Pen y Fan seen from the Blorenge

During a recent family walk on the Blorenge, a summit overlooking Abergavenny, we were favoured by warm, sunny weather with a light breeze. Visibility was quite good too and shortly after we set off on our walk through the heather and bilberry we stopped to look at the distant Pen y Fan (886 metres, 2907 feet), the high point of the Brecon Beacons. In the photograph it is the rightmost of the two sloping peaks on the central horizon, the lower summit being Corn Du (873m). In the foreground of the photograph is an old farm surrounded by small fields edged with tumbledown dry stone walls.

Gilwern Hill and industrial landscapes

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The views of Gilwern Hill from the Blorenge are dominated by a telecommunications mast of the twentieth century and limestone quarries of the early nineteenth century and later. Tracks with man-made gentle inclines tell of horse-drawn tramway systems that moved the quarried stone. Dilapidated drystone walls mark out, as they have done for decades (probably centuries) improved grassland claimed from the heather and bracken. Old and derelict buildings and grassed over undulations can be seen, the latter the only remains of the village of Pwll-du that was demolished in the 1960s after the quarries closed and its inhabitants relocated to nearby valley villages including Govilon and Llanffwyst.

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Today the area offers walks for hikers as well as holidays and courses built around outdoor pursuits. On the day of our visit the cloud was rising from the hills and mountain tops but still lingered on distant Pen y Fan, the highest peak in the Brecon Beacons of south Wales.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Blorenge - a rhyme with orange

I remember being told, many years ago, that there is no word in English that rhymes with orange. There were, apparently, half-rhymes such as lozenge, but no full-rhymes. The OED, however, does contain a single full-rhyme word. It is "sporange", an old alternative word with the same meaning as sporangium. So, when I moved to Herefordshire, and we began taking trips into nearby Wales, imagine my delight in coming across a proper noun that rhymes with orange. Near Abergavenny is a high hill called Blorenge. We recently, for the first time, did some walking there and visited its summit (561m, 1841 feet). We will go there again but for now here is the only shot I got that I think qualifies for the blog. It shows the heather moorland and outcropping rock near the summit, with Sugar Loaf in the distance.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2