Twelve - Herefordshire - The Black Mountain (703m)

This one starts at the little car park beneath Hay Bluff . We weren’t expecting it to be quite so windy and cold, and despite hats and gloves the westerly wind had gathered up a hell of a chill by the time it hit us. We followed the Offa’s Dyke path which ascends to the highest point on Black Mountain.


Start of the walk, following
Offa's Dyke.

Hay Bluff - the start of the ridge
 along Black Mountain

As we walked along the wide ridge towards where the highest point, we could see two people walking ahead of us, who appeared to stop somewhere on the featureless landscape about where the high spot would be, and after a few minutes turn around and start heading back towards us. Ten minutes or so later when we crossed with them on the path, W enquired, "Are you hill-bagging by any chance"? The reply was that they were, and that they reckoned that they had pretty much found the top as the altimeter on their smartphone recorded within 1 metre of the stated height. This was our first encounter with fellow hill-baggers, and made us realise that trying to get to the highest point in each county, no matter how featureless or unassuming is a fairly peculiar endeavour!

Offa's Dyke path.

The summit (640 m) is known as Black Hill, or Crib y Gath, but the locals call it the Cat’s back, as from the Hereford side it looks like a cat, waiting to pounce. The cairn up there looked decidedly squashed so I did make a half hearted attempt to resurrect it. However, we didn’t hang about up there as the wind was picking up even more and W had to pick his path quite gingerly due to a bruised toe.


Small cairn (of sorts)
 at the highest point.

We’d rented a cottage, Ty-Bychan in Hay on Wye , and it was truly wonderful to arrive there and find the heating on and logs and coal stacked up next to the stove. On Sunday we had planned to hike up to Chwarel Y Fan from Llanthony but the weather if anything was worse, and we decided to save a beautiful walk for a more beautiful day and explored underground instead at the Big Pit mining museum at Blaenafon.

Eleven - Bridgend - Werfa (Mynydd Llangeinwyr) (568m)

Third walk of the day, and our fifth and last high point as the winter sun started to set low in the sky.

Transmitters and the damaged trig point at the
 top of Werfa.

This is a real quick win – 10 minute sprint up and 10 minute sprint down again in the fading light. We share the yomp to the top (568 m) with a few sheep but see no one. At the summit there are a couple of masts bristling with transmitters and the rather sorry looking remains of a trig point which has seen better days. The pink bits in the sky are vanishing as dusk starts to descend, and we are now definitely looking forward to getting home for tea.

As we walk amongst the ubiquitous turbines are treated to the sight of a person being winched up inside one. A trap door clangs behind him and we never see him emerge – I wonder if he’s going to camp up there overnight with a sleeping bag and a bottle of something warming.
 

Another recently constructed wind farm. (Spot
the cable hoist at the rear of the turbine,
 used to lift workers into the generator.

Nine & Ten - Neath Port Talbot / Rhondda Cynon Taf - Craig y Llyn (600m / 589m)

Another two highest points to add to the earlier two already climbed today. The summit of Craig y Llyn is the highest point in Neath Port Talbot, and the nearby county line between Neath Port Talbot and Rhondda Cynon Taf marks the high point in that borough.

Moss covered trig point at summit of Craig y Lyn

Mightily impressed just by the viewpoint at the carpark here - you can see the peaks of the Beacons Way undulating across the landscape, including Pen Y Fan and Corn Du to the right. Perfect spot for a quick lunch, though its much too cold to eat al fresco. Our path west along the top of Craig y Llyn quickly joins with the Coed Morgannwyg Way and up a rocky path to the pine trees at the top.

No longer a prominent feature. Now surrounded
by conifers.

We find the trig point at 600m quite easily, despite a sign diverting the path for no apparent reason, and then emerge from the trees to find another forest of turbines, looking regal in the sunshine, with more being hastily erected below.

Paths closed due to erection of giant wind farm

Cast-iron boundary post between RCT & NPT (&
the historic counties of West & Mid Glamorgan).

When work is finished at Pen y Cymoedd Wind Energy Project there’ll be seventy six turbines and they should provide the entire domestic power supply for Neath and RCT. There is a notice up asking us to wave at the plant and vehicle drivers as they pass us, so they can wave back to indicate that they’ve seen us and won’t run us over – this keeps me entertained for a while. We follow the cycle track back down the hill east for a little way, and then retrace our steps back along the footpath to the car.

Felled trees and some of the dozens of turbines
already erected, with more in construction.

Seven & Eight - Caerphilly / Merthyr Tydfil - Pen March (535m) / Merthyr Common (531m)

Getting 2017 off to a good start, three separate walks and a total of five highest points reached today. The first walk across Merthyr Common claimed the high spot in both Merthyr Tydfil and Caerphilly Unitary Authorities.

Joolz & Taffy at (about) the highest point in
Caerphilly - (no marker, cairn or trig point).

Big smiley sunshines for the weather forecast today find us managing three walks and five peaks today – not bad considering the limited daylight hours available. It was very cold, but this turned out to be a blessing because the hard ground made crossing some of the boggy bits much easier. Never far away is the Heads of the Valleys Road ; a revelation to find all these new peaks so close to the highway which we regularly whizz along by car.

Below freezing - frozen water trickling off
the moor

The first walk, starting very close to the Asda supermarket at Dowlais Top, takes us up from the middle of a housing estate, through a few gates ( past some highly excitable but penned - in dogs) and striding out up onto Merthyr Common via some old quarry roads. We don’t see a soul – just a few ponies who stare us out but don’t approach us. There’s a path of sorts which zigzags in a North Easterly direction until we reach our destination(s) - a couple of points by Pwll Mere ( a dryish lake / sink hole ) where the counties of Caerphilly, Merthyr and Powys all meet . With the help of W’s GPS we think we’ve got pretty close to the two highest peaks – Waun Lysiog in Merthyr ( 515 m) (which isn’t even marked on the Ordnance Survey map) and Twyn Pwll Morlais in Caerphilly ( 535m). 

Pwll Mere - boggy rather than actually full of
water - with a smattering of snow

It’s quite bleak, despite the sunshine, but it’s a shame there isn’t anything to mark the sites. We anticipate wind turbines will be sprouting up here shortly. There isn’t a circular walk to be done, so we retrace our steps back to the car and drive the short distance to our second climb of the day.

Start and finish of the walk is surprisingly
from a smart housing estate

Six - Powys - Pen y Fan - The Top Peak - Brecon Beacons (886m)

After a hiatus of several months decided that we needed to finish 2016 on a high note, so climbed to the top of Pen y Fan - 886 metres - the highest point in the whole of southern Great Britain (south of Cadair Idris). The actual ascent is 530m. It was a glorious day, and the fog which the forecasters had been muttering darkly about had burnt off by the time we rocked up at 11:00. Due to time restrictions we picked the classic Storey Arms starting point - such an excellent idea that the entirety of South Wales seemed to have had it too, and as we set off from the jam-packed car park at Pont ar Daf it felt as though we were back doing the Christmas shopping in a jumble of kids, dogs and bobble hats. However, the path is wide and has been stone pitched by the National Trust to accommodate the heavy pedestrian traffic, and we made good time up to Bwlch Duwynt (“Windy Pass”) . This is one possible route for the notorious military selection “Fan Dance” – the difference being that they get 30 kg packs to carry and mine contained just lunch.

Pen y Fan (left), with Corn Du on the right

The ridge to the right (Craig Gwaun Taff) looked tempting, but we saved that for another day and set off round the right (southern) side of Corn Ddu and up to the table top summit of Pen Y Fan where an orderly queue had formed ( so British!) to take photos of friends and family on the top of the cairn. Like Fan Foel, this was also a Bronze Age Burial Chamber, and Taffy gave it his usual mark of respect by peeing on it. From here we walked across the saddle of the ridge to the top of Corn Ddu , but as we came back down we forked away to the right and immediately lost the crowds.

Julie - at 886m - highest person in southern
 Great Britain.



A bit busy at the top! Queuing for the obligatory
 photo by the summit sign.

This route took us past a small Obelisk which was raised as a memorial to five year old Tommy Jones who died after becoming lost on the Beacons in 1900, and then onwards. We then looped round and back down to the Storey Arms car park, following (and occasionally not quite following) a combination of paths made up of bog, tussocks, tyre tracks and skid marks. Which makes it sound worse than it was – no one fell over and the isolation was splendid. 

Obelisk - Memorial to Tommy Jones

No pub this time as we had a bit of long drive home, but we did have some salmon and cream cheese and gammon and avocado wraps which seemed to have survived the yomp quite well.

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

Four - Pembrokeshire - Foel Cwmcerwyn (536m)

Source of the Preseli Bluestones used to construct Stonehenge. This is our own stomping ground so we’ve dragged the little Peaksters up here in the past when they were tiny, and wearing matching pink welly boots. Did feel a twinge of guilt about that on the way up this time – it’s not a long hike up from the carpark at the base of Foel Eryr, but it is steep. ( A better walk might have been to climb up from Rosebush, but we were in need of something a bit quicker (and dirtier ?!) today.) It’s also quite tricksy under foot in places, and I never manage it without getting a “socker” – at least one wet, black boggy foot.  


Looking back towards the Gwuan Valley and
Newport Mountain

The first bit of the walk is part of the incredible “Golden Road” which crosses the Preseli ridge to Foeldrygarn on an ancient Neolithic route to and from Ireland. Maps show the path following the treeline for part of the walk, but the pesky foresters keep cutting the trees down which can be a bit disorientating. We then veer off South to the peak at 536m, which is a prehistoric tumuli, or burial site. Although 6 miles from the sea, it lies within the borders of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and there are views down to Newport and Fishguard in the North.  

Taffy romping ahead on the path to the summit


Today we walk up in a howling gale, and as I admire the view something small and black bowls past my head at speed and disappears from view. It turned out to be W’s camera lens cap, and despite a lot of scrabbling about in the cotton grass we didn’t manage to find it.

Trig point on top of Foel Cwmcerwyn.
(Rosebush Reservoir in distance).


Quite happy to yomp back down again and drive into the village for a cheeky pint of Cwrw in the beer garden / ”railway station” at the excellent Tafarn Sinc pub.

Tavern Sinc pub in Rosebush. (Someone needs
to find a bucket & sponge)!



Replica station at Tavern Sinc pub
(complete with recorded train sounds)!