So with another cold stopping a trip onto the Drygarn I thought a short circuit of the hill overlooking town was a good bet for a couple of hours out.
Gwastedyn is to Rhayader as Skiddaw is to Keswick. Standing proud above town and within easy reach, so much so that the annual hill race is a feature of carnival week.
The walk from town is an easy circuit of about 1.5 hours if pushed 3 if lazed.
Head off down south street from the clock and keep on past he old toll booth (after first turning) residential home (2nd) and old workhouse no a nice hotel after the third. The path now becomes a roadside verge before turning off at the 2nd right of way sign on the corner.
A track leads up though the wood before bearing off to the left out onto the open hillside as your fence meets others coming up from the farm. The going is easy underfoot cut across the farmland for the next fence on the slope then curve around the headwaters of a small stream that drains the area below the summit.
Keep "climbing" to the ridge fence but don't cross it instead turn right over one more fence that climbs the hillside to the summit cairn and commemorative beacon basket.
The second summit lies a couple of hundred metres away over one good and one not so good fence and a little rough grazing / bracken. Despite this it is worth the visit as it opens up the southern vista far better that the beacon summit.
From there head back to the ridge fence and follow this and a footpath back to the minor road above Gaufron and follow this then the A44 back to Rhayader itself.
Walk past both houses I have owned in town back to the clock tower and your start point.
If you miss the path and drop too early don't panic so long as you are on the Rhayader side head for the track between Bryn Du and Esgair-rhiw and follow this via the latter back to the road taking care to use the gates on the way down
Views of Gwastedyn
Views from Gwastedyn
