A big thank-you to the red kite for placing Penyrallt. I've never really looked at this lump overlooking Mach but it offers a really nice end of day leg stretch before heading over the top back home having climbed Cader.

The views are great but if you have the time approach from the south, Heol iorweth is a good bet as you end up with Southern and northern views and not too steep a climb.

Pete

Glad you lilked it RW. I had never noticed this hill before, despite having been to Mach many times. I was riding around on my bike, trying to find somewhere to place a cache, and thought it looked interesting. once I figured out how to actually get there and had reached the top I realised it was a perfect spot for a cache and not likely to get muggled. Its so peaceful, and as you say the views are great.

There are lots of different ways of ascending the hill, according to your abilty to climb steep slopes (or whether you can hold your nerve on narrow tracks with steep sides if you approach from the main road (which particularly applies to myself). It can get pretty hairy in places but well worth the effort whichever way you go. If you use the lower track on the northern side you can walk along the bottom and then go straight up through the heather but this is at your own risk, so I didn't put that on the cache page. When my friend took me over there to actually place the cache, I did it by this route in five minutes from the car LOL

I'm reluctant to advise on where to park because I don't drive and people are funny about where they will park. My friend refused to leave the car anywhere, and she sat in it and waited for me to get back.


I'm surprised FTF took so long.

You were not alone, I fully expected to find another log entry on arrival

I did think of doing it as it isn't far from here, but as we got FTF on the Oakey Pokeys thought we'd leave it for someone else...

Al.

Well second to find is still up for grabs, amazingly!

We finally got around to doing this today as well... managed to park about 90m from the cache so it didn't take too long but I'd never been up there before and it gives a nice view down the valley from an unusual angle.

Cheers.
Al.

Glad to see you made it Al. I was wondering when you would get up there. Its not so hard if you are used to a bit of hill walking but for sme people it woudl be an effort. Do you think the 4* terrain is too high, bearing in mind not everyone is as fit as you.

Hi RK....

These things are all relative I guess, but I try to compare my ratings with the ratings of other peoples caches... Those on the tops of big hills such as Cadair are only 4* for terrain so I think Penyrallt is probably rated too highly. The fact that you can park pretty close and then you only need to follow fairly easy paths to get to it probably means that almost anyone could do it even if they weren't particularly fit.... After all, there is no time limit so there's no hurry. I realise though that it pays to err on the side of caution as it is safer to over-rate them than under-rate them, but accuracy is best... No one is forced to do them, so if they feel uncomfortable doing a cache they can always turn back... Rating this one as a 4* may put some people off who would be able to do it though.

I reserve 4* caches for those that take either take at least a couple of hours to walk to or require crossing some pretty rough terrain without obvious paths... I've yet to set a 5* cache, but those are reserved for caches that need specialist equipment / abilities to get to... I have some plans though!

I've just put in my interpretation of the Penyrallt cache into this rting tool:

http://www.clayjar.com/gcrs/

And it came out at 3 - 3.25 depending on which 'steepness' option I chose (I could ride a bike up it, some people may not be able to!)

I said it didn't need specialist equipment, no overnight stay is likely, the 'hike' is less than 1km the trail is 'Other trail types' the path had some light overgrowth, and I couldn't decide between 'some elevation changes' and 'steep elevation changes'.

What do others who have done it think?? Does 3* sound accurate for this one.

Al.

I certainly couldnt ride a bike up it!! I suppose it depends which way you go, and again, how fit you are.

As you said, I like to err on the side of caution, simply because if anything happened to anyone they might try to hold me responsible for under rating the terrain. I do think maybe a 4* is a bit steep though. Perhaps a 3.5 would do it?

As not many people have done it yet its hard to average the response.

I will wait and see. There might be an easier way round the back which I have not discovered yet. When I get time I might make another visit and have a good look around. I would hate the 4* to put anyone off because it really isn't that difficult.

The easiest way I found to get up there was straight through the undergrowth on the railway side of the hill, but coming down that route was another matter. I am not too good on slopes and it was quite prickly.

I have to admit I didn't read your instructions and didn't park where you suggested but simply set my GPS onto the cache location and drove as close as I could get.... My parking place was 90m from the cache by the houses that you can see from the cache location. Their back gardens back onto a small footpath that leads up to the cache... I didn't go through their gardens, but went up a short track, through two gates and onto the path which wound its way arouns the hill a little so never got steep. Morgan managed to walk it without any problems, but had to be lifted over the gates!



Al.