Brecon Beacons National Park

The Brecon Beacons cover some 520 sq miles of high grassy valleys, wooded hills and sweeping moorland, separating the rugged uplands of Mid Wales and the industrial South East of the country.

The area was designated as a National Park in 1957 but most of it is privately owned providing grazing for the sheep and moor ponies or Welsh Cobs that dot the slopes.

The eastern section of the Brecon Beacons includes the highest peaks in the region Corn Du (873m)

and Pen-y-fan (886m), both are sites of Bronze Age burial cairns and the Black Mountains around the more populated towns of Brecon, Abergavenny and the pretty market town of Crickhowell. This section stretches out as far as the popular Wye Valley by the book town Hay-on-Wye and includes parts of the Offa’s Dyke walk and the impressive Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal. The canal is made of two canals built for transporting coal and iron in the 18th Century and carefully restored to provide a continuous waterway some 33 miles from Brecon to Newport via the Usk Valley.

The western section is wilder and less visited but is not without its rugged charm. In this part of the Brecon Beacons you’ll find the great Fforest Fawr, once a hunting ground for Norman landowners, a place of dense woodland and waterfalls with great walks. At the Sgwd-yr-Eira falls you can actually walk behind the screen of water. The western part of the Brecon Beacons also includes the Black Mountain, a bleak collection of slops and ridges just east of the town of Llandeilo. Nearby is the Dan-yr-Ogof Showcaves, a visitor attraction of fascinating limestone rock formations.

The Brecon Beacons are a popular centre for a range of outdoor activities. It’s more gentle slopes provide an easier walking or cycling than say Snowdonia , while pony trekking, canal cruising or taking a trip on the narrow gauge Brecon Mountain Railway provide an easier way still of enjoying the countryside and its rich variety of wildlife.