The Black Mountains Memorial

Saturday 16th August 2014

Fifteen years ago, after many years of walking in the Peak District, I went up a mountain for the first time, though that is not a mountain in the international sense but in the British sense of a hill above two thousand feet. That hill was in the Black Mountains on the eastern edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales, and saw me climbing to a point that was not only above two thousand feet but up to the dizzying heights of seven hundred metres. The hills that I walked up on that day in 1999 were not in any way mountainous or challenging, but because they were where I did my first significant hill walk I still have a fondness for the grassy ridges that are collectively known as the Black Mountains. I have returned to the area many times since, notably in 2009 when I celebrated my tenth anniversary with a walk around the Black Mountains. On that occasion I commented on this blog: “I will be definitely making a date for five years from now, wherever I am, to come back to the Black Mountains and do a memorial walk over these fabulous hills once again.”

When I realised that the fifteenth anniversary was approaching I made plans for a week long holiday in the whole Brecon Beacons park, but eventually after much debate with myself I decided on a much simpler memorial. Instead of spending a whole week walking in the area I spent just a morning doing exactly the same walk that I had done almost fifteen years previously. On a cold day in August when what had been Hurricane Bertha was drawing strong, cold, northerly winds across Britain I drove at stupid o’clock in the morning to the Welsh border and parked in exactly the same car park that I’d used fifteen years ago, beside a stone circle at the foot of Hay Bluff. This is not the best place to park for this walk, which is why I’ve never parked there since, until now. On other visits I have usually parked at the top of the Gospel Pass while the best place to park is probably in the tiny village of Capel-y-ffin.

I had reached the car park so early in the morning there was still a significant amount of hill fog on the tops of the hills, but the strong winds soon began to blow the clouds away as I started to climb the steep path to the top of Hay Bluff. There was still a lot of cloud around when I got to the top so I couldn’t see the trig point, but I wasn’t bothered about this because I knew I would be returning to Hay Bluff at the end of the walk so I soon set off towards the Gospel Pass as the clouds lifted from the top of the hill to reveal gorgeous blue skies and tremendous views across the wide Wye Valley. While keeping to the edge of the escarpment I slowly descended Ffynnon y Parc to the top of the Gospel Pass with the views of the sprawling mass of Twmpa catching my eye with its steep northern slopes falling towards the tree lined foothills.

Despite the cold wind I felt like I was enjoying great weather as I dropped down to the Gospel Pass, one of the highest road passes in Wales, where good views could be seen south into the valley. On the other side of the pass I climbed up the slopes of Twmpa on a path that seems to have been heavily constructed since the last time I was there. I do recall some nasty scars on the hill previously at this point so I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I still thought the repairs were excessive, intrusive and made the climb too easy, or many other reasons why I’m never satisfied with constructed paths. Eventually I reached the shallow cairn at the top of Twmpa where the great views continued across the Wye Valley and also back towards Hay Bluff with the road through the Gospel Pass crossing the northern slopes of the escarpment.

By the time I’d reached the top of Twmpa clouds were beginning to cover the Wye Valley as the gorgeous weather that had started the walk began to fade. Turning south-east I headed down the boggy ridge of Darren Lwyd with the wet path making me regret not wearing waterproof shoes, and in fact I was starting to regret my entire wardrobe that was not what I’d normally wear for a walk, but instead echoes the clothes that I wore for that first walk fifteen years ago. Just as then I was wearing jeans and a cotton t-shirt, which is something that I would not normally consider wearing for a hill walk, but I had been expecting better weather for this short walk. Perhaps my choice of clothing reflects how I viewed the walk, which even though originally was my first mountain walk, I did not now see as being a mountain walk compared with others that I have done since. That was tempting fate, but I was able to put a fleece on that kept me warm enough despite the inappropriate clothes and so long as I kept going I wouldn’t get too cold. 

During my walk along Darren Lwyd I had fascinating views across the valley to my left and up to the ridge beyond that carries the English border, and at the end were great views down the length of the Vale of Ewyas, a beautiful valley that is a perfect example of glaciation. Slowly I made my way down the steep bracken covered slopes to Capel-y-ffin, the chapel of the boundary. Other sources that describe this walk recommend walking along the road from Capel-y-ffin and crossing the river up to the Vision Farm, but in 1999, and on all my subsequent visits, I have taken an alternative route past two tiny chapels and along a path part way up the eastern slopes of the valley. The path was muddy in places on this occasion, but that didn’t prevent me from enthusing over a path that brought back so many happy memories of previous visits. Just before reaching the Vision Farm I took a path that climbs steeply through bracken up the side of the valley, and on reaching the edge of the open hillside led me steeply through dense bracken up the side of the valley.

In 1999 it was really hot while climbing the hill at this point, but now the cold wind ensured that I kept cool as I climbed all the way up to the top with stunning views of the valley accompanying me all the way to the Offa’s Dyke Path at the top of the ridge. This path also appears to have been heavily reconstructed with the old route bulldozed away to be replaced with an easy gravel path. The Offa’s Dyke Path may be popular, but does that excuse building a path that removes all the effort and interest? It could be said that you should never return to the places of your youth because they won’t be as good as you remember. There may have been a lot of changes over the years on this path that follows the English border but at least they ensured that I kept my feet dry as I walked along the broad ridge north over the highest point on the walk, an unnamed 700 metre hill, and all the back to Hay Bluff.

This may not be the greatest walk that anyone could do, but it does have the distinction of being the first hill walk that I did outside of the Peak District. The thing that initially brought me to the area was Hay-on-Wye, the original Town of Books, and actually that was where I went after this walk. Books may have led me to the Black Mountains, but what developed when I got there was a love for hill walking that remains to this day. Twmpa and Hay Bluff are not the highest or the most exciting hills in Britain, but they are the hills that ignited a passion in me to climb to the top of many other hills in Britain in the following fifteen years, and for that I owe them a great debt and appreciation. Despite the changes that have been made to the paths over the years, the hills remain as a memorial to that walk that launched hundreds of subsequent walks.