As to the programme of events, this was as follows:
- Saturday 11th
June - Dylife - Leader David James
Suitable footwear/outdoor clothing is always
advisable but this day is designed as easy
pre-prandial walking.
Met at 11:00 in the car park (off road) by
Glaslyn at SN 831 943. (View OS Map) The track
to the lake from the Dylife – Machynlleth road
is rough but negotiable with care in most cars.
Permission to drive on to Cafartha (Nant ddu of
O.T. Jones) was not obtained, so we walked in.
There was plenty to see, archaeologically and
mineralogically, there being two options available on
the day, (most did the former, some also took in
partes of the latter) :
1) Proceed down the nearby Clywedog gorge to
see the magnificent lode at Castle Rock and explore
the Cafartha Castle workings (nearby Dyfngwm cannot
be officially visited owing to a ‘hostile’
landowner).
or
2) Return to Glaslyn and take a round trip of
ca 3 km across the moor to overlook / partially
descend to the Glaslyn mine: easy walking with
splendid views over the Dyfi valley in fine weather.
Glaslyn is a nature reserve so twitchers are
advised to bring binoculars; the mine has been
discussed in several recent WMS newsletters so read
up and confound the authors. There is minor
underground at Cafartha (a nice copper stained
footwall), a selection of ‘easy, dry’ and
‘strenuous, wet’ adits at Cafartha Castle
(some visited on the 2008 WMS trip) and near Glaslyn
there may be time for some to descend to the open
adit at Moel Fadian but this very short trip is also
very steep / strenuous and not for the faint-hearted
!
A survey and some photographs (for armchair
explorers) of the Moel Fadian workings can be found here.
Dinner at The Aleppo Merchant Inn, Carno,
(Nr. Caersws), Powys, SY17 5LL.
Tel. 01686 420 210; E-mail 'reception@thealeppo.co.uk'
; (View OS Map)
Note : Due to closure of the Unicorn Inn, the
headquarters were changed (in early May) to
The Aleppo Merchant Inn. Merchant Inn. The menu for
The Aleppo Merchant Inn was as shown below (cost,
£15.95) - that previously provided with the Spring
2011 Newsletter for the Unicorn Inn being no longer
valid.
Starter
Soup of the day, Melon Cocktail, Garlic Mushrooms
---
Main Course
Roast Beef, Roast Pork, Roast Turkey plus a
vegetarian option (unspecified)
---
Selection of sweets
- Sunday 12th
June - Llanbrymair - Leader David
James
Met at 10:30 at car park at SN 861
940, (View OS Map : Printable version) by the former
St David’s church, Dylife, to drive together to
off-road parking near Ceulan where permission for
access had been obtained.
The walk was to be of about the same length / climb
severity as was the walk at nearby Rhoswydol in 2008,
ca 4.5 km, with the only really steep slope to be
done as an easy descent, where scree can be run.
We saw the shallow adits and moor-top opencasts
/ open stopes of Llanerchyraur, but an accident here,
requiring air-lift (detailed elsewhere), curtailed
the meet, so the following was not visited :
'The probably not linked workings at Cutia yr
geifr (easy walk-in trip) on the same lode, before
descending to the eastern levels of Caylan (we saw
the western opencast of this in 2008) along that part
of the lode which our president described in the
Mining Magazine of 1956. Then through forestry
paths to Graig Goch where the Ty Isaf lode was worked
and which once linked through the heart of the
mountain to Llanerchyraur.'
There were nevertheless opportunities to go
underground in several places and the Graig Goch
lower adit reaches a huge stope where powerful lamps
were very welcome and hard hats mandatory. Some
of the underground will be wet (but the
water is not usually above knee level. To see
the wooden 18 inch gauge underground railway and
stope on the lode in the Llanerchyraur 30 fathom
level required a bit of a wriggle at entry, and a
wade through the above mentioned water, but was
generally deemed well worth it.
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