G/DC-006 Carnmenellis - New Year's Eve

I successfully activated G/DC-006 on New Year’s Eve - meaning all G association summits were activated in 2019. I followed the route as described by G4ERP on the Carnmenellis summit page. However, when I reached the gate to which he refers, a sign had appeared on the gate since my last 5 activations of this summit and it read, “No pubic access or right of way.”
However, the land beyond the gate is clearly marked on the OS 1:25000 map as being “right to roam” access land. (I use the Backcountry map app and edofe.org web mapping). As there was no evidence of access having been changed, I continued as normal. The G4ERP route crosses the fence on the right but I stay in the same field. There are cow tracks which lead to the top right corner of the field. You can access the trigpoint from here by scrambling over rock which provides a useful bridge over the fence.
However, there is a useful, barbed-wire fence which runs along the ridge at the top of the field and is well within the activation zone (and you can easily set up within 15m of the trigpoint for the trig award). The fence is ideal for setting up HF antennas and I quickly had 4 contacts on 60m. 20m seemed flat and I could hear SOTA stations in Europe very faintly on 40m but with lots of noise and high-power stations bleating their callsigns over the top. I had qualified so I put out a quick CQ on 2m in case of any local station wanting a contact and then I headed back as time was running short for lunch.
The terrain is gorse heathland so progress can be hard, as G4ERP points out. But it is passable and the cattle grazing does help to keep the gorse in its place. Nevertheless, winter is better and a good pair of long trousers is a must!
The Ramblers Association (who represent the interests of walkers in England, Wales and Scotland) have a “Pathwatch” app which can be used for logging issues with footpaths and access and so I logged the issue with the notice on the gate when I returned home.

Happy New Year and best 73s
Alastair, M0TYM

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Thanks Alastair,

Glad you qualified and completed all G in 2019 - excellent!
Will see what the Ramblers have to say!

73 es HNY
de Peter G3TJE

That would be a remarkable achievement Peter. But I think what Alastair is saying is that with this activation on Carnmenellis, all G summits will have been activated in 2019 - between all us activators that is, not just him!

Hi Tom,

Ah yes, have re read the post and have to agree with you!
You can understand why these few DC summits are not popular.
Hoping to activate more this year, legs permitting!

73 es HNY

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Hi Alistair,

It still appears that no activations have no logged for White Hill G/SP-006, Mickle Fell G/NP-002 and Rogan’s Seat G/NP-014. As far I as I am aware someone did activate Rogan’s Seat G/NP-014 in 2019, but never submitted the activation log. I am unsure if the other 2 SOTA summits mentioned were activated in 2019 or not.

This was the same route that we use to ascend and descend Carnmenellis G/DC-006 when myself and my dad Tom M1EYP activated it back in 2010. There was no sign on the gate then and I am surprised that is a sign now especially with it being marked as access land on the OS 1:25000 map. I thought though from you you said on the other thread that you obtained permission anyway despite it legally being access land.

It will be interesting to hear what The Ramblers Association have to say about this issue.

Happy New Year.

Jimmy M0HGY

2E0FNT, G0EVV & G7OEM have activated SP-006 in 2019
G3CWI activated NP-014 in 2019

Thanks for that Andy. This means that Mickle Fell G/NP-002 remains the only G SOTA summit unactivated in 2019.

Jimmy M0HGY

Yes; Tom is correct - I activated only 30 summits in G & GW in 2019! The summit of Carnmenellis is access land so one automatically has permission from Her Majesty to be there. This access land extends to the gate to which I refer so it should not have a notice on it saying “no public access”.
73s
Alastair, M0TYM

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