Cadair Berwyn - avoid driving to Tan-y-pistyll

Myself and M7SQT had a good 2m-FM activation of Cadair Berwyn, GW/NW-012, yesterday with summit to summits in Wales, Eire and Northern Ireland. However, there are currently serious issues with parking at Tan-y-pistyll as the entire population of Liverpool (no disrespect to Liverpool - I just mean a large number of people) seems to want to descend upon it everyday and many are not taking their rubbish home with them.
I arrived at 0730(UTC) and I was the only car parked there but the rubbish piled up was awful. I had a nice chat with two farmers and they are perfectly happy for a reasonable number of occasional visitors who show interest in and respect for the area.
On returning from Cadair Berwyn, many cars were parked on the road, reducing it to single file and there was the odd car parked in passing places. To make matters worse, there was a constant stream of newish, mainly Audis and BMW’s arriving even though there was nowhere to park. Furthermore, it was apparent that many of the drivers lacked the skills for driving on narrow and single-track roads. We waited around 15 minutes in order to get past the line of cars obstructing the road in Tan-y-pistyll.
I last parked here on 25/07/2019 which was in the school holidays and on one of the hottest days of the year but the traffic was nothing like the bedlam which I experienced yesterday. Covid-19 seems to have driven many people mad!! Hopefully, the authorities will take action but my advice is to avoid Tan-y-pistyll and find an alternative ascent route until things have calmed down.

Best 73s
Alastair, M0TYM

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Hi Alastair,

Thanks to Alice @M7SQT for the chaser points. Her signal into Liverpool was excellent. I forgot to ask what setup you were both using?

Although we are allowed to leave Liverpool and venture into Wales, we’ve been putting it off as we’ve heard the well known scenic areas are manic. My wife & I are concentrating on hiking (and thus activating) the North Pennines for now, until things calm down.

Hope to catch you soon.
73, Simon

Thanks Simon. We used a Wouxun 2m handie connected to a vertical dipole - just a split coax supported by 22mm dia electrical conduit. 5W max. Works well on higher summits and much lighter than my Yaesu 857D.
73
Alastair

Hi Alistair
Not great news I was looking at going there to activate on this Saturday. I have always parked there and do t know an alternative, any suggestions anyone please

Paul
M0PLA

Cadair Berwyn was I think the first summit I hit in GW after the rules were eased off. Got there very early (a Saturday I think) and had one of the last car park spaces. Leaving at lunch time was awful, it took more or less an hour to get back down to the village at the end of the road, total gridlock. Not much social distancing on the footpaths either I might add. Previous visit in mid winter and there was only half a dozen people there - won’t be back in a hurry!

After a cursory glance at a map it looks like there are paths to the summit from the NE and NW, but I couldn’t see any reasonable parking spots.

Hi Alastair,

Thanks for the warning. Sounds even worse than the parking by the Ribblehead Viaduct on Saturday 11 July. Never seen G/NP-004 Whernside so busy in almost 30 years of summer holidays! Happily most walkers were sensible, apart from a few idiots barging past. G/NP-007 Wild Boar Fell the next day was much quieter and thoroughly enjoyable.

BTW - I own newish versions of both makes of car you mention, and hope my driving skills on difficult roads are better than those you observed on Monday :grinning:

73, John M0VCM

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Nice to work you the other day, Alistair. I will certainly be avoiding that road for a long while. There appears to be a route up from the west from the Llandrillo area, but parking may be a problem as well as being a fairly long walk. I couldn’t see many places to park in Llandrillo or the narrow lane south from there. Perhaps I’ll leave it until December & get the winter bonus as well! 73 John

Normally a little back water here. Sure, it gets a bit busy in summer… but it’s off the scale at the moment.

NEWSAR has been called there 4 times in 3 weeks. That’s more times than we usually go in a year.

I’ve NEVER seen it so busy. Phil at the Cafe is similarly astounded by the numbers. The road becomes gridlocked at times. Most people are going no further than the top of the waterfall.

Little vid here for one of the jobs… I didn’t pick the “heroic” music track…

Both of these alternatives are much longer, but you will see very few people, except maybe around the summit area.

There is a longer, but gentle walk all along the ridge over Moel Sych, from the top of the Milltir Gerrig on the B4391 - approx SJ018302. Can be boggy.

Another longer walk, which can also be boggy, is from the car park in Llandrillo. SJ035371. Head south on the minor road until you turn east to follow the bridle way to the col at Bwlch Maen Gwynedd. SJ075340. The south along the ridge to the summit.

73
Gerald
MW0WML

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Ah, you beat me to it!

Phil is really struggling with parking problems and litter.