Garreg Llwyd–The Westernmost Summit of the Brecon Beacons

Monday 18 March 2024

Our weekend, unusually for us, stretched into Monday to give us an extra day of walking. We decided to use it to bag Garreg Lwyd which neither of us had done previously. This is the westernmost of the Beacons and is within Black Mountain, not to be confused with the Black Mountains at the eastern end of the park where we were on Saturday and Sunday. The drive from our base in Abergavenny took about 75 minutes, longer than it would take us to walk to the summit.

The weather was the best of the weekend and from our parking spot high up on the A4069 mountain road it was an easy walk of just 30 minutes over grass to get to the summit. The trig pillar was unusual in that it was made from stone rather than the usual concrete construction. Next to the trig point stood a huge cairn built from large grey rocks, hollowed out into a shelter where we sat to take a coffee break.

Rather than descend the same way we headed north past a small pool and some of the many shake holes that proliferate on Black Mountain. Finally we skirted by the disused quarries back to the car.

	Summit	Height (m)		Status
	Garreg Lwyd	616		Hewitt, Nuttall

All the photos from the weekend here.

The Western Black Mountains

Sunday 17 March 2024

Before setting-off we bought sandwiches from the petrol station near The Victoria.

Once at our destination parking the car proved a little tricky. The parking area was small at the side of a very narrow road. There was only room for about three cars, but two were already there when we arrived. The problem was that the remaining space was a) mostly under water and b) the road edge in front of it was broken away leaving a drop that would have grounded the car had we driven over it. I managed to reverse the car in at an angle into the space avoiding the drop. We had to unload our gear from the car before reversing in so that we did not have to stand in the water to get it.

A permissive path led us south-west through a muddy field and then along the edge of a wood to the access land. An obvious path through bracken continued for a short distance, slanting up the hill side before a lone hawthorn tree (as per Nuttall) indicated where the path turns uphill for the steep ascent to the summit of Pen Cerrig-calch. Initially a difficult slog through heather, but as we neared the top this gave way to an equally challenging area of large grey boulders. A rather sad and neglected trig pillar marked the summit. We took our banana and coffee break taken in the nearby cairn/shelter.

An easy walk of 2km on a good path beside the edge of the ridge saw us to the next summit, Pen-Allt-mawr. The trig pillar here looked even sadder than the last, having become detached from its base and standing forlornly next to the scattered rocks of the summit cairn. If there were any views they were obscured by hill fog.

We descended northward on a  clear path, stopping briefly for me to put on an extra layer as I was beginning to feel cold. The path curved around the head of Cwm Banw before the slight rise again to the flat summit of Pen Twyn Glas, marked by an insignificant flat stone with a small fist- sized rock placed on it. A good view back to the previous summit of Pen Allt-mawr, with its top still shrouded in the cloud that had spoilt our views. We descended a few metres east to shelter from the wind and eat our lunch. A couple of other walkers arrived to do the same as we donned our packs ready to continue.

A little over two kilometres of easy walking saw us at the next summit of Mynydd Llysiau, another flat, grassy top marked with a small heap of stones. Looking back the cloud base was now above our previous summits.

A further 15 minutes and we were down at the col between Mynydd Llysiau and Waun Fach. We thought at this point that we probably did not have enough time to complete the other three summits so we decided to descend on the broad, grassy bridle track back down into the valley. The track soon deteriorated into a muddy morass in places, so it became a long slog of about 7k back to the car.

A surprise awaited us back at the car – some numpty had parked almost in front of us making it very difficult to extract my car from the awkward spot we had had to park it in. 

	Summit	Height (m)		Status
	Pen Cerrig-calch	701		Hewitt, Nuttall
	Pen Allt-mawr	719		Hewitt, Nuttall
	Pen Twyn Glas	646		Sub-Hewitt, Nuttall
	Mynydd Llysiau	663		Hewitt, Nuttall

Dinner was at The Greyhound Vaults as The Victoria was not serving food on a Sunday evening.

More photos here

The Eastern Black Mountains

Friday 15 March 2024

Our base for this weekend was Park Guest House B&B in Abergavenny which Vince had sorted out. It proved an ideal location for exploring Bannau Brycheiniog (as we must now call the Brecon Beacons). We had arrived in the rain late Friday afternoon. As it was a B&B we had to seek out an evening meal ourselves. We settled on the Victoria Bar just 300m along the road from our billet.

Saturday 16 March 2024

I wanted to tackle the 12 summits of the Black Mountains as I had not yet done any of these. Vince agreed even though he had climbed them all before. Nuttall suggested starting at Capel-y-ffin, but I thought the parking looked restricted so suggested starting the route at the better parking area at the Gospel Pass. It was about a 40 minute drive, the last part on a long, narrow, much pot-holed single-track road, but luckily we did not meet any vehicles coming the other way.

Just before we got to our parking spot we passed some workers ready with large bags of paving material which were being transported up to Black Mountain slung from a long cable underneath a helicopter. It was busy doing this all morning.

As we prepared to set off the sky was overcast and the temperature was a chilly 6°C, but it was not raining as yet.

Our first summit was Twmpa (aka Lord Hereford’s Knob). After an initial muddy start a good path led the way. It only took us 20 minutes to make the 140m ascent and 1.4km to the top. The summit was marked with a scattering of flat stones collected into a low pile which could hardly be described as a cairn. The cloudy, grey day meant the views were not that good, but we could clearly see our next summit of Rhos Dirion to the south-west and the path that would lead us to it.

The 2.3km to Ros Dirion was covered in 30 minutes of easy walking. This was our highest point of the day. The white paint on the trig pillar had seen better days and the stencilled red Welsh dragons on each side looked very weather beaten and worn.

We continued south-east on a well made path. We stopped for a coffee break on the minor top of Twyn Talycefn, 1.2km south-east of Ros Dirion..The helicopter was now flying over us carrying its loads in the direction of Waun Fach. The path continued without any deviation in direction to the next summit of Chwarel-y-Fan. After summiting we retraced our steps for a kilometre or so back to the cairns on Y Fan for our lunch stop.

We now had to lose height and descend into the Vale of Ewlas and pass through Capel-y-ffin. There were three cars parked where Nuttall recommended we start the walk, so we probably would have been ok here. The paths in the valley were particularly muddy (it had been the wettest winter on record). We followed a lane past the chapel and began to ascend back out of the valley, through fields where the going was still pretty soft. We crossed a stile back onto the access land to find a 20m section of path that was underwater. We managed to creep past along the muddy edge without getting our feet wet. The ground steepened as we ascended up to the Offa’s Dyke ridge.

Once the ridge was gained we turned left (north-west) on the Offa’s Dyke Path. In only 300m we gained Black Mountain South Top. This, I discovered when writing this, is no longer a Nuttall – it was deleted in January 2021 as it only has 14.7m drop (just 30cm short of the 15M required).

The walking was easy along the ridge as most of the way was paved with flag-stones. The weather was beginning to deteriorate – rain and hill-fog. There were a  multitude of cairns along the path, but we assumed Black Mountain’s summit was the rock that had been painted orange as there was nothing else that distinguished the top. No views because of the hill fog.

Next onto Hay Bluff. Although at 677m it is high enough to be classed as a Nuttall, it fails because it only has an 11m drop. The trig point was surrounded by a moat of rain water which we could not avoid stepping through in order to reach. The scenery from here is rumoured to be quite fine, but we could not see anything as the weather had closed in. The 1.5k walk south-west from here back to the Gospel Pass was pretty grim as the wind was driving the rain straight into our faces.

	Summit	Height (m)		Status
	Twmpa	680		Hewitt, Nuttall
	Rhos Dirion	713		Sub-Hewitt, Nuttall
	Chwarel y Fan	679		Hewitt, Nuttall
	Black Mountain South Top	637		Deleted Nuttall
	Black Mountain	703		Hewitt, Marilyn, Nuttall

We had dinner in The Victoria again.

Some more photos here.