Cwm Hyddgen from Pumlumon. Photo: ©Tom Hutton
Climber and writer Jim Perrin has invoked the spirit of a Welsh historic hero in the fight against the building of turbines in the Cambrian Mountains.
Manchester-born Perrin recalled the efforts of Owain Glyndŵr in his resistance against the English, ahead of a walk the climber plans to lead on Sunday.
Perrin, renowned for his rockclimbing exploits as well as his journalism and writing, including his biography of Don Whillans – The Villain – made Wales his home at the age of 17.
He will be at the head of a walk organised by the Cambrian Mountains Society in opposition of plans to build 64 wind turbines on Hyddgen, including two that will tower to 140m (460ft).
Jim Perrin
The writer said: “Nowhere better epitomises resistant Welsh nationhood than the wild landscape of Hyddgen, north of Pumlumon Fawr.
“It was here that Owain Glyndŵr, hugely outnumbered, won the first battle of his great uprising. And it is here that we hope to make our stand against the depredations upon Welsh landscape by heedless and ill-considered government.
“May the spirit of this place impart its strength to us; and may we, in our turn, help preserve it undiminished by threatened environmental atrocity.”
Perrin will be joined by John Jones, lead singer of the Oysterband among others, and will give a short speech, voicing his opposition to the industrialisation of Wales’s few remaining wild places.
Glyndŵr is viewed as the last native Prince of Wales and led a revolt against Henry IV in the late 14th and early 15th centuries.
The 3km (2-mile) walk, to which members of the public are invited, will start at the layby on the Ponterwyd to Talybont road near north-west tip of Nant y Moch reservoir, grid reference SN 737 885.
Walkers will gather at 2pm on Sunday, 6 March.
Nik
06 March 2011Perhaps the Assembly might celebrate the expansion of their legislative powers by resuming some control and preventing the complete despoliation of what remains of our treasured landscapes by foreign speculative development companies.
Let's face it, these speculators are only interested in the Renewables Obligation subsidies that are paid from electricty bills. They have not the slightest interest in our landscapes or people.
As the head utilities analyst at Citi Investment Research put it: "It's a bonanza. Anyone who can get their nose in the trough is trying to." (FT)
But I am not holding my breath: most AMs seem to have more awareness of the price our natural heritage can fetch rather than its value to the people.
Pauline
07 March 2011Hopefully actions like this will contribute to a clearer division between true green and greenwash enterprise.
Simply labeling something 'environmental' such as these ineffective windfarms that contribute nothing and destroy landscapes has, until now, been enough to effectively kill any valid criticism. Time to amend that, enough damage has been done.
Gill
09 June 2011When, oh when, will the people of Wales realise that we are the victims of a huge con trick when it comes to wind farms? I despair when people I have hitherto respected like the historian John Davies, say on, TV programmes like "Pawb a'i Farn", that he would not mind seeing the whole of Wales covered in wind turbines. All our political parties push for wind farms. None - not even Plaid Cymru - make the point that the destruction of our landscape will go to benefit the mainly English areas of high population in the UK; those who leave all their electrical gear on standby and don't give a toss about saving energy.
When will the people of Wales say, "Digon yw ddigon" and make a stand against the industrialisation of our landscape? Tryweryn was minor compared to what is in store. NOBODY - EVEN MY OWN PARTY, PLAID CYMRU - SEEMS TO CARE! I despair.
Michal Benzinski
29 June 2011We are regular visitors to mid Wales, staying in a remote converted cowshed just north of Hyddgen, and we love the wildness of Pumlumon, the isolation and peace of the area, notwithstanding the warlike significance of Hyddgen; if anything, it adds to the majesty and attractiveness of the area, just as the memorials scattered around my parents' native Warsaw give it an extra dimension, marking its struggles against invaders and occupiers from east and west.
This is surely a part of Wales that deserves to be preserved from unsightly development. To allow a wind farm to be erected in the area, no matter how laudable the motives (and Nik's comments suggest that environmental factors aren't foremost in the minds of the developers), would be to despoil a landscape of great beauty and cultural value to the nation.