The Brecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog)
The Brecon Beacons National Park is a "working" or "lived in" landscape, which has evolved over the centuries as a mix of natural beauty and human history. The designated area encompassed within this national Park covers some 519 square miles over half of which is 1,000 ft above sea level. Pen Y Fan the highest mountain in South Wales reaches 2,907 ft above sea level (886 metres). It is perhaps easiest to understand the geography of this national park as a quartet of upland ranges. The central massif known as the Brecon Beacons is located between Merthyr Tydfil in the south and Brecon in the north. This includes such notable peaks as Pen y Fan, Cribyn, and Corn-Du as well as the most popular high level ridge walk - the Beacons horseshoe. The Eastern part of this quartet is known as the Black Mountains which is in the region located between Abergavenny and Crickhowell in the south with Hay on Wye to the North. In the far West of the National Park is the upland range known as the Black Mountain . This remote almost wilderness like location contains one of the finest ridge walks anywhere in England or Wales encompassing the Carmarthen Fans. Sandwiched between the Brecon Beacons central massif and the Black Mountain in the West can be found Forest Fawr roughly located between Ystradfellte and waterfall country in the south with Sennybridge in the north.
The Brecon Beacons National Park is a beautiful area with dramatic scenery, varied wild life and an intriguing past. It is a landscape of contrasts with wild, open moor land and water falls, windswept mountains and sheltered valleys, bustling market towns and isolated farmsteads. In this rural area farming dominates the landscape and Welsh cultural traditions are warmly regarded - especially in the west. This agricultural landscape is rich in wildlife habitats with a wonderful variety of plants and animals some internationally rare. There is a powerful sense of history in the legacy of ancient historic buildings and tell tale signs even in the remotest landscape locations illuminating the story of the people who have lived and worked here during the last five thousands years.