Dartmouth 25 June 2027 to 28 June 2027

Dartmouth is on the south west coast of Devon.  Details of accomodation, travel and walks will be posted shortly, and updated as needed.  #2027-06-25T10:00

Barbican - Two giants of the concert hall, the Gewandhausorchester and Lang Lang performing Beethoven

The concert may be nine months away,  but the tickets certainly won't be around for that long, hence the advance notice. 

Tonight, to mark the 200th anniversary of composer's death, we'll hear the world's oldest civic symphony orchestra,  the Gewandhausorchester, led by five-time Grammy Award-winning conductor Andris Nelsons, with household name pianist Lang Lang, performing Beethoven. 

To book,  please click here, tickets from £25

Pre-Concert F&B will be posted in due course. 

A Whatsapp event group will be set up.  If you wish to join,  please email your mobile number to swcsocialATgmailDOTcom. 

Programme

• Ludwig van Beethoven   Symphony No. 6 ‘Pastorale’ – 45’
• Ludwig van Beethoven   Piano Concerto No. 5 ‘Emperor’ – 45’

The evening begins with the composer’s crowd-pleasing Pastoral Symphony. Listen out for a murmuring brook, rumbling thunder and startlingly accurate birdsong. Beethoven represents the nightingale with the flute, the quail with the oboe and the cuckoo with two clarinets. The main focus of the symphony are the emotions that this rural setting inspires. We are invited to feel the happiness of arriving in the country, the disruption of a storm and the peace of its aftermath.

Gewandhausorchester premiered Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto in 1811. The pinnacle of Beethoven’s achievements in this form, it spoke to its audience in fresh, unfamiliar ways. Lang Lang masters its complexities while making it look easy.

 #2027-06-03T19:30

Save the Date - 30-year anniversary of the SWC

A celebratory walk is planned to mark the club’s 30-year anniversary.  

This is an advanced notice to help you plan your busy diary.  

Details will be posted by a walk poster near the time.  

We are celebrating a very special milestone, the 30th anniversary of our walking club.

Over the years, our club has brought together people from all walks of life, united by a simple pleasure: walking in the countryside.  From peaceful paths and woodland trails to challenging hills and action packed holidays, we have explored many places together and created memories that will stay with us for years to come.

But our club has always been about much more than just walking. It is about friendship and community, the conversations along the way, the laughter over a pint of beer or a cup of tea, and the welcome given to new members.  Many friendships have been formed and in some cases blossomed into marriages through the club.   It is this wonderful sense of togetherness that has helped it flourish for three decades.

As we celebrate our 30th anniversary, we thank the club’s founding father, Nicholas Albery for his ingenious idea,  our webmaster Andrew and many walk posters for their dedication and hard work through the years.  We also remember with fondness those members who have been part of our journey over the years and are no longer with us or have moved away.

This anniversary is a chance to look back with pride at everything we have achieved, but also to look forward with excitement to the years ahead. May the next chapter bring many more enjoyable walks, new adventures, and lasting friendships.

Lastly,  you are invited to share your stories and memories of the club by adding comments to this post.  

Look forward to seeing you at this event. 

 

#2027-05-22T09:30

Scotland 2027: Back to Dornie!

Scotland 2027: Back to Dornie!

The SWC will be heading back to Dornie, Scotland in 2027! We have secured a combination of lodges and cottages from 9 May-16 May 2027. If you are interested in the trip, please contact goepfertkarenATyahoo.COM

#2027-05-09T09:00 #7days

Barbican Hall - Martha Argerich Playing Ravel and more

Tonight,  we will hear the legendary Martha Argerich, arguably the best living pianist in the world,  playing Ravel's piano concerto in G Major M. 82. 

Plus Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals for 2 pianos and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. 

Ticket from £20, to book,  click here.   I expect this concert will be popular,  recommended to book early. 

Pre-concert F&B will be posted in due course. 

A WhatsApp group will be set up for this event.  If you wish to join, please email your mobile number to swcsocialATgmailDOTcom. 

#2027-02-14T19:00

The Jungle Book at the National Theatre

Join us for a fun-filled evening of music, adventure and jungle magic. After all,  nobody is too old to enjoy a classic.  It will be a perfect show to close our 2026 social calender. 

Directed by Indhu Rubasingham, the beloved tale of The Jungle Book is reimagined with innovative puppetry by two most celebrated puppetry designers Finn Caldwell and Nick Barnes.  This thrilling new adaptation brings the jungle roaring to life on the Olivier stage.

Ticket from £25.  To book your ticket,  please click here. This show is likely to be popular so recommended to book early. 

Pre-show F&B will be posted closer to the time

We will set up a WhatsApp event group.  If you wish to be on it, please email your mobile number to swcsocialATgmailDOT.com

 

#2026-12-10T19:00

Save the date: Xmas Party

Please mark your diary.  Details to follow

#2026-12-01T18:00

Barbican - Vaughan Williams and Beethoven with Bruce Liu

After a successful prom season this year,  we continue with our classical music voyage at Barbican Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra, its chief conductor Sir Antonio Pappano and the winner of multiple piano competitions Bruce Liu.  

To book,  please click here.   Ticket from £18.  

Pre-concert F&B will be posted in due course. 

A Whatsapp event group will be set up.  If you wish to join,  please email your mobile number to swcsocialATgmailDOTcom. 

• Programme 
• Ralph Vaughan Williams   A Pastoral Symphony (Symphony No 3)
• Ludwig van Beethoven   Piano Concerto No 3
• Ralph Vaughan Williams   Symphony No 8

With its expressive beauty and folksong-like melodies, Vaughan Williams’ 1922 A Pastoral Symphony was long thought to be an affectionate portrait of England’s rolling hills. But within those four slow movements lie an anguished, ultimately hopeful, response to World War I. Composed 34 years later, Symphony No 8 was premiered during the dawn of the new Elizabethan age. It’s a tauter, more rhythmic work, at times dance-like, yet still offering moments of deep introspection.  

Mozartian elegance and grace surround Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 3, a work that nevertheless includes moments of profound beauty, especially in the yearning second movement. 

 

#2026-11-26T19:00 

Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends at Young V&A

In Aardman’s 50th anniversary year, go behind the scenes of your favourite stop-motion animations and explore how Aardman’s iconic characters and worlds are brought to life. 

A joyful, educational, and highly tactile experience and a "must-see" expo that combines nostalgia with iconic sets, original models, and interactive, hands-on activities. 

Tickets £11 or £5.5 (Art Fund).  To book your ticket, please click here.  Book the 2:30pm slot. 

The current plan is to link this exhibition in conjunction with a Sunday walk and lunch nearby.    

A WhatsApp group will be set up for this event.  Please email your mobile number to swcsocialATgmailDOTcom if you wish to be on it. 

#2026-11-01T14:30

Monday Walk - Crickhowell Circular (via Table Mountain and two of the Three Pens) [Crickhowell Trip]

Walking the short version of the full walk today…

 

Length: 16.5 km (10.3 mi), with options to shorten or lengthen 

Ascent/Descent: 741m 

Net Walking Time: ca. 5 hours 

Toughness: 6 out of 10 

 

Meet at 09.30 at Crickhowell Square Bus Stop

 

Return to London:

Buses from Crickhowell to Abergavenny: 14.42, 16.42, 18.06, 18.54 and 20.44 (15 mins journey plus 10 mins walk). 

Train Connections to London with those buses: 16.06, 18.04, 18.36, 20.40 and 21.08 (with some luck). There is a pub at Abergavenny Station.

 

From the centre of the rightly popular town of Crickhowell, within minutes you rise up steeply (with an 12% average gradient) for 3 km – mainly through pastures – to the excellent viewpoint that is the eponymous Iron Age hillfort site of Crug Hywel (or Table Mountain), which gives its name to the town and towers above the Usk Valley. You ascend further up the flank of the main mountain range above the town to Pen Cerrig-calch, the first of three high tops along the ridge. Continue to the slightly higher second top, Pen Allt-mawr, where we leave the main walk’s route and return along the westerly escarpment with very fine views, off the mountain down the Darren nose, before dropping down to town through the ancient woodland of the Cwm Cumbeth, with the bubbling Cumbeth Brook never far away. The route finishes through the heart of Crickhowell past most of its tea options.

Walk Options: 

A Very Short Walk leads back down to town from the Table Mountain, on a westerly loop along the Beacons Way and down the wooded Cwm Cumbeth (7.5 km/4.6 mi, 389m ascent, 4/10). 

A Short Walk leads in a westerly loop from either Pen Cerrig-calch and down the lower part of the wooded Cwm Cumbeth (11.5 km/7.2 mi, 658m ascent, 5/10). 

Longer Walks – check the webpage and the pdf for the Main Walk and Extensions of it.

Lunch: Picnic. 

Tea: Plenty of options in Crickhowell, see the pdf for details.

 

For summary, walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here.

#2026-09-28T09:30 t=swc.333.a

Sunday Walk - Crickhowell Circular (via Mynydd Llangatwg and Craig y Cilau) [Crickhowell Trip] [Extra Walk]

Length: 18.9 km (11.7 mi), with options to shorten or lengthen 

Ascent/Descent: 680m 

Net Walking Time: 6 hours 

Toughness: 6 out of 10 

 

Meet at 10.00 at Crickhowell Square Bus Stop (or join in Llangattock if you are staying there)

 

From the centre of the rightly popular town of Crickhowell, the route leads across the Usk River and the Monmouth & Brecon Canal up steeply through quiet pastures-with-views up to the easterly end of the Llangattock Escarpment and the fascinating limestone pinnacle of the Lonely Shepherd, overlooking the Clydach Gorge. From there you follow the escarpment westwards, past ex-quarries, surreal looking grassy spoil heaps, a couple of raised bogs and some extensive cave systems leading deep into the underlying limestone layers.

 

The natural amphitheatre of the Craig y Cilau escarpment with its spectacular high limestone cliffs and extensive cave systems, is negotiated with some easy walking along a former tramroad contouring the dramatic grassy ledge with some superb sweeping views across the Usk Valley to The Black Mountains, from the Mynydd Llangorse and Mynydd Troed via Table Mountain and Pen Cerrig-Calch to Sugar Loaf. You continue through the Craig y Cilau National Nature Reserve, where the Eglwys Faen cave system allows for some optional caving and down the slope to the raised bog of the Waun Ddu.

 

A very scenic descent and re-ascent leads through the beautiful Cwm Onnau and across into the very lush Usk Valley, from where you contour through more pastures with extremely fine views of the Central Black Mountains back down to the canal and via Llangattock village to Crickhowell with its many tea options.

Walk Options:   

A Morning Shortcut cuts 1.5m and 40m ascent. 

A rougher version of that shortcut, up a long and steep bouldery track, cuts another 1.4 km. 

Cut out the out-and-back to the Lonely Shepherd limestone pinnacle with views: cut 1.4 km. 

Caving (for beginners) can be done in the Eglwys Faen complex. Bring your headtorch and an extra layer or two! Good profile soles necessary, scrambling experience reassuring. And mind your head! 

An Afternoon Shortcut, cutting the ascent out of the Cwm Onnau and into the Usk Valley, cuts 2.8 km. 

An Extension of the route, higher up the Cwm Onnau adds 2.0 km and 35m ascent. This starts with 20 minutes along the grassy verge of a busy road though.

Lunch: Picnic. Best location: on the grassy ledge below the Llangattock Escarpment, with views across the Usk Valley. 

Tea: Plenty of options in Llangattock and Crickhowell. Check the pdf or the webpage for details.

 

For walk directions, maps, height profiles and gpx/kml files click here.

#2026-09-27T10:00 t=swc.370

Saturday Walk - Bwlch Circular (via Mynydd Troed, then Llangorse Lake or Pen Tir) [Crickhowell Trip]

Length: 21.6 km (13.4 mi) [longer or shorter walk possible, see below] 

Ascent/Descent: 837/840m 

Net Walking Time: 6 hours 

Rating: 7 out of 10

Take the 09.26 Bus Line X43 from Crickhowell Square to Brecon (does not call in Llangattock), arrives Bwlch, All Saints at 09.36. 

Return: 14.30, 16.30, 18.33 and 20.43.

 

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 good grass paths across 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 through pastures 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.

Walk Options:

Cut out the steep ascent to Mynydd Troed (2.2 km/1.3 mi and 260m ascent/descent) for a 6/10 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 and along the ruined Paragon Tower folly.  

An easterly route from the summit of Mynydd Troed along the ridge and down into the Cwm Sorgwm and back up over Pen Tir to the Cefn Moel and to Bwlch adds 800m distance and 245m ascent (8/10).

 

Lunch: The Red Lion in Llangorse (12.0 km, open all day, brunch served to 15.00); The Lakeside Café at the Llangorse Lake (12.7 km, open as a café to 16.00, then turns into Lakeside Bar). 

Tea Pen Tir Route: The Farmers Arms in Cwmdu (open from 16.00, located 5.8 km from the end). 

Tea both routes: The New Inn (open from 14.00, located right at the end of the walk).

 

For summary, walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here.

#2026-09-26T09:26 t=swc.308

Friday Walk - Llangynidr to Bwlch or Circular [Crickhowell Trip]

Length: 21.9 km (13.6 mi) [longer or shorter walk possible, see below] 

Ascent/Descent: 781/685m 

Net Walking Time: 6 ½ hours 

Rating: 7 out of 10

Take the 10.11 Bus Line 43 from Crickhowell Square to Brecon (calls Llangattock Plas Derwen at 10.15), arrives Llangynidr Village Hall at 10.26. 

Return: 17.49 from Llangynidr Village Hall (Line 43) on the shorter ending and 16.30, 18.33 and 20.43 from Bwlch, All Saints (Line X43) on the full walk.

 

This walk leads from Llangynidr village up along a tight valley, the Cwm Cleisfer, and onto the open limestone uplands of Mynydd Llangynidr, initially along a lane then through pastures, in the latter stages with some difficult-to-find-and-negotiate paths near the transition to the open moorland. Mynydd Llangynidr is a basically treeless undulating mountain of open limestone uplands with numerous depressions, shake holes and pits, as well as many ancient cairns (burial mounds) dotted across the moorland. You climb to the source of the Cleisfer, a perfect picnic spot, and then across the scarred landscape (map and compass come in handy) to the Chartist Cave, arguably one of Wales' most important historic monuments. The Chartists were a 19^th century working-class movement for political reform and this cave is where the local group met and stored weapons before the Newport Rising of 1839.

You cross the top of the moorland hill and descend to a remote road by an active limestone quarry and pick up a former tramway for transporting goods to the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal to skirt around the rim of the picturesque wooded Crawnon Valley. A stretch along a ridge high above the Talybont Reservoir is followed by a descent through lush pastures back to Llangynidr. To complete the walk, cross the Usk River and ascend to Bwlch on the other side for a return bus.

Walk Options:

A Variation on the Cwm Cleisfer route circumvents an often-overgrown stretch with difficult route finding.  

An Extension near the end over the Tor y Foel hill adds 250m and 113m ascent.  

A Variation of the route near the end through Llangynidr leads along the rivers Crawnon and Usk to Llangynidr Bridge rather than along the canal. This is flood-prone when The Usk is in spate and has some steep and rocky bits.  

A finish at the start point in Llangynidr is described but note that there is only one bus late afternoon through the village.

 

Lunch: Picnic.

 

Tea:  

The Coach & Horses Inn; open all day, located 3.1 km from the end of the walk; 

The Walnut Tree Café; open to 16.00, located 2.2 km from the end of the walk;  

The Red Lion; open all day, located near the start of the walk, i.e. at the other end of the village from the end of the walk route; 

The New Inn; open from 17.00, located right at the end of the walk.

For summary, walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here.

#2026-09-25T10:11 t=swc.332