St. Celynin's Church and Tal y Fan 30th July 2016

Our first view of the Conwy Valley from North of Tan Rallt.

Approaching St. Celynin's church from the South.

Bell heather and Gorse South of Maen Amor.

Maen Penddu from the North west.

The way up, but it's not that obvious.

Nearly at the wall leading to Tal y Fan

or

"That's the way we should have come"

Looking South from the trig point on Tal y Fan.

Looking towards the Conwy valley from our lunch spot on Tal y Fan.

At the trig point on Tal y Fan.

Looking towards the coast from the stile on Tal y Fan.

"It looks a long way down to the stile we want."

The grassy path to the Roman road to Rowen.

The burial chamber on the North side of the Roman road to Rowen.

Walk stats: distance: 7.2 miles. Climb: 1978'.

Time: 5 hours 49 minutes. On the move walking average: 1,7 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.2 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Roger and Ed Meads.

We arrived at Rowen, hoping to meet up with Ed Meads who had seen the planned walk on the blog and was interested in joining us. In fct we met up within five minutes of arriving. He had arrived a little earlier and decided to see if the PC were operational. It is good to note that for future reference they were.

This proved to be a good day for walking, dry throughout with warm sunshine interludes. The only cooling wind we experienced was around lunch time and particularly as we crossed the after lunch by the trig point on Tal y Fan.

 The climb up from Rowen was fairly straight forward, although a local farmer near Tan Rallt warned us that the Bracken higher up m ight be a challenge. He wasn't wrong.

 After visiting the standing stone, Maen Penddu, we knew the climb to the wall across Tal y Fan would be a challenge trying to find the path described in the route description. In future I think it would be easier to head for the quarry South of Maen Penddu and pick up the path on the East side of the stream.

 Although a little on the late side, we decided to wait until we had reached the summit of Tal y Fan before having lunch. This was the only section that we saw any other walkers.

 During lunch black clouds gathered to the North, giving very dramatic views towards Llandudno.

 In general the views today were superb in all directions, with the high mountains of the Carneddau outlined to the Southwest and coast from Llanfairefechan to Llandudno on the North side.

 The descent from Tal y Fan to the bwlch between Foel Lwyd was steeper than we remembered and slower progress than usual followed.

 Once on the Roman road to Rowen we knew the 2 mile walk involved steep knee challenging sections of road, another part of the route that couldn't be rushed.

 We arrived back at the car, having had a good walk including Tal y Fan at its best. Hopefully Ed will join us again when he finds another walk of interest on our list that is within an hour of his home near Llangernyw.

Birds seen or heard included: Carrion crow, House sparrow, Woodpigeon, Winter wren, Linnet, Meadow pipit, Willow warbler, Stonechat, Common kestrel, Raven, Mistle thrush, Common buzzard, Collared dove and Common blackbird.

After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Blue Bell Inn at Halkyn just as North East Wales Mountain Rescue Team/ Supporters were packing up after putting on a treasure hunt in aid of funds. Appropriately Purple Moose's "Snowdonia Ale" was the beer of choice.