My second visit to the Black Mountains

Since I’ve recently been posting some reports of previous times I’ve spent in the Black Mountains I thought I’d post another one, this time from the second time I ever visited the area. This was at Easter in 2000 following my first visit the year before. Unfortunately I didn’t write a report on my holiday at the time and I didn’t say anything about it in my diary afterwards so a lot of the details of the walks are now lost in the swirls of time.

Sugar Loaf

Tuesday 25th April 2000

The first walk that I did on this holiday was up a distinctive hill that overlooks the town of Abergavenny which is situated at the southern end of the Black Mountains. This was my first time through Abergavenny and it was my most trouble-some visit. For whatever reason there were lengthy traffic jams through the town that delayed me for ages. I have never had any problems getting through Abergavenny since but I have been wary of driving through the town ever since. I parked in a lay-by near the farm and caravan site of Pysgodlyn on the A40 a few miles out of Abergavenny and immediately started climbing through woodland. I have little memory of the walk up the hill until I reached the open hillside, but the directions that I was following appeared to have taken me through three farms as I slowly climbed the hill. Once away from enclosed farmland I headed straight up the bracken-covered hill towards the summit of Sugar Loaf. This 596m hill must have extensive views across south Wales and north into the Black Mountains, but I’ve never been back to Sugar Loaf mainly because it has no ridges linking it to any other hill, it sits all on its own, which is a pity as it is a striking hill that is instantly recognizable from a distance. From the summit I slowly walked back down the hill by a route that I have forgotten and whose directions don’t sound familiar.

Grwyne Fawr

Thursday 27th April 2000 The next day I went back to Hay-on-Wye to have a long browse around the thousands of books that are available there and the following day I returned to the Black Mountains and parked for the first time at the top of the Gospel Pass. I did not park there on my first visit but I wished that I had after the steep climb to the top of Hay Bluff from a stone circle where I had parked, so on all my subsequent visits this is where I have parked. From the top of the pass I climbed up Twmpa and continued across the moorland to the broad top of Rhos Dirion as I did last September. On this occasion I passed over the hill and dropped down into the valley beyond. I remember looking at the hills on the far side of the valley, which include the highest points in the Black Mountains, with some fear, mainly because the tops were covered in cloud. At this point I was still quite new to hill walking and I had never walked in cloud before. From the top of Grwyne Fawr I headed down the valley past the Grwyne Fawr Reservoir where I think I had my lunch and eventually reached the northern edge of the Mynydd Du Forest. From the forest car park I climbed up the eastern hillside to reach the Blacksmith’s Anvil (whatever that is) for the first time and then down the steep hill opposite. I have mentioned a couple of times recently how I slipped over at this point on the walk. I remember that I was wearing jeans and got them very dirty as I tried to get down the muddy slope all the way into Capel-y-Ffin. From there I was left with another steep climb in order to get back to the car as I’d parked it at the top of the valley and I was at the bottom. I climbed past Pen-y-maes farm onto the bridlepath that skirts Darren Lwyd precariously making my way along a muddy path up to the road just beyond a cattle grid and for the only time I then walked along the road back to the top of the Gospel Pass. I think by the end of this walk I may have been fed up by the muddy condition of the paths which may explain the route I took back.

Bal Bach and the Offa’s Dyke Path

Friday 28th April 2000

My final walk on this holiday started from Llanthony Priory, which was the same place I’d started the last walk on my first visit to the Black Mountains. As mentioned last week I climbed up the southern bank of Cwm Bwchel as I was directed that way, but it made my route a lot more difficult and less interesting than the proper path to the saddle of Bal Bach. Unlike in 2005, on this occasion that was as high as I went as I took a path through the heather that crosses the hillside east of Bal Mawr and slowly descends back down into the Vale of Ewyas. Following the edge of the farmland I walked up the valley until eventually I dropped back down onto the road through Y Fferm to Capel-y-Ffin. Now once again I began the climb that had so enthralled me the previous year even making the same mistakes, going the wrong way as I had done before. It would take my first descent of the path the following September for me to find the correct route up the hill. At the top of the broad ridge I joined the Offa’s Dyke Path and headed south all the way to a right branching path that took me steeply down to the picturesque ruins of Llanthony Priory. In retrospect this was not a great walking holiday, but it was just the start of many more to come and continued to lay the ground works for my love of hill walking and the Black Mountains.