Brecon Beacons Totally Explained

Everything about Brecon Beacons National Park totally explained

The Brecon Beacons (Welsh: Bannau Brycheiniog) is a mountain range located in the south-east of Wales. It forms the central section of the Brecon Beacons National Park (Parc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog), one of Wales's three National Parks and is widely described as a mountaineer's paradise.

Range

The Brecon Beacons range, properly speaking, consists of the mountains to the south of Brecon. The highest of these is Pen y Fan (886 m); other notable summits include Corn Du (873 m), Cribyn (795 m), and Fan y Bîg (719 m) (External Link

). These summits form a long ridge which forms a horseshoe around the head of the Taf Fechan river to the south-east, with long parallel spurs extending to the north-east. The round of the Taf Fechan skyline forms a popular ridge walk known as the 'Beacons Horseshoe'. Many other fine walks exist in this part of the National Park but the mountains are well known for swift changes in weather conditions, even in summer. In winter they're dangerous for anyone.
The Brecon Beacons are so named after ancient practice of lighting signal fires (beacons) (External Link

) on the mountains to warn of attacks by the English, or more recently to commemorate public and national events such as coronations or the millennium.

National Park

The National Park was established in 1957, last of the three Welsh parks; (Snowdonia was first in 1951) with the Pembrokeshire Coast being the other. It covers 519 square miles (1344 km²), 332 100 acres stretching from Llandeilo in the west to Hay-on-Wye in the east. It encompasses the ranges confusingly (at first) named the Black Mountains (in the east of the park (External Link

), on the border with England) and the Black Mountain (in the west) (External Link

). The area to the west of the Brecon Beacons range is known as the Fforest Fawr (Great Forest), and was designated a geopark by UNESCO in 2005. Most of the national park is moorland, with some forestry plantations, and pasture in the valleys (External Link

).
On 22 May 2005, it was announced that the first walk to span the entire length of the Brecon Beacons National Park was opened. The route, called The Beacons Way (External Link

), runs from Abergavenny, through Crickhowell and ends in the village of Bethlehem, Carmarthenshire (External Link

).
Popular activities in the park include walking (External Link

), cycling, mountain biking, horse riding, as well as sailing, windsurfing, canoeing and fishing its rivers (External Link

) and reservoirs (External Link

), rock climbing, hang-gliding, caravanning, camping and caving. The Taff Trail (External Link

) also passes through the Beacons on its way from Brecon to Cardiff. The park is known for its waterfalls (External Link

), including the 27-metre Henrhyd Waterfall (External Link

) and the falls at Ystradfellte, and its caves, such as Ogof Ffynnon Ddu (External Link

). Welsh mountain ponies may be seen grazing wild within the Park.
Due to its remoteness and the challenging ascents and weather, parts of the parks are used for military training. The Special Air Service (SAS) is known for holding especially demanding selection training exercises here. The infantry regiments of the British Army (External Link

) all train at Sennybridge (External Link

), where NCO selection also takes place.
In 2006 and 2007 environmental controversy surrounded the government decision to build the South Wales Gas Pipeline (External Link

) right through the park (External Link

), the national park authority calling the decision which would damage the park's environment a “huge blow”. However it's now completed (External Link

Mountain rescue

Mountain rescue in Wales is provided by seven groups, with assistance from local Police forces, and in serious situations an RAF helicopter from RAF Valley. These are:

BMRT - Brecon Mountain Rescue Team
SARDA - Search and Rescue Dog Association
C/Beacons - Central Beacons
W/Beacons - Western Beacons
LMRT - Longtown Mountain Rescue Team based in the east
NEWSAR - North East Wales Search and Rescue
SARA - Severn Area Rescue Association

Most are staffed by local volunteers and funded primarily by donations. Their work isn't restricted to mountain and wilderness rescue; often teams are utilised by the local police to search for missing or vulnerable persons in the community.

Towns and villages

Brecon

Garnant

Hirwaun

Felinfach

Myddfai

Ystradgynlais

Local councils

Brecon Town Council

Builth Wells Town Council

Cefn Coed: Crossroads for City, Country & Coast

Clyro

Glasbury Community Council

Hay Town Council

Llanfihangel Cwmdu with Bwlch & Cathedine Community Council

Llangattock Community Council

Llangors Community Council

Llanthony

Llywel Community Council

Llanwrtyd Wells Town Council

Pontsticill Pontsarn & Vaynor

Talybont-on-Usk Community Council

Trallong Community Council

Trecastle

Ystradfellte and Waterfall Country

Further Information

Get more info on 'Brecon Beacons National Park'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://brecon_beacons.totallyexplained.com">Brecon Beacons Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.