Winter In the Radnor Hills

The day after my little trip back up to Yorkshire and a forecast that seemed to indicate the possibility of a cloud inversion.

We headed out to the Radnor Hills in the van as a late start meant we needed somewhere with no parking problems.

We parked up in New Radnor, heading through Mutton Dingle towards Whinyard Rocks and the shapely little summit of Whimble. This little gang followed us through the first field until they realised we hadn’t come to feed them!

It was a calm and pleasant day and whilst the fog wasn’t especially dense there didn’t look much like it was going to clear or that we’d walk through and above it.

As we started the climb to Whimble we had our first patches of blue sky.

With fleeting glimpses of Whinyard Rocks.

As we reached the summit we were still in thick cloud but as we were looking around for somewhere to sit and have lunch things began to clear and the sun came out.

We found a sheltered little alcove for a break but as the clouds drifted around us we spent most of the time wandering about admiring the ever expanding views.

We weren’t quite high enough to be truly above the clouds but this was just as impressive as hillsides appeared and the disappeared, all the while under clear blue skies above and bright sunshine.

Whimble summit.

Looking out towards the Beacons and Black Mountains.

Black Mixen and its Communications Tower.

The view directly south and east gave the best impression of the sea of cloud beneath.

Summit selfie.

Wispy clouds in Harley Dingle.

TBF strolling the summit.

And posing on the summit. We must have spent well over an hour before being compelled to move on. Fabulous stuff.

We headed back down Whimble.

And cut across the fine grassy paths and fields over to Bache Hill.

And its small cairn on a mound which I’m guessing is some sort of ancient burial site.

There seemed to be quite a bit more snow at this slightly higher elevation.

This fence creating some quite deep drifts and nice photo subjects.

Always a pleasure to walk in the snow under a sunny blue sky.

Looking along the deep valley towards Whimble.

We took a wander up to the top of Black Mixen hoping for some more above the cloud views but whilst the ethereal views of the sun through the thin clouds was unusual we didn’t see much else.

We enjoyed a bit of a potter about in the snow and started the walk back down.

The walk along the valley towards Whimble was wonderful as we dipped in and out of the clouds.

As we descended the cloud became thicker and the sunshine less frequent.

Although we did get this fine sunny view up to Whimble before we started the long drop back into New Radnor.

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