The cache (an ammo box) is hidden in a line of crags high above the Rheidol river. The outcrop has a distinctive scrubby little conifer tree growing out of it. You can get at the cache through either of two clefts in the rock; they are a both narrow, and the "location aid" photos (links further down this page) could be helpful. Either approach demands a bit of flexibility, and you may find it easier to open the box in situ than to try and get it out!
Original Contents: a Hillscape Cookbook, an audio CD, an emergency plastic raincoat (in case you ignore the advice in the next paragraph), a mini photo-frame, a paper knife, a model van, a longlife light bulb, a hole punch (for paper), a ruler, and a notebook and pencil for recording your visit.
This cache is located in fairly elevated, little-frequented moorland terrain. There are no paths near it, and you will need to walk at least half a mile to reach it, and to negotiate rough, marshy ground and steep, rocky slopes. There is no shelter; it is not a place to be in foul weather!
Where to start
1. Easiest is from GR SN741795, at the highest point of Henrhiw - the small road leading from the A44 near Ponterwyd to the former lead-mining hamlet of Ystumtuen. The road is unfenced: simply get out of your car and head east across the moorland.
2. From the George Borrow Hotel in Ponterwyd (GR SN746805). Follow the public footpath to Bryn Bras farm. Turn left in the farmyard, down to a stream, then climb the steep hillside ahead, following the indistinct (but well waymarked) public path to its highest point, which is 200 yards or so from the cache.
3. The most spectacular approach - but also the most energetic - is from Ysbyty Cynfyn on the A4120 (GR SN754791); there is a car park outside the little church. Follow the public footpath past the church and down to Parson's Bridge, which spans a beautiful rocky gorge. Once across the bridge, follow the waymarked path steeply uphill until you reach an ancient stone circle (GR746792). Turn right to a stile and cross this onto unfenced moorland. After this you can make your own way to the cache up a convenient sloping terrace. You can return the same way, but if you don't mind a bit of rough going, there is a far more exciting and beautiful route back: head east from the cache down a spur, at whose foot you will enter oakwoods. Keep on down until you are close to the river, where you will reach a path - in reality an old lead-mining leat (artificial watercourse). Turn right and follow it through the oakwoods until you reach the ruins of the Temple lead mine, whose two waterwheels were the reason for the leat. Fork right by the mine to follow a small heathery path back down to Parson's Bridge.
Click here for a map