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the Degree Confluence Project
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United Kingdom : Wales

4.8 km (3.0 miles) WNW of Blaenau-Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, Wales, United Kingdom
Approx. altitude: 518 m (1699 ft)
([?] maps: Google MapQuest OpenStreetMap ConfluenceNavigator)
Antipode: 53°S 176°E

Accuracy: 3 m (9 ft)
Quality: good

Click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

#2: Ruined chapel built of stone rather than slate and a lonely tree #3: looking east #4: looking north #5: looking west - Cnicht at the end of the long ridge #6: looking south - Moelwyn Mawr there somewhere #7: the mended GPS #8: Accuracy screen #9: Descending into Cwmorthin

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  53°N 4°W (visit #3)  

#1: Approaching confluence just to the right of centre on the knoll

(visited by Christopher Anton)

08-Nov-2003 -- To North Wales to dog sit for my sister in Llandudno. Realised that there was this confluence (Pic 1) close by. As I grew up in the area I had probably been close to it on a few occasions but the visit provided the opportunity to go to the exact spot. The weather forecast was reasonably good so I drove the 30 miles or so from Llandudno over the Crimea pass and down into Blaenau Ffestiniog parking at the car park at Tanygrisiau. It was then about 2km walk to the spot. The paths are very good and the walk mostly flat although there are a few steep bits as the ascent from the car park is about 300m. The first steep part takes you to the lip of the cwm and the path leads around the lake passing a ruined chapel and very rare tree (Pic 2). The next steep climb is out of the cwm up to an abandoned slate mine and then it was a case of going cross country to the exact spot. Like the previous visitors I found the confluence on dry land just to the right of centre in Pic 1. the views to the E, N, W and S are in Pics 3, 4, 5, 6. Pics 7 and 8 show the GPS - the tape is courtesy of my last confluence visit when I dropped it getting out of the car and the little clip holding the battery compartment closed broke off and got lost in a pile of leaves. Moelwyn Mawr to the south was already shrouded in clouds and I had planned to carry on to climb Cnicht (the Welsh Matterhorn) visible in Pic 5, but the cloud was descending and an easterly gale had sprung up so I descended to take refuge in a hot cup of tea at a nearby aunt's house. The descent into the cwm was quite pretty (Pic 9) but I wish I'd taken it on the way up when it wasn't so misty.

On the way back to Birmingham on the Monday morning I made the slight detour off the A483 to visit 53N, 3W and got to about 80m from it, but already running late I didn't get out and carried on to work. Another day..


 All pictures
#1: Approaching confluence just to the right of centre on the knoll
#2: Ruined chapel built of stone rather than slate and a lonely tree
#3: looking east
#4: looking north
#5: looking west - Cnicht at the end of the long ridge
#6: looking south - Moelwyn Mawr there somewhere
#7: the mended GPS
#8: Accuracy screen
#9: Descending into Cwmorthin
ALL: All pictures on one page
  Notes
In the Snowdonia National Park.