GC146JA: Merlin's Hill

Found on 2010-06-24
Placed by: Satellite Kid
Size: Small (Difficulty: 2 / Terrain: 3.5)
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Geocaching.com: GC146JA

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Nice break from our driving back to Watford from Fishguard (and ferry) to exercise our legs and view the area from above. We didn't see some of the parts listed in the description and I have an explanation for that below. Since we usually cache paperless, all I have is a little blackberry screen to view the cache description and I guess I didn't read it thoroughly enough - we thought we had the right footpath since it looked like a typical public footpath... turns out apparently it was not. We discovered this when we came down and had an encounter with a Welsh Dragon of sorts....

Definitely something weird on this hill with all the thistle and nettle bushes on this hill - Merlins revenge for being locked up?

Now for the Welsh dragon, encrypted so as not to lower the integrity of the cache listing....

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This contains _TeamFitz_'s personal opinion...

On returning to the 2 gates at the bottom we were greeted by a woman who had come out to do some weeding... or rather to use weeding as an excuse to confront us. She claimed to be the land-owner and enquired as to whether we got lost. I replied and stated we had been up on the hill - she then pointed out that this path was not a free path but there was a charge.

We apologised and said we saw no sign informing us it was private and we offered to pay, we didn't have enough change but asked if she took a debit card which she didn't. She seemed more intent on putting us right about the private land part and why we didn't pay.

When I asked what she meant by this, she pointed to the sign for the Merlin Centre. Now I know there was not Centre up on that hill and told her so, but she insisted that the sign was for the footpath and we owed her 3 quid. When I stated that the sign is for the centre, and that there was no sign marking the path as private we got into a bit of an argument. Her insisting Wales is a different country to England, which technically it is, but is covered by the same laws.

She was quite insistent that her sign was enough to show that the path was private, I disagree - I told her plainly that it appears to be for the centre, not the path. I stated that I'd done a lot of walking and most landowners would put a specific sign up for the path to ensure there was no trespass. To be honest at this point it seemed to me she's got a good system going on here - catching honest walkers out by not displaying clear signs for access and fees.

We asked where the public path was, she was evasive, stating that part of the path - that she is charging for - is public. At no point did she point out where we could access the hill for free!

This is where the conversation got ridiculous, she went saying that she didn't have to display signs, that anyone wishing to use the path should ask. So we made a point of asking if the road we were standing in was private. Of course not, she answered, so we retorted "How would we know if we didn't ask?"

_TeamFitz_ have respect for all private land owners, we've even stopped to talk with some whilst walking through their land on occasion. But this one seems to be in it for the profit - I'd like to know if she pays tax on any of the fees she takes and I'd be interested to know if she has a traffic order or bylaw in place to prevent access. We didn't press this since we just wanted to get on.

Unless there is blatant disregard or destruction, we never judge how other cachers find the cache. I also don't want to encourage other cachers to antagonise this land owner or to blatantly flaunt local rules. It was an honest mistake we made and we certainly would have taken the public path if we had been more aware. However I hope this log would help future cachers and make them aware of the Welsh Dragon they may meet if they take this footpath and not feel intimidated into paying for access [i]through to[/i] to the public path. She needs to get clearer signage - no other landowners seem to have this problem.