Visiting the Black Mountains area of Bannau Brycheiniog, or the Brecon Beacons as the Welsh National Park is better, is something that has been on my list of things to do for a while.
The Route
I had looked at a lot of options for routes around this area to tick off the Nuttall summits. Creating a route which ticked them all off though was a little bit much.
Instead I looked at the Dragons Back Circular and added a few miles on cover a few more summits and a trig point.
Parking
This car park is perfectly placed at the bottom of the Dragons back route by the Dinas Castell Inn. With an honesty box system, so make sure that you drop a few quid in there.
Dinas Castell
The ruins of Dinas Castell might be minimal but the view was beautiful. I could tell that this was going to be a fun hike having already encountered some interesting terrain.
Dragons Back
This was a pretty cool route to take up to the summit of Waun Fach. As much as I love catching views when I head out on a hike, I also enjoy it when I’m heading up into the clouds. The visibility, or lack of makes it quite exciting not knowing quite what is coming next and just seeing glimpse through the fog.
Waun Fach
I am sure that on a clear day there are some amazing views from this rather flat summit. On this hike however I could only see a small cairn and what looked like the remains of a trigpoint. None of the trig maps I follow had this marked though.
This is one mountains that I have no idea how to pronounce. Everytime that I say it it sound more like I’m asking a question than saying the name of a summit!
Mynydd Llysiau
it’s a rather flat and boggy trek across from Waun Fach to the final Nuttall I was looking at completing. It is rather exposed and the cold December winds were pretty harsh but at least they pushed the clouds through offering brief glimpse of the surrounding landscape.
Those times when the clouds did drop it really felt like I was walking the path way to heaven. Not in a dangerously way, more in a stunningly beautiful way.
Pen Twyn Glas
I can’t lie I was slightly throne by these boundary stones. Until I got back home I honestly believed that it was a couple of graves stones stood at a few thousand feet. Really though the are marking an ancient boundary between to places that are, well, no longer legible.
Pen Allt Mawr
Up in the clouds, I really enjoyed this trig point. It has one of the small stone circle shelter which I adore and meant I could stay here for a little while.
Watching the clouds fly through the valleys and up over the mountain whilst staying protected from the icy winds which had picked up a little point at this point.
From here I headed back down the same path, making sure to navigate the boggy terrain following the pattern I had already taken. Until I rejoined the main dragons back circular route.
It had been pretty wet in the days before and the end of the route was pretty muddy and also involved crossing over a little ford. There were some stepping stones here but the water level meant that these were kind of hidden below the surface. Still it wasn’t too hard to navigate and my waterproof boots meant that my feet still stayed dry.
So that is most of the Nuttalls on the west side of the Black Mountains ticked off. Next time I head to this area I’ll likely approach from the English border side. I’ll just hope that I can research and find a trigpoint to add in to that hike too.