The Black Mountain and the Fforest Fawr

Sunday 24th August 2003

In 2003, after a second visit to the Lake District, I returned to the Brecon Beacons National Park for what became the end of an era. I had been visiting the park twice a year for several years, but this was to be my last regular visit before moving on to bigger, though not necessarily better mountains, starting with those in Snowdonia. I had already decided that I was going to go to Snowdonia a couple of weeks after this walk, but I hadn’t planned anything for the August Bank Holiday weekend. It wasn’t until the Friday evening that I decided I wanted to go walking, but by then it was too late to book anything in the tremendously popular Lake District. A phone call to Brecon Youth Hostel revealed that they had spaces so Saturday morning I drove to Hay-on-Wye, on the edge of the national park, where I bought loads of books. On Sunday the weather was glorious so the walk that I’d originally planned to do at Easter, until poor weather diverted me to the waterfalls of Ystradfellte, was put into action.

Parking near the Gwyn Arms pub, I crossed the main road and passed through the wooded valley of the Afon Haffes before climbing out of the valley into the vast upland area that is known as the Black Mountain. I had only once before been to the Black Mountain and that had been eighteen months previously when I had approached from the north and mainly concentrated on the north-eastern edge of the mountain. I was now in the south-eastern corner of the mountain as I made my way through a fascinating area of outcrops and shake holes. There is a bridlepath through the area, but the weather and the terrain was far too good to stay on it, so I darted about from top to top enjoying every moment as I traversed the complex landscape, passing over the tops of Carreg Goch and Disgwylfa. Eventually the interesting terrain came to an end and I rejoined the bridlepath before crossing the Afon Twrch by a ford, but I am unsure what my next move was. I may have visited the trig point on Carreg Yr Ogof, but even if I did not I must have left the bridlepath behind and climbed bare grass slopes to the north-eastern edges of the Black Mountain at Bannau Sir Gaer.

The rest of the walk was a relaxing stroll along the edge of the escarpment while listening to the Grand Prix on the radio (incidentally Alonso won his first race – the first of many). In glorious sunny weather I walked to the highest point on the Black Mountain at Fan Brycheiniog before turning to the south to walk over Fan Hir and down the gently sloping hillside. Eventually I reached the access road to Ty Hendrey which I was able to follow back onto the road a short distance from the Gwyn Arms where a cool drink was gratefully received after a long walk in hot weather. I didn’t return to the Black Mountain for another six years, but I didn’t feel like I needed to as this great walk was the best that could be done over such a vast mountain where gradients are generally shallow. I have not been back to the Black Mountain since 2009, but I must plan a return before too long.

Monday 25th August 2003

The next day I did a walk around the Fforest Fawr, an area of upland near the Brecon Beacons. The year before I had visited the Fforest Fawr for the first time, but had generally stayed on the western side, so now I wanted to visit the eastern part where are the only significant hills in the whole national park that I hadn’t visited. I parked at a layby near the entrance to the Graig Cerrig Gleisiad National Nature Reserve, but I didn’t start the walk by entering the reserve; instead I crossed over the road onto a track that contains both the Taff Trail and the Beacons Way on the far side of the valley. This took me up to the car parks near the Storey Arms Centre and beyond them, keeping to the Taff Trail, to the Beacons Reservoir. From there a long tedious walk up grassy slopes took me to the top of the vast but featureless hill of Fan Fawr whose only redeeming feature is good views of the Brecon Beacons.

A long walk across the grassy hills took me to the cliff edge of Craig Cerrig-gleisiad. I was now not far from my car but I still had another hill to visit first. A crow would have taken a different route between Fan Fawr and my next target, Fan Dringarth, but the deep valley of Cwm Dringarth and the Ystradfellte Reservoir lay in my way. From Craig Cerrig-gleisiad, I rounded the top of the valley, climbed up to the top of Fan Dringarth and continuing along the summit ridge soon reached the top of Fan Llia. I now really just wanted to return the way I had come, but I am unsure whether I literally reversed my steps or whether I dropped into the western valley of the Afon Llia before heading back towards Craig Cerrig-gleisiad.

Either way I returned to the Graig Cerrig Gleisiad National Nature Reserve where a delightful walk through the unspoilt vegetation of the reserve took me back to my car. This may not have been a great walk over really interesting hills, but it did mean that there was now not anywhere in the national park that I hadn't walked. If I wanted to do new walks now in new areas I would have to stop going there in the future, and that made me sad. I'd come to love the Brecon Beacons; it was almost beginning to feel like a second home as I now knew my way around the area so well! I still look back on my time in the Breacon Beacons National Park with affection as it was where I made where my first efforts in hill-walking and I still occasionally return for visits. By this time however I had already been to the Lake District twice and I would soon make my first visit to Snowdonia. Other mountains beckoned.