Tom Read - click to email meBDXC ISWL WAB SOTA RSGB IOTA - see my radio page for more detailsLiam & Jimmy

Corndon Hill MW-013

 

Corndon Hill, GW/MW-013 - 513m ASL - SO 306 969 - OS Explorer 216 - 2 SOTA points        Map & summit information from SOTAwatch

The last of four summits on Saturday 2nd September 2006.  It had been a fairly cold and miserable day weather wise.  I have known worse, but not in the summer holidays!  However, Corndon Hill was already familiar to us having been up there three times before, so we approached this early evening activation with confidence and looking forward to another evening in The Horseshoe Inn in Bridges.

Start of path    Tom on Corndon Hill summit    SOTA Beam on Corndon Hill

From Caeliber Isaf GW/MW-031, we followed the country lanes up to Priest Walton, and then around to the start of the track and usual parking spot at SO 301 976.  However, with it being late in the day, quiet, and recalling that I had seen numerous others do the same on previous visits, I drove the right up the track as far as SO 299 967, where we were able to park it close to the start of one of the permissive paths to the summit.  The ascent had a very different feel about it, with the wood that clothed the western flanks of the hill now completely felled.  The summit had a different feel too, being devoid of the shelter previously afforded by the trees from the westerly winds.  As such, Jimmy and I dropped a little way down the eastern slopes to regain a little shelter, which did offer fine views of a sunbathed landscape across to the Stiperstones G/WB-003.

A brightening but windy evening    Jimmy MW3EYP/P on Corndon Hill GW/MW-013

Contacts were a little more difficult to come by than usual, but they did all eventually trickle through (including some DX to Scotland), and we were both qualified before 6.30pm local.  We decided to leave Stiperstones G/WB-003 until tomorrow morning, and drove to the youth hostel at Bridges for a shower and change.  We were in The Horseshoe Inn by around 8pm, and ordering their hearty meals in front of a roaring open fire.  The real ales went down very well, and there was live entertainment provided by a folk singer/guitarist by the name of Alice Challiner.  This was quite good, although perhaps rather deep and melancholy for a Saturday evening.  A guest spot performed by one of her mates livened things up a bit with folk versions of hits by Pink and the like!

Many thanks to the following stations worked:

GW4BVE Pool Quay John 144MHz FM 2.5 watts T, J
GM2T     144MHz SSB 5 watts T
G3CKR/P IO93AD   144MHz SSB 5 watts T, J
G0SJS Ashton-in-Makerfield Dorothy 144MHz FM 5 watts T, J
G6TNO Heywood Frank 144MHz FM 5 watts T, J

Corndon Hill 2003 Corndon Hill 2004 Corndon Hill 2005