’ve driven along the minor road between Llangunllo and Llanbadarn Fynydd, and parked at Moelfre City (which consists of two or three isolated farms). We’ve eaten our lunch, and walked back down the road for about a mile before taking the track into the hills. And we’ve seen no-one. Not a soul – until the chap turned up with a mower as we passed Cwmllechwedd Fawr. After that – no-one else, until we’ve completed the walk and driven homewards for several miles.

It’s quiet, not silent. We can hear larks (ascending, as they do), and occasional buzzards, and the odd sheep (aren’t they all?) makes its presence known, but that’s about it (there are one or two red kites too, never close enough for the camera). There’s a new wind farm up here, at Garreg Lwyd, just beyond the point where we turn back. If we listen carefully, we can just about hear the swish of the blades of the nearest turbine as they turn gracefully against the blue sky.

Our walk is taking us around the watershed of the Dildre brook. We pass the highest points of Tylcau, Newhouse and Warren hills on the outward walk, turn at Cae-glas Hill, and head back to the City via Tynybryniau Hill, Gors Lydan and Moelfre Hill. Gors Lydan is the highest point, at 528m (that’s 1,736′), but none of these hills have summits, in the sense of places worth visiting. I suspect the number of visitors they receive each year is in single figures – they’re unknown hills, and all the better for that on a day like today.