105 - Garth Hill - Cardiff - 15th April 2015

The fog below

Approaching the highpoint

Garth Hill is the highest point of Cardiff and lies just to the north west of Cardiff near the town of Taff's Well. Every so often I venture into South Wales to attend a Balloon modelling event (I am a balloon twister if you are wondering). This time I decided to extend the visit and climb a high point with an overnight stay at a friends house to make things easier.




I set off for the village of Taff's Well fairly early (as my friends had to go to work), it was only a 25 minute drive so not too far away, The fog was very thick on the way to the hill but I eventually found a nice place to park on the slopes of Garth hill got myself ready for my short walk. the fog was still thick when I left the car but I left it below me half way up the slopes of the hill, it was not too far to walk to the top, I tried to make the walk a little longer by taking a long route but even then I was reaching the top after about 25 minutes. At the top I couldn't see too much as the fog was still thick below me but above me there were amazing blue skies and it was very warm, the first really warm day of the year so far which was lovely.

The highest point of Garth hill was actually an ancient burial mound, there was a trig point on top which I sat next to and had some breakfast and a drink. While sitting on the top of Garth hill I was passed by 2 joggers, a walked and many cows, it was quite busy on top of the hill. After my short break I took a different route down the slopes of the hill back to my car ready for my long drive back home.



It was a short hill walk but a really nice one to do, it is a lovely hill to visit if you are in the area and I can imagine the views would be amazing if it was not foggy.

Garth Hill - highpoint number 105 - 307 metres

104 - Burley Moor - Leeds - 24th March 2015

The view east

Looking south east towards Leeds

For the past couple of years in March I travel up to Leeds to attend a balloon modelling event, Last year I managed to visit several high points on my way home, This time I wanted to visit a high point the day before the event, I was going to visit the highest point in Leeds itself. I took the long drive up to Leeds on the Monday night and stayed at my Travelodge in Keighley. The next morning I had breakfast and then I headed off to find my hill, hill, it was not too far to drive and not far from the small town on Ilkley.

Near the Highest point

I parked the car at a small parking area near the town of Ilkley and I headed off to find my hill, The path started off very easy and I had my route planned however it was not long before the path disappeared and I was left wondering which route to take, what made matters worse was the fact that there were nesting birds in the area and I was not allowed to stray from the path. I decided to use my maps to stick as close to the path as possible and hope that I was not going to disturb any birds. it was just a short walk through the heather until I picked up the path again and headed on my way towards the high point. I soon arrived at the highest point of Leed which was located near a small mound on Burley moor. This highpoint is one of those which is NOT actually the highest point in the area as the border of Leeds runs across the side of the hill so rather than stop here I decided to head off and explore some of the surrounding moorland, at least I got to tick another high point off my list.

The Stone Circle

I followed a major track for some time passing a few people, then I headed off onto a smaller track where I soon came across an old bronze age stone circle. This Stone circle is called the Twelve Apostles and is one of those monuments that no one actually knows its purpose. I decided to stop off here for some lunch which seemed to be the perfect place. it was dry and sunny so it was a great time to stop and take in the view.

After a spot of lunch I continued along the small track, this soon became a stone path and I followed this for some time until I came to a small seating area, In one of the walls of this area there was a letterbox type gadget, this was all part of a poetry trail that had been installed, The letter box gadget had 2 slots, 1 for Poems to be put into and the second for poems to be distributed (with the turn of a handle). . What an incredible idea this was, I turned the handle and out popped a hand written poem, after reading this I popped it back into the upper slot, turned the handle and out popped a second poem, I spent some time here reading poems and putting them back into the box for future readers,

After my time at the poetry corner I headed back down the slopes towards the car park but not before passing a massive rock structure called the Cow and Calf, this was covered with climbers and there were lots of little trails up to the top of the rocks. I had a nice climb around the Cow and Calf and then headed back to my car for the short drive back to my hotel.

So Burley Moor was my 104th hill, the highest point of Leeds at 342 metres high.