Trench Wall climbing

Crag: Trench Wall, Penmaen Head
Routes: Thin on Top (f6a:led), Trench Warfare (f6a+:sec), Billy Liar (f6a+:led*), Billy Liar (f6a+:sec), Spanish Plume (f6a:led)
Possibly the least pleasant ambience of any Welsh crag: right next to the A55, above a large rubbish-filled ditch, facing due north with zero chance of any sunshine. However, the climbing is quite good: long pitches on smooth but fairly solid limestone. The eponymous trench is literally that - a big ditch which makes the routes much longer than they look from the road, 22m or so. I kicked off with Thin on Top, an f6a which breaks out of the obvious shallow groove taken by Trench Warfare to finish left up the off-vertical upper wall. This is a pleasing pitch, and it was good to get on some harder and more technical rock for a change. It is reasonably sustained but also has some good rests and was exactly what I needed. The smoothness of the limestone on this face is a tad disconcerting at first acquaintance, and the route steepens towards the top, although the holds remain pretty friendly throughout. The groove to the right was similar in standard we felt, despite the grade. Some questionable rock and a scruffy section towards the top but another decent climb. Billy Liar takes slabbier ground to the right, and looks fairly innocuous. This is an illusion as it gives quite technical moves, one sharp rockover in particular, up to a steep finish. This baffled me on first acquaintance, approaching it direct and from both sides, to no avail: ended up dogging the end of the route which was rather annoying. After clipping the lower off, we both tried it again. This time it went perfectly cleanly: a balancy move up the small groove at the top gained the obvious hold before a steep but fairly juggy finish. My lack of upper body stamina told for Spanish Plume, a scrappier and much shorter route at the far left of the crag, which goes up via a borehole to climb a wall on flat holds. It was time to call it a day, as I'd already used my calves too much in advance of tomorrow's Ras y Gader.