The Carn Goedog channels

The Carn Goedog channels -- a truly spectacular image, courtesy Hugh Thomas and Preseli 360.

 

For many years I have pondered on the significance of the small channels that run along the hillside between Carn Goedog and Carn Alw.  Some of them are too deep to have been cut by the hooves of passing animals during the days of the drovers, and they (or rather, bits and pieces of them) are more likely to have been cut by marginal meltwater streams while the ice of the Devensian glaciation was wasting away on the north flank of Preseli.  So they may be around 25,000 years old, if the latest dating exercise is correct.

I have always wanted to spend a full day here, measuring gradients and examining the topography in detail -- but I have never quite got round to it.......

In Hugh's wonderful photo (above) the channels closest to the drone camera are "normal channels" running straight downslope, but the ones running diagonally across the image are the ones that really interest me.

  Satellite image of the channels /trackways near Carn Goedog.

The channels may well be related to those used by the footpath at 085325 Rhwngyddwyffordd, to the NE of Bwlchgwynt, which are very substantial features:

Satellite image of the channels near the B4329 road