Designated on 17 April 1957
Wet and wild, a land striped and shaped by rivers which crash over falls, wind down gorges and hollow massive caverns beneath its soil, Bannau Brycheiniog is a place to get close to nature, and yet its human history also offers incredible depth.
In this guide, you’ll explore the park from its lofty peaks to the bottom of its cathedral caves and imposing mineshafts, with trips to fine distilleries and the home of Welsh rarebit to keep you going along the way. We hope it inspires you to wander far into the valleys and experience Bannau Brycheiniog in all its natural, cultural and historic glory.
Start/endpoints: Llanfrynach village
Start/endpoints: Llanfrynach village
Distance: 6.5 mi, elevation: 2427ft, difficulty rating: 3/5
Start/endpoints: Llanfrynach village
Hiking up Pen y Fan from the main car park can put you in a long line of walkers and also give you trouble with parking. This alternate route, starting from the village of Llanfrynach, adds a little distance but means you could take a bus from Abergavenny to the trailhead if you made an early start. From the village, you follow the path along the river (Nant Menasgin) until it diverges at the bottom of the mountain and takes you up to the summit of Fan y Big. From there, you join the Cambrian Way ridge walk to Cribyn and then Pen y Fan, retracing your steps or heading north along Cefn Cwm Llwch until you reach flat ground again and link up with the Three Rivers Ride path, which will take you east back to Llanfrynach. You add some significant distance to the direct route up to the park’s most famous peak, but get a quieter, wilder experience for it in return.
Start/endpoints: Cwm Porth car park
Start/endpoints: Cwm Porth car park
Distance: 4.5 mi, elevation: 885ft, difficulty rating: 2/5
Start/endpoints: Cwm Porth car park
This undulating loop is one of Bannau Brycheiniog’s finest and therefore one of its most popular, which means two reasons to make an early start. Firstly, you’ll beat the crowds, have the trails clearer and be better able to enjoy the wonderful experience of hearing the waterfalls before you come up to them. Secondly, you’ll get a lovely slanting light on the water which makes the whole walk even more magical. The highlight of the route has to be Sgwd yr Eira, “Fall of the Snow” in English, where the cascade’s leap from a high shelf makes it possible to walk behind the rushing water. After the hike, head over to Penderyn for lunch in the pub, or to see what good use the local water is put to by the local distillery.
Start/endpoints: Alpaca My Boots, Penpont
Start/endpoints: Alpaca My Boots, Penpont
Distance: variable, elevation: N/a, difficulty rating: 1/5
Start/endpoints: Alpaca My Boots, Penpont
If you love hiking with an affable, woolly creature ambling alongside (insert joke about your other half here), then head north and take a wander at Alpaca My Boots. The 90-minute treks won’t test your endurance or your navigation skills (the alpacas know where they’re going) but it’s a unique opportunity to experience the landscape. Moving at a gentle plod, you’ll be able to take the time to look around, while your guides chat to you about the local area and the alpacas themselves.
Mynydd Llangatwg © Dan Santillo
Start/endpoints: Craig-y-Nos Country Park - Llandeusant
Start/endpoints: Craig-y-Nos Country Park - Llandeusant
Distance: 10-11mi, elevation:1800-2500ft, difficulty rating: 3.5/5
Start/endpoints: Craig-y-Nos Country Park – Llandeusant
First established in 2005, the 99-mile Beacons Way is fast becoming one of the UK’s favourite multi-day hikes. The route was slightly revised in 2016, so make sure your maps are up to date, even if you’re only taking on one of the six sections into which it’s traditionally split. Sheep tracks can create a confusing mass of paths in some places. This section, on the western side of the park, is one of the less frequently travelled and offers you a quiet climb to Llyn y Fan Fawr, the highest natural lake in south Wales, with many stunning vistas along the way. There’s a good weather and bad weather option, with the latter not completely skirting the lake for safety reasons. Check the forecast for the day, plan carefully and enjoy a long, lovely stride.
Llangorse Lake © Dan Santillo
Start/endpoints: Crickhowell
Start/endpoints: Crickhowell
Distance: 4.5mi, elevation: 1246ft, difficulty rating: 2.5/5
Start/endpoints: Crickhowell
If you’re in Crickhowell, stocking up on Welsh cakes ready for the 8000-mile hike to Cape Town, just look up. You’ll soon realise that you’re not heading for quite such an epic journey. The wide, flat top of the mountain is often visible, jutting up from the ridge above the town and while the route might not be globe-spanning, it does offer a moderate challenge. The walk is pretty much a single, steady ascent that quickly leaves town and trees behind and sends you stomping up the open hillside. It’s a wonderful walk to fit easily into a day, with easy access from Crickhowell meaning you can start as early as you like. Once you’re back down, conveniently around lunchtime perhaps, there are plenty of places to in Crickhowell itself, but you could always overshoot to The Horsehoe Inn, just acoss the river in Llangattock, where Chef Raymond Hinds serves up authentic Jamaican street food alongside Welsh classics.
Start/endpoints: Brecon
Start/endpoints: Brecon
Distance: 0.5mi, elevation: n/a, difficulty rating 1/5
Start/endpoints: Brecon
Less of a hike and more of a pleasant way to break up your time in town, this short stroll along the Brecon canal path can be done with takeaway coffee in hand and no map required, even in the worst Welsh weather. You look out on the park from multiple points, there are benches for a quiet moment and you can watch the river as it flows past, sometimes a gently rippling stream, sometimes a frothing muddy torrent, depending on how much rain is running down out of the hills. It might not even leave you out of breath, but it’s a great way to start the day or pass a pleasant hour of the evening before dinner and a helpful reminder that not all time outdoors in a national park has to involve compasses, goretex and thigh burn.
Heiracium Attenboroughianum © T.C.G.RichDID YOU KNOW?
In 2015, a type of dandelion discovered in the park was named Heiracium Attenboroughianum, in a loving but tongue-twisting tribute to the legendary naturalist.
Thanks to Brecon’s barracks having long been home to Gurkhas, plus Brecon twinning with Dhampus in 2019, there’s a strong Nepali culture in the town and thus some great restaurants. If anyone should know about cooking for hungry mountain climbers, it’s the Nepalese!
What is there to say? This is the best place to get Welsh rarebit as well as being a lovely shop where local art is often exhibited. Just don’t touch any of the paintings with those cheese-grease fingers.
This is classic tea room territory, with floral china, a setting that feels stuck in time and great big wedges of cake. When it’s what you want, it’s perfect. It’s also right next door to the Pontsticill reservoir, so you can have a good stroll before/after.
The priory’s lonely ruins, which slowly crumbled after Henry VIII’s polite encouragement towards Protestantism, are a striking sight and also near the Offa’s Dyke path, so you can walk over, around and in several eras of history in an hour or so. You can then retire to the cellar bar for drinks and lunch, perhaps pretending that you’re hiding from a rapacious monarch while you eat.
Take the tour and watch the working water mill getting through the daily grind, then head over to the bakery, where a small team makes naturally leavened and slow-fermented yeasted breads and patisserie, using the flour you’ve just seen ground. It makes a great start to a day that could include a stomp up nearby Waun Fach.
For lunch with a snuffling, waddling difference, take a pig walk at Good Day Out, where you’ll keep company with some kunekunes as you wander the fields and splash in the streams before stopping for lunch, thankfully not served in a communal trough.
Penpont is a magical place, with camping down by the river, wonderful grounds to explore and a walled garden that stocks the shelves of the farm shop, making it a wonderful place to pick up supplies before you visit Twyn y Gaer Hillfort or head out to walk Pen y Fan.
Time your visit for the summer and head to the western edge of the park where you’ll find this pizza pop up. Pre-ordering is wise as the place gets busy, but waiting will give you plenty of time to enjoy the buzz.
Sgwd yr Eira waterfall © Harriet GardinerDID YOU KNOW?
The area in the south west of the park known as Waterfall Country is where four rivers, the Mellte, Hepste, Pyrddin and Nedd-fechan join to form the River Neath. It’s a spectacularly beautiful area of Welsh rainforest, where plant life grows in every nook and cranny. It’s also heavily impacted by overtourism and the National Park Authority kindly ask you to do the following: keep to the footpaths, take litter home, avoid disturbance to plants and wildlife, leave fallen wood alone, cut no firewood.
In April 2023, Brecon Beacons became Bannau Brycheiniog. You’ll often see it referred to as the park “changing” its name, but it’s perhaps more accurate to say that it had its name restored. The meaning is little affected – Bannau is an old Welsh word for peak or hill and while the Beacons mountain range only occupies a small amount of the park’s territory, it’s not a huge leap between the two. Brycheiniog simply means “of Brychan”, denoting how the whole region was once the kingdom of Brychan ap Anlach, a 5th-century king. Some sources call him Brocanus, some Broccan, Braccan, Brachan, Brecin or Breccan, so Brecon is just another in this long line of spellings.
In which case, you might wonder why bother changing the name of the park at all? Well, it’s because language and culture run deeper than politics. After centuries of war, Wales became formally united with England in 1536 but the roots of Welsh go back at least 1,000 years before that. Over time, the stealthy effect of English influence began to erode the use of Welsh, until by the 1990s it was almost considered a dead language. Fortunately, national pride ran deep, and the Welsh Language Act in 1993 was a determined line in the sand. Welsh began to flourish again, in schools, in popular culture, in all parts of the country. So, going from Brecon Beacons to Bannau Brycheiniog isn’t a name change or a technicality, it’s part of a quiet, dignified and important revolution.
Sugar Loaf © Dan SantilloDID YOU KNOW?
Within Bannau Brycheiniog are three mountain ranges. One is the Brecon Beacons, of course, but the other two are rather confusingly separated only by a single S. The Black Mountains are on the eastern edge of the park, while Black Mountain is in the west, with the beacons in between. It’s worth making sure you’re heading for the right one, because as well as the single S, there’s about 50 miles between them.
If you’re based over on the eastern side of the park, you have plenty of options for mixing all the best of Bannau Brycheiniog, with history, culture and beautiful scenery all accessible. Take the walk from Crickhowell up Table Mountain, returning to town for lunch or heading a little south to The Horseshoe for Jamaican street food. On another day, drop into Talgarth Mill for morning coffee, a look at the machinery and supplies for the long route up Pen y Fan. After all that hill climbing, take it easy with a visit to Blaenavon World Heritage Centre, where you can descend into the depths of a mine or take virtual reality tours of times past.
At the heart of the park, you can disappear into its natural beauty, quite literally in some cases. The Four Waterfalls Walk is a lovely scenic loop crowned with a stroll behind the sheet of a cascade, while the National Showcaves gives you a striking view of the power of the rivers, as you walk through the caverns they’ve carved over the millenia. A Pignic walk, where your lunch companions are some affable kunekunes, helps you meet the locals before you head off to a stargazing event at Libanus Mountain Centre, to enjoy the park’s sublime dark skies.
The west of the park is its wilder side, where the focus is on hiking in quiet contemplation. Take on a stretch of the Beacons Way (or finish here if you’ve been doing the whole thing) before heading for al fresco pizza at Dough Diddly’s. Perhaps throw in a visit to Tair Carn if you really want more hill walking, or the ruins of Carreg Cennen to see the legacy of the region’s embattled past. Generally though, this is a place to wander and wonder.
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