Cambrian Way: Fforest Fawr

Tuesday 13th August 2024

At the end of the previous day I had reached the Storey Arms, where the sixth stage of the Cambrian Way ends, and immediately I set off down the Taff Trail on a hostel variant to reach the Brecon Beacons Youth Hostel, previously known as Llwyn-y-celyn. This follows the track of an old road, so gave me easy walking after the strenuous traverse over the Brecon Beacons until finally I crossed the valley and came up to the hostel where I was looking forward to sleeping in a proper bed after two nights of wild camping. The following morning I continued to follow the hostel variant rather than returning to the Storey Arms to begin the seventh stage of the Cambrian Way. My Cicerone guidebook recommended that I went through the Graig Cerrig Glesaid National Nature Reserve, which I was more than happy to do, climbing steeply to the left of the crags and soon I had far-reaching views across the reserve and down the valley of Glyn Tarrel, despite grey, overcast skies. Once at the top of the crags I passed above Craig Cerrig-glesiad, down to a col and up the other side before I realised that I had missed my turning. My guidebook offers two alternative routes to return to the Cambrian Way with the first turning off the clear path before reaching the top of the crags to cross the open moorland on faint footpaths, but I opted for the second which follows the Beacons Way on clear paths but branches away from the crags at the col so when I realised I had to retrace my steps back down.

A wide path took me across the featureless, grassy hillside above Craig Cwm Du and up to the northern ridge of Fan Dringarth, which the Beacons Way traverses, but the Cambrian Way takes a pathless, cross-country route from the Storey Arms straight over this ridge. When I finally came to the route of the Cambrian Way I turned off the Beacons Way to head down the grassy slopes, across the gathering grounds of Nant Ystwyth and over the imperceptible rise of Bryn Melyn to suddenly find the clear track of the Roman road, Sarn Helen. I was walking in Fforest Fawr, an extensive upland area that was formerly a royal hunting area but is now a little visited range of grassy hills used primarily for sheep grazing. I was last in the area in 2003 when I did a walk over these hills starting from the car park by the nature reserve, but it has little appeal for me so it has been ignored in my subsequent visits to the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. I did enjoy following the clear footpath of the Beacons Way, even though it was rather boggy, but trying to find my way over the pathless hillside was rather arduous and Sarn Helen was no relief as I soon had to come off that and negotiate a course through the bogs at the head of the Afon Llia. Eventually a clear path emerged through the bogs, though not without getting my feet wet, and brought me to Maen Llia, a Bronze Age standing stone, while not far away was a road which I followed north, with strong winds blowing through the pass, until I reached the edge of a steep drop into the valley of the Afon Senni.

After lunch spent looking into the valley, I set off up the ridge of Llethr, which fans out from Fan Nedd, but the Cambrian Way ignores this hill and I didn’t have the energy to waste needlessly climbing to the top, and besides I had previously visited it in 2002. A wall provided me with a handrail as I braved the cold wind up the ridge and across the steep northern slopes of Fan Nedd to the saddle at the head of the Senni Valley. The dreary, grassy slopes continued up to a broad ridge adorned with a wide, gravelly track, but the Cambrian Way ignores that to follow a faint path through the grass above steep north-facing slopes with views to Cray Reservoir and beyond. While the cold wind continued to blow I slowly made my way up the tedious slopes towards Fan Gyhirych with views behind me across the Fforest Fawr all the way to the Brecon Beacons in the distance. The trig point at the summit has been decorated with patriotic Welsh slogans that meant nothing to me and with rain on the nearby Black Mountain I was keen to get off the hill as quickly as possible so I made my way onto the wide, grassy track that I had seen earlier and walked along that all the way. This provided me with an easy descent as the weather worsened and views towards Cwm Tawe, also known as the Swansea Valley.

On a linear walk your view is always changing and now that I had passed over Fan Gyhirych the Brecon Beacons had been left behind and I had a completely different view to anything I had seen previously, and since I could now see wind turbines then my view must be now stretching to outside of the National Park. I had a very enjoyable walk down the gentle slopes of the gravel track that eventually led me into Ogof Ffynnon Ddu National Nature Reserve, which contains the remains of Penwyllt Quarry so there was a fascinating assortment of caves and disused tramways, whose sleepers were still imbedded in the ground. It finally started to rain before I left the disused quarries so I donned my waterproofs and continued the descent along a delightfully narrow path, which I would have enjoyed more if it hadn’t been raining and I was cooking in my waterproofs. When I reached the main road at the bottom of the valley I turned right to look for accommodation having completed stage seven of the Cambrian Way. I hadn’t booked anything in advance, but the first campsite I found in Glytawe had plenty of space and was very cheap. This was a surprisingly pleasurable walk considering the overcast skies that always promised rain and finally arrived late afternoon, and although the scenery was not as spectacular as previously the cooler temperatures helped to make this a much less strenuous walk than on the previous three days.