Leventon’s Line                                                                UK Ultras

This route was devised by Charlie Leventon of Mercia Fell Runners and first completed as a two-day backpack with Rick Robson in May 1990. The original concept was a beeline across the high ground of the Berwyns, Arans, Dovey Forest and Cadair hills linking up their respective trig points in a near straight line. Llangollen and Barmouth were used as recognisable start and finish points. More recently a number of fell runners have repeated the route supplementing it with further trigs and tops. There have been notable completions by Yiannis Tridimas and Ray Baines (2005), Alan Duncan and Lawrie Jones (2006) and Rob Woodall (2008). The basic route following the line between Moel Ferna and Cadair Idris, clocking up some 60 miles and 12,000' ascent, still remains the principal challenge while more ambitious runners have the option of adding extensions. All are intended to be informal outings without strict time limits although Charlie suggests sub 18 hours would represent a challenging target for both the basic and extended routes.

Also deserving a mention is a similar route completed  by Hugh Balfour and John Smallwood in August 2006 in 20.5 hours.  Without prior knowledge of Leventon’s Line they devised “The Dragon’s Wings”. Starting from Llwyngwril beach it went right across Wales to the English border at Pen-y-Bryn, near Chirk, covering 57.4 miles with 14,200’ ascent.

Route

Schedule

Principal Route - A schedule for the basic 7 trigs route indicating route stages and leg distances/ascents is included in the appendix to Charlie’s Leventon’s account of the original 1990 traverse:  Excursion to Barmouth  - a high level challenge route from Llangollen (see below).

Extended Route - Yiannis Tridimas and Rob Woodall’s accounts both include schedules for their extended routes (see below).

Use OS Explorer Maps 255 Llangollen & Berwyn and OL23 Cadair Idris & Llyn Tegid (1:25000)

Registrations

Charlie Leventon invites both successful and unsuccessful attempts to be logged with him - email: charles.leventon@btinternet.com

Links and Further Information

□   Excursion to Barmouth – a high level challenge from Llangollen -  Charlie Leventon’s account of the 1990 traverse plus a schedule for the principal route plus postscript notes.

□   Leventon’s Line – Yiannis Tridimas’s account plus a schedule of his extended route (taken from The Fellrunner, June 2005)

□   Leventon’s Line – Rob Woodall’s account of his repeat of Yiannis Tridimas’s extended route plus his schedule (taken from The Fellrunner, Summer 2008)