Black Mountain Range Hike: Walking in the West Brecon Beacons

The Black Mountain Range is in the West Brecon Beacons, much quieter and wilder than the rest of the stunning National Park. This route turned out to be a 10 mile circular. We started walking from a small, free carpark/layby down a one lane road (Approx postcode SA9 1GT). Straight out the car we were instantly walking along the beautifully cascading river Tawe. The ground is pretty marshy on the way up to shores of LLyn y Fan Fawr and the path disappears at times, nothing too awful but worth noting.
The LLyn (lake) is breathtaking, a perfect spot for a camp or a swim. We stopped a moment to enjoy the atmosphere before heading up the escarpment to our first peak, and high point for the days hike and the highest point of the mountain range, Fan Brycheiniog (802m). The views here are epic, no other word for them.
From here we stayed on high ground, popping over to Fan Brycheiniog's subsidiary peak, Fan Foel, before dropping down into the valley then back up again to bag the next peak, Picws Du (749m). We followed the Carmarthen Fan ridge line, which is visually impressive in every way, over to the last peak of the day Waun Lefrith (677m).
We then curved around and down to the unusual Llyn y Fan Fach, a dammed lake, which also boasts a weather shelter. We picked the path back up at the other side of the lake, making our way back to Llyn y Fan Fawr with the mountains towering above us. We could see people standing on the peaks we had been on a few hours before, they looked tiny against the landscape. Pretty magic.
We followed the same track back to our car that we had taken that morning, from the LLyn. It was a cracking day in a really special place.

Thank you for being here, all the best, Ceri & Kat!

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