Читать книгу Hillwalking in Wales - Vol 1 онлайн

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This is essentially a valley walk with a road (or near road) most of the way. It should not raise too much of a sweat to get as far as Creiglyn Dyfi. See ssss1.

THE ARENIGS

THE ARENIGS

Untrodden heather-clad tops, wild moors, scattered hills, uncluttered views, the marshy Migneint, generous variety and vast solitudes: these are the lures of the Arenigs, some of the least-known hills in Wales. When I last visited them only one of the nine cairns, Arenig Fawr's, carried the tell-tale signs of human desecration. That surely says it all!

Are there really nine tops? Surely the map shows only two Arenigs? That is so, but like others before me I am taking the liberty of using ‘Arenigs’ to describe a diffuse group of hills that owes no allegiance to a recognised range and which, without a name, would remain unsung and unknown. Arbitrary this may be, presumptuous perhaps, but tidy and defensible certainly, as all eight of the other tops rise in the shadow of Arenig Fawr.

The Arenigs' domain is a vast quadrilateral of some 200 square miles, bounded by the Afon Eden and the A470 W, the Bala gap and the A494 E, and the B4407 and the A5 N. Open windswept fells predominate in the N, bleak in winter but a dazzling aromatic array of pinks and purples in summer. Further S the terrain becomes more broken with scattered outcrops and extensive afforestation. Rarely, however, does the walker tread rock, and nowhere is the use of hands even remotely in question. Tracks, faint but reliable, ease the way most of the time. Stay with these and the Arenigs can be kind; stray and you may find bog and jolty tussocks lying in wait (although even then, to be fair, their impact is muted and nowhere does the errant walker suffer as he may in the Rhinogs!).