Moel Gyw

Nearest town:
Ruthin (5km W)
OS reference:
SJ17145754
OS sheet:
116
Latitude:
53° 6' 29.62 N
Longitude:
3° 14' 16.53 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Moel Gyw (Round Barrow(s)) by thesweetcheat

The steep-sided Moel Gyw, seen from the north. The barrow can just be seen on the summit.

Image credit: A. Brookes (12.9.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 2, 2011
Image of Moel Gyw (Round Barrow(s)) by thesweetcheat

The Moel Gyw barrow. The upright slate slab is a modern information marker.

Image credit: A. Brookes (22.1.2011)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 24, 2011
Image of Moel Gyw (Round Barrow(s)) by thesweetcheat

Looking towards Eryri/Snowdonia, Glyderau and Carneddau from Moel Gyw. The charming town of Ruthin is visible below the mist. What a terrific place for a barrow this is.

Image credit: A. Brookes (22.1.2011)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 24, 2011
Image of Moel Gyw (Round Barrow(s)) by thesweetcheat

The awesome view SW from the cairn, with the summit trig in the foreground. Floating above the mist-filled Vale of Clwyd, various mountain ranges can be seen – Arannau, Cader Idris, Arenig, Moelwynnion and the main Yr Eryri ranges.

Image credit: A. Brookes (22.1.2011)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 24, 2011
Image of Moel Gyw (Round Barrow(s)) by thesweetcheat

The excavation-scooped top of the cairn, with the makings of a (thankfully small) walker’s cairn plonked on top. The hill on the skyline is Cryn-y-Brain, also blessed with a number of round barrows.

Image credit: A. Brookes (22.1.2011)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 24, 2011
Image of Moel Gyw (Round Barrow(s)) by thesweetcheat

The possible ditch is obscured by heather, even in January. Looking towards the conical Moel Morfydd (Llantysilio Mountain) and the Berwyns.

Image credit: A. Brookes (22.1.2011)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 24, 2011

Articles

Moel Gyw

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 24, 2013

The first of the hills to be tackled is Moel Gyw, surmounted by a barrow to add incentive. Offa’s Dyke path has been re-routed to avoid the climb up to the summit, but on such a beautiful day there is no way I was going to miss out on the views. Rashly, I choose to go for a direct approach from the northwest, which turns into a mistake that can’t easily be rectified once started. The climb is extremely steep, through and over dense, deep heather. I find myself clinging to the bushes above me as the only way to gain enough purchase to carry on upwards. By the time I finally emerge on to the hilltop next to the cairn, I am knackered, my knees are aching from scrambling over the heather, the laces of my boots are festooned with bits of vegetation and under my warm winter clothes I’m boiling alive. Not the best route to choose, it would seem. But, oh boy, was it worth the effort. The views are utterly magnificent. To the south, the flat moorland expanse of Cryn y Brain that we hope to be tackling later can be seen, the shapely, Sugarloaf-esque peak of Llantisylio Mountain further to the SSW, with the start of the Berwyns range beyond. And then, rising over the temperature inversion of the valleys, the serried ranks of the ranges of Snowdonia, that I will later come to know as the Arans, Cadair Idris and the Arenigs, and the mightiest peaks of the Snowdon massif itself, the Glyderau and Carneddau. Eyes dragged away north from this vista also get a view of Foel Fenlli, illuminated briefly in the rays of the early winter sun.

The sides of the cairn itself are buried in heather, but the centre is clear and an inevitable excavation scoop into the stone construction is visible. The positioning is interesting, being set back from the steep western edge of the summit, where the Ordnance Survey have built their trig pillar and a slate upright marks Offa’s Dyke Path, which no longer comes up here. For such a modest height (whatever my legs tell me), this is a spectacular place, one of the undoubted highlights of the Clwydian range.

Sites within 20km of Moel Gyw

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