Phil Rickman

[ub59]

RIP, a lovely man and well known to several of our forum users.

Who else could create Gomer!

[eggchaserbull]

You can now get Gomer Parry Plant Hire T shirts.

RIP, Phil Rickman, you gave us some great characters and chuckles.

[wyesidewiththebulls]

A great local writer who put Ledwardine firmly on the map. Not just "great characters and chuckles" but played with the darkest corners of the readers imagination. Had the pleasure of meeting him on several occasions, a literary gentleman who always had time to talk with his his avid fans.
RIP, Phil, will miss Merrily and the gang.

[GRL]

A sad day indeed. It was a privilege to be his path-finding correspondent.

BLACK HILL Tower spotting

MERRILY we roll along to a dramatic pinnacle for our 100th walk together. The Black Mountains have beckoned lots of story-tellers to explore their wild, bleak ridges and isolated valleys. As Phil Rickman, who writes under their gaze, has observed, “In the extreme west of Herefordshire is The Golden Valley, green pillows under the headboard of the Black Mountains. A half-forgotten England of hybrid place names, of wooded hills and hidden villages of rusty stone and crouching churches. A dark poacher’s pocket of England”.
If you think of the Black Mountains as an upturned hand, the Black Hillis the thumb. The serrated edge leading up to its summit is known locally as “The Cat's Back”; if you’re viewing it from Herefordshire it looks like a cat crouching and about to pounce. It’s just past halfway to the right in the foreground of the long, flat Hatterall Ridge. What’s more, if you can see the predator clearly from as far away as Hereford, it’s usually safe to assume good weather for an hour or two.
In places the ridge is less than six feet wide. Last time I went up with at least two other sufferers from vertigo, we actually found it fairly therapeutic. The views back across Herefordshire towards the Malverns are a stunning distraction. Below is the Monnow which for much of its life forms the border between England and Wales. It starts as a Herefordshire stream rising firmly on the English side of the mountains and gives its name to the town and county of Monmouth. The stone castles built on its banks at Longtown, Skenfrith and Monmouth illustrate its border credentials.
The view to the west, over Olchon Valley is a close-up one of Hatterall Ridge, which at this point shoulders the border. On some of the other “fingers” of the Black Mountains further across, the views can be rather more intermittent because the ridges are much wider and you can’t see over the sides.
The return from Black Hill, higher than Dartmoor, starts from a pretty unceremonious pile of stones. Assuming you don’t miss them when leaving the peaty plateau,the descent is in the company of the Olchon Brook, which breaks out of its boggy birthplace on a rocky escarpment up to the right known as Darren. “Olchon” is Welsh for baptising and the watercourse cleaves a fertile valley in a gap between the thumb and forefinger of the mountains. It is in ruined farmsteads in this cleft that Owen Sheers places his warring factions inResistance. It was also hereabouts that Bruce Chatwin had his upland farm called The Vision in On the Black Hill; in the early pages we are told the border of Hereford and Radnor actually runs through the middle of the staircase and it’s not unknown for admirers of the book (and film) to go farm spotting.
Gazing across Herefordshire from this fabled corner of the county, we can quote Phil Rickman again: “Castle Green”, he says. “All green, no castle. The norm in Herefordshire. If it hadn’t been for the widespread destruction during the Glyndwr warfare of the fifteenth century, you wouldn’t be able to stand anywhere in this county without seeing a stone tower”. It’s true. Lots of our walks have visited the area of the Welsh rebel’s depredations. Mind you, I think I could see Longtown Castle from the Cat’s Back (pictured). Fortified against Glyndwr, it survived. I could also spot landmarks from lots of our other walks. Vagar Hill, however, the one with the communications tower, is just in the way of you seeing Snodhill Castle, and the roof of Mr Rickman’s house.

Black Hill and Olchon Valley
Spectacular views from an exhilarating ridge and a marvellous valley descent.
5 mile energetic ramble. No stiles. Challenging stepped, craggy terrain in places.
Map: OL 13, Brecon Beacons National Park, east.