Southern Black Mountains

Thursday 29th August 2019

During my holiday in Wales I was going back to the places where some of my earliest and most memorable walks have been done, and one such walk was in the Black Mountains in 2002. On that occasion I parked at the end of a narrow lane off the A479 at Pengenffordd, but now I stopped in the car park that is beside the Dragon’s Back Inn on the main road, and paid a small fee for the pleasure. I set off along the tree-lined lane behind the car park heading south-east following the route of the walk that I did seventeen years ago. The weather back then was good, but that was not the case now as the heatwave that I had enjoyed over the weekend was a distant memory so the day before while it often rained I spent my time browsing the second-hand bookshops of Hay-on-Wye. After a short walk along a road I came off and climbed up a lane that took me to the edge of the open hillside just as the sun started to break through the clouds and I was hopeful that this was a sign of a greater improvement in the overcast weather, but it was not to be as almost immediately it started raining. So it was that I toiled up the hill through rain and bracken to plunge into the clouds and reach the top of the ridge at the low point between Pen Trumau and Mynydd Llysiau. In 2002 I had turned left at this point to pass over Pen Trumau and head towards Waun Fach, but now I turned right to walk to the top of Mynydd Llysiau.

I must have walked along this ridge before but I can’t remember when, and with the rain having stopped I quite enjoyed it especially on the climb to where the ridge is narrow even though I still had low clouds. On the other side of Mynydd Llysiau the ridge broadens and as I descended the clouds cleared and the wind picked up so that while crossing the broad saddle and up to the top of Pen Twyn Glas I was being viciously buffeted by the winds. Rain is not a problem as you can put waterproofs on and keep walking, however if it is windy then that rain can blow horizontally into your face and through your waterproofs. Even if it’s not raining it can be difficult to walk in really strong winds and I have encountered enough windy days on mountains to not want to go walking against the wind. I had planned to turn right at Pen Twyn Glas to head over Pen Allt-mawr, but in view of the strong winds and poor weather I veered left along the ridge that descends over Tal Trwynau. My decision was justified by the resumption of the rain, but now I was sheltered by the higher ridge to my right as I descended the heather covered ridge passing the remains of quarry workings until eventually I reached the edge of a conifer plantation.

At this point I was reluctant to keep going on the walk as the strong wind had knocked all the enthusiasm out of me, but soon after I had started walking again the rain stopped and the sun came out, which greatly improved my outlook and encouraged me to keep going and climb the ridge across the valley that terminates on Crug Mawr. After crossing the valley I took a path past Blaenau up the lovely Nant y ffin valley now with stunning views behind me in the sunshine towards the ridge that terminates on Pen Cerrig-calch. It was very pleasant walking up that path and made up for my earlier despondency as I made my way up to the top of the ridge that runs along the edge of the Mynydd Du Forest to the southern tip of the Black Mountains. I don’t think I have ever been up Crug Mawr before, at the end of this ridge, and I didn’t now as I turned left and followed the edge of the plantation with heather covered slopes to my left and the highest peaks of the Black Mountains ahead of me on the horizon. Over the Grwyne Fawr valley to my right I could see the southern ends of the easternmost ridges of the Black Mountains that terminate on Bal Mawr and Hatterrall Hill, and it all looked fabulous in the sunshine.

However it wasn’t long before the clouds enveloped the skies once more and with them the winds picked up as I slowly made my way along the ridge gradually gaining height as I passed over Pen Twyn Mawr and by the time I reached Pen y Gadair Fawr the winds were very strong and cold. This distinctively shaped peak deserves to be the highest point in the Black Mountains, but that honour is taken by the nearby, wide, boggy plateau of Waun Fach. A good footpath has now been built that eased my passage through the bogs between the two peaks and up to the boggy summit of Waun Fach where I remember previously at the summit was a large block of concrete in the middle of a broad bog. That is now gone leaving a more undefined summit beside junction of paths where there is a small, square rock with O.S. written on it. Continuing along the path on the north-east ridge I descended to the shallow peak of Pen y Manllwyn and just beyond I came upon the route, once more, of my 2002 walk that had descended to Grwyne Fawr Reservoir and back round via Rhos Dirion. To my left was an undulating ridge that is simply called Y Grib, the ridge, that I remembered being an utter delight when I descended it in 2002, and was my primary target for this walk.

The weather was now deteriorating with each step so I was not making this descent in as good a weather as I had enjoyed before, but nevertheless it was fabulous to sail down the ridge keeping to the crest all the way down to the final rise up to the remains of Castell Dinas that overlooks the Dragon’s Back Inn and my car. This walk was not the same as the memorable walk that I did in 2002, but instead I had tried to also conjure up memories of other walks that I have done in the Black Mountains, although ultimately the poor weather did me no favours as I wasn’t seeing the area at its best, but I should be grateful that I did have some sunshine on the walk. Sadly this was the last walk during my holiday in the Brecon Beacons National Park before heading north, but I could have easily spent the whole fortnight in the park and enjoyed every moment. The Brecon Beacons National Park was the scene of most of my earliest hill walks and has shaped my experiences ever since, and so I have great memories and fondness for this area that has been rekindled on my memorial tour. I hope it is not too long before I return to the Brecon Beacons and resume my love affair with this fabulous area.