Ascent/Descent:
816/820m or 556/560m on the short walk
Net
Walking Time: ca. 6 hours or 5 hours
Toughness:
9 out of 10 or 7 out of 10
Take
the 09.56 bus
(line X43 to Abergavenny) from Bus Stand 3 at Brecon Bus Interchange.
Arrives
Bwlch, opposite All Saints at 10.11.
Return
buses are on: 16.34, 17.47 and 18.13 (journey time 14 or 23
minutes). Buy a Bwlch return.
The
last time around this walk was made harder by the footpaths around the lake
being impassable due to flooding, necessitating long diversions. But Britain had a very dry
spring, so here's hoping…
From
the pdf: “This is a varied walk from the small settlement of Bwlch (‘pass’
in Welsh), starting from a low col high above the Usk Valley onto the rolling
moorlands of Cefn Moel and Mynydd Llangorse. The following long ridge
walk along this outlying peak’s plateau – and the subsequent optional
ascent to Mynydd Troed –command panoramic views across to many of the much
higher giants of the Brecon Beacons National Park: across the Rhiangoll
valley to the south-western flanks of the Black Mountains massif, west to the
Central Beacons and south to Mynydd Llangynidr and Mynydd Llangattock. A road
descent leads to Llangorse village for lunch and around its iconic lake,
of glacial origin and the largest natural lake in South Wales, with its
watersports centre – and the only crannog outside of Scotland and Ireland.
This is a busy touristic site in season.
Leave
the crowds behind to further circumvent the large lake to a remote bird hide
and an even more remote church-with-views in Llangasty-Talyllyn and then
up the Allt yr Esgair ('wooded slope of the ridge' in Welsh). It is
crowned by an Iron Age hillfort and a Roman road and overlooks the
valley of the River Usk to the west and south and Llangorse Lake and the Black
Mountains to the northeast.
You
then follow the Roman Road back down to Bwlch.
Variations:
·
Cutting
out the steep out-and-back up to Mynydd Troed makes this a 7/10 walk.
·
Cut
out the ascent to the Allt yr Esgair Iron Age Hill Fort site near the end by
contouring around the hill’s flank (yet to be walked).
·
A
more easterly loop back to Bwlch from Mynydd Troed via its long plateau ridge
and down into the Cwm Sorgwm and back up across Pen Tir makes it a more serious
outing.” For a visual assessment of how much tougher the alternative route via
Pen Tir is, have a look at the two height profiles at the bottom of the walk’s
webpage linked below.
Lunch:
The Castle Inn (not sure this will be open) and
The Red Lion (this has changed hands recently and been fully refurbished,
but will it be open?), both in Llangors (12.0 km/7.4 mi if walking the
full walk). Picnic lunch is the safe option and indeed the only option if
walking the extended walk via Pen Tir!
Tea: several options en
route (see the pdf for details), and The New Inn (CAMRA South
Wales' 2017 Pub of the Year and its 2019 Brecknockshire POTY) right by the bus
stop in Bwlch.
For
walk directions, map, photos, height profile, and gpx/kml
files click here.
T=3.308
2 comments:
With two new arrivals last night, today we were n=12 on the walk, conveniently splitting into 4 cars of 3 and 2 groups of. It took a while to park all the cars w/o blocking driveways or pavements, but eventually we succeeded. Up onto the ridge where it became clear that ours was the only mountain not in the clouds, and so it stayed all day: w=overcast-but-dry.
8 went up Mynydd Troed, most of whom took their lunch there. I walked on into Llangors village to find The Castle Inn opening this weekend, but only for the evenings and with pre-bookings, while The Red Lion was still Covid-shut. On to the lake and that was busy with loads of car tourists. That meant the Cafe was open and was serving hot and cold meals, hot and cold drinks, with or w/o alcohol. The short cutters and I then had a look at the Crannog and then continued the walk, just as the rest of the walkers were arriving.
The footpaths around the lake were dry and passable this time (and the tendency for them to flood was explained to us as due the high ground water table). At the Allt-y-Esgair I split from the others to finally explore the lower route around the hill, which proved to be quite interesting. We had time for a drink and a half at The New Inn, before the other walkers arrived.
... 2 groups of 6...
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