Five - Carmarthenshire - Fan Foel - The Black Mountain, Brecon Beacons (781m)

After a foggy start, the mist started to clear, and the hike to the top was in a hot sun. Wow- what an amazing walk! We’d never heard of this one, and if it hadn’t been for our challenge/ project/ blog we’d never have found it. Even the youngest member of our backup team, who claims to be underwhelmed by views and only walks to be sociable, was impressed.
We set off, rather unconventionally, from a little lay-by at the end of the road beyond Llanddeusant. Most people continue along the Welsh Water track to the car park, but this enabled us to join the Beacons Way path early on and follow the side of the Garwnant stream up the grassy side of the mountain. It’s quite a steep climb to the top, but as we rounded the side of the hill at about 600m, in glorious sunshine, we could see Llyn y Fan Fach sparkling below us, with the land stretching up out of it. (A debate ensues between me and our Welsh speaking companion about the correct pronunciation of “Llyn” – only resorting to further research has revealed that it’s “LLinn”.)



Reservoir at Llyn y Fan Fach with Fan Foel in
the distance

From here we followed the Brecons Way around the top of the ridge above the lake to Picws Du, which is the second highest of the Carmarthen Fans, and where there are yet more stunning views, right down ( arghh!.. didn’t see that coming – need to be more careful checking those contour lines) to the stream and back up to the spur of Fan Foel , our goal at 781m. At the top is a rather unassuming slab of rock, which is actually a Bronze Age burial cairn, and a lot of flies.


Small cairn (of sorts) at highest point in
Carmarthenshire (781m) - Fan Foel

Just a little way along you can stride across into Powys ( Brecknockshire) to the slightly higher peak ( 802 m) of Fan Brycheiniog , so it seemed rude not to – plus we also got to see Llyn y Fan Fach’s big sister Llyn y Fan Fawr from the summit. There’s a little round stone shelter up there which must be very welcome on a cold windy day. “Kettle’s boiling!” chirped a lady sitting in there - but it wasn’t.


Trig point at Fan Brycheiniog is higher at 802m,
but just outside the Carmarthenshire border

The route back retraced our steps as far as the Afon Sychlwych , at which point we balked at climbing back up the path to the ridge and instead followed the stream back down to where it meets the Water Board track and some lovely little pools. The track took us back to the car park, and beyond this to the road where we’d parked. At this point we were seriously in need of a pint – only 1 of the 4 pubs in Llangadog was open, but that was fine – and there was a bowl of water for Taffy too.


Looking back at Fan Foel on the track back down