Tuesday 5th June 2018. An evening hike and hill-survey over the Eastern Migneint to Ysbyty Ifan, Conwy County. The hills were Ffridd y fedw 433m/33m and Pen Ffridd-sarn 441m/80m.

8.2km, with 350m of ascent. 3hrs 15mins.

With AW needing to stay close to home due to his baby son, MP, AW and I met up in Betws y Coed for a quick meal at the Royal Oak Hotel before heading off in our three separate cars to the village of Ysbyty Ifan, set in the eastern folds of Conwy Moor. The southern part of the moor is known in Welsh as Y Migneint, a vast area of blanket bog which hardly ever dries out, even in the hot dry weather experienced throughout May 2018 (see at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migneint).

Leaving two cars in the car park by the river, we continued in AW’s to a small lay-by further south on the B 4407 road that traverses the moor to Ffestiniog. From this road a path led south to cross the Afon Conwy by a footbridge, where the river is confined in a small rocky gorge. The trail heads south-west from there to a remote moorland refuge known as Cefngarw (see at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/09/country-diary-loneliest-house-in-wales-snowdonia), which I had visited with AW and MP back in December 2013. In the main room of the bothy, there is a crude but arresting fresco of a ram.

Our route that evening, however, lay south, where we picked up a track that forded the Afon Serw, a tributary of the Afon Conwy. Once across, we made our way up on steep very boggy ground to the summit of Ffridd y fedw, the first summit of the evening. While MP carried out his heighting observations, AW and I found a dry spot in the deep grass to lounge and enjoy the view across the wilds of the Migneint.

Our descent took us down to a junction of barbed wire fences, where AW observed a large patch of sundew, a carnivorous plant that supplements the thin nutrients available on these acid moors with the occasional insect. Not being partial to negotiating barbed wire, I walked south to a new wooden gate, which was much more scaleable. While MP carried out his survey of the bwlch, AW and I headed on up to the summit of Pen Ffridd-sarn, where we awaited our companion. We did not have the summit plateau to ourselves, as the field was occupied by a herd of Welsh Black bullocks. They were taking an increasing interest in our intrusion into their world and began wandering towards us in rather a threatening manner. We decided to beat a hasty retreat south to the byway that would take us north to Ysbyty Ifan, leaving MP to his fate in the field of bullocks. MP proved up to the challenge and, with the arcane art of ‘cattle whispering’ secured his data and extricated both himself and his survey instrument without mishap.

It was a walk of some three kilometres to Ysbyty Ifan along the reedy byway, but the metres sped by as we took in the panorama west of the sun setting over the peaks of Eryri.

We had noted much wildlife in these lands that see few visitors – rabbits, ravens, buzzard, tawny owl, meadow pipits, swifts, skylarks, curlew and lapwing. Nearly a full house of moorland species.