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| Name: | Pen Castell y Van |
| Hill number: | 15830 |
| Height: | 140m / 459ft |
| Parent (Ma): | 2300 Craig yr Allt |
| RHB Section: | 32C: Neath to Chepstow |
| County/UA: | Caerphilly |
| Catchment: | Rhymney |
| Class: | Tump (100-199m) (Tu,1) |
| Grid ref: | ST 16810 86835 |
| Summit feature: | no feature: ground in clearing by wall corner |
| Drop: | 41m |
| Col: | 99m ST168865  |
| OS map sheet(s): | (1:50k) 171 (1:25k) 166E |
| Change log: | show changes for this hill entry |
| GPS data: | show GPS entries for this hill |
N.B. Some hill summits are on private property or on land where there is no public right of way. Permission should be sought from the landowner where access to a hill summit is through private land.
Please report via the contact page any logs you see below which describe or encourage acts of trespass. Please quote the hill number and hill name.
| Logged Descriptions (logged by 32 users) | By | Date of Ascent |
| From south, then headed east, wet brown bracken. Neatly timed between two heavy showers, courtesy of Storm Debbie. | Martin R | 13/11/2023 |
| Bracken dying down now which made this easy. myriad of unmapped paths popular with dogwalkers, foggy. Indistinct summit in bracken. End of excellent 7 tump walk around Caerphilly. | Denise | 08/11/2021 |
| From the SSE, initially on track then unhindered over pasture to summit area, the hill crisscrossed with dog walkers paths. High point in well trampled bracken. Much easier than expected, the last of the day on an excellent circular walk from Caerphilly taking in 7 hills and a visit to the cheese, castle and Greggs. Weather could have been better though. | RichardM | 08/11/2021 |
| Parked in forestry car park to SE. Vague path through wood to approx ST 1717 8650. Then dog-walkers' path across 3 fields to summit area. Bracken not too bad: mainly flattened, so possible to walk on top of it. | PGCE | 03/08/2021 |
| Parked in Cwrt Ty Mawr, up the road N then NE, across a grass area. Summit is in thick bracken so it would be easier in winter. although it the bracken is only for about 20 yards. | clivevilla | 29/08/2020 |
| Short walk up from the West | vegibagger | 22/07/2019 |
| From Mynydd Dimlaith summit south along the ridge then east down to the valley below, then around the northeast periphery of Caerphilly, and then east through the fields and the wood to the bridleway, and across the field to the high point where the walls meet | Mariana Trench | 14/04/2019 |
| From Van Terrace | Pip56 | 13/04/2019 |
| Early damp morning from Van Terrace. | Campbell Singer | 15/08/2018 |
| Circular to climb Pen Castell Y Dan from the S and Mynydd Rudry from the N. | Arbie | 17/03/2017 |
| From south along dog walking tracks but JonGlews approach from noth is probably much easier. Saw that approach afterwards when wandering over to a trig point bolt. | Father Ted | 20/02/2017 |
| Parked on Van Terrace, RoW up past Van Castle, then dog walkers' track into field. HP probably NW side of stone wall, clearly identifiable at this time of year with bracken in retreat, but broken down and overgrown. | jonglew | 15/12/2016 |
| From South along ROW then obvious track. Bracken was in retreat, wall found. | PeterD | 18/09/2016 |
| Caerphilly circular (7/7). From NE with minimal vegetation or wall problems. | Smudge | 05/03/2016 |
| Not recommended for the summer months the ferns where well over six feet tall i could't even find the wall after crashing around i eventually walked into the wall. The only way i cold access the summit was by walking along the wall a dangerous thing to do, how much simplier this hill would be at any other time of the year with easy access and nice views it should have been a far more pleasant experience. | hodder | 29/07/2015 |
| Top covered in bracken that was well above my head but GPS allowed me to locate the wall. | Dugswell2 | 03/07/2015 |
| Easy access. First sort of view of the day. | Dusty | 24/05/2015 |
| Drove up lane to 168 869. Short stroll to bracken covered top | GordonAdshead | 08/03/2015 |
| From SW, mapped RoW then good path to summit. | RHW | 31/01/2015 |
| 7 mile run loop from the Caerphilly Mt burger ‘shack’ car park .. Ive lived in Cardiff for 60yrs been up Rudry Mt loads of times and had no idea the castle buildings were there | milejunkie | 27/01/2003 |
| cayh | 07/06/2023 | |
| Matt | 04/05/2023 | |
| Rob50 | 30/05/2022 | |
| TedCymru | 22/04/2021 | |
| andrew brown | 08/12/2020 | |
| Alex C | 22/09/2018 | |
| kasharic | 21/04/2018 | |
| Adrian | 03/01/2018 | |
| ngthack | 30/09/2017 | |
| stevent0809 | 20/02/2016 | |
| Ramblingpaul | 04/11/2014 | |
| Tony J | 29/03/2009 |