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Date walked: 16th June 2021

Map used: OS Explorer OL 12 – Brecon Beacons National Park

Distance: 11 miles

******************

Refer to the Black Mountain in Wales and you might well expect eyebrows to be raised. And its not about the term “Black” which is a relief.

To start with there will be some who would probably wish it only to be known as Y Mynydd Du as they would wish Snowdon only to be called Yr Wyddfa. But the name is also a source of confusion as The Black Mountains are a range of hills in East of the Brecon Beacons. This Black Mountain is at the far West of the Beacons in the county of Carmarthenshire. I was introduced to it when we were  on the Cambrian Way where the route coincides with the Beacons Way as it passes over Fan Brycheiniog, skirts the summit known as Waun Lefrith and drops down to near Llanddeusant. Now that was a fabulous walk – you might like to see for yourself by clicking on this link to my post from that day. 

Llanddeusant is a  tiny place with a church and a Youth Hostel (converted from the Red Lion pub). 

A not very good pic of the church

I had arranged to meet Paul at the village at 11.30; Carmarthenshire Council had other plans for me. “Road Closed” and “Diversion” signs from near Trecastle totally confused my Sat Nav and after ending up at one dead end abandoning electronic guidance I followed a camper van through miles of twisty lanes arriving at the village nearer 12. No Paul. No Phone signal either. I wandered around searching for a signal until I eventually found one as I was standing on the wall of the Youth Hostel. Faced with the same diversion and even more befuddled than I was Paul was now back home.  We agreed to meet up another time. I left the car at the Youth Hostel (it was shut so I didn’t think anyone would mind) and headed for the hills.

A bridge over the Afon Sychlwch was marked with a carved stone to commemorate one D Jones but I didn’t stop to clear the grass to find out what his achievement was.

The road stopped at a property called Gellyygron a wide stony track continuing by the place and heading upwards..

Showing the red sandstone that forms much of the geology of the area.

This track shortly became grassed over as it climbed gently onto the lower slopes of the hills, its sides lined with hawthorns in full blossom, their musky scent filling the warm air.

Hawthorn blossom is said to small like sex

As I reached open ground the view over to my left of Waun Lefrith reminded me of our walk 5 years ago when we were gazing down onto Llyn y Fan Fach on its far side.

Ahead the path climbed steadily on the closely grazed (the sheep do a good job of this) grass dotted with patches of Cotton Grass.

Eriophorum angustifolium

By chance I passed a green plastic lid weighed down with stones which obviously marked a  hole in the ground. It seems that this was probably the entrance to the Carreg Ogof cave system. 

Here the rock is limestone and the hilltop of the same name was marked by large outcrops of the stone…..

Here affording shade to a group of grass grazers….surface boulders….

…. and huge pavement slabs.

The trig point at Carreg Yr Ogof (1919 feet – translation “rock of the cave”) sits on an impressive pile of this rock.

Time for a rest, a spot of lunch and a selfie.

The forecast was for sun and I had taken the unusual decision to walk in shorts (having slathered my legs with a repellent to deter ticks). As it turned out it was warm but quite cloudy for which I was grateful as I was intending a longer walk than I had been used to of late.

The trig point was not the highest point on my route though. Up ahead Garreg Las  was 160 feet higher.

I wonder why they didn’t put the trig point there?

The hill was strewn with big patches of small limestone rocks, which made for uncomfortable walking, so I picked my way around them, the path at this point being fairly indistinct.

I watched a solitary walker approach but it turned out that his path and mine weren’t the same. I don’t know if he didn’t see me or if his hat acted as a blinker but no passing waves were exchanged.

Boulders and bilberry characterised the approach to a huge pile of stones that marked the summit of Garreg Las.

The summit cairn was massive. I’ve no idea why anyone would have bothered to pile all this rock up. Inside the cairn was hollowed out. Sheltering cairns are not uncommon but usually they have an inside in which you might want to sit for shelter but this looked most uncomfortable and I saw no evidence of use.

The pic doesn’t read very well as a hollow

The Beacons Way crosses this gently undulating landscape of rocks and grass for the next couple of miles.

The route was indistinct at times and occasionally required negotiating large piles of angular boulders, necessitating some careful footwork.

I should have mentioned by now the most lovely thing of being here – the concert on my behalf of the songs of skylarks. Fauna-wise there wasn’t much else to report, though I managed to snap a buzzard that was playing with the thermals.

Towards the end of this section, at Godre ‘r  Garreg Las (trans. “foot of the bluestone hilltop” ), the rock became a pavement once more.

Near here the Beacons Way makes a sharp turn due West. I followed for half a mile, carefully monitoring my progress on the route I had loaded onto my phone as I needed to find a more minor footpath heading back north down the valley called Cwm Sawdde Fechan.

I found the path OK, which more or less followed the progress of a little stream.

An abandoned sheepfold (complete with a sheep)……

….marked where I needed to cross the stream to take a smaller path that supposedly branched off to the right.

Crossing the stream was easy enough…..

…..but finding the footpath proved more difficult. There was definitely a degraded stone wall heading in the right direction but this did not make for easy walking and for the next couple of miles I meandered around this wall, crossing minor streams and never feeling that I was quite where I should have been despite my phone reassuring me that I was.

I was more confident when I reached a more substantial drystone wall at the bottom of the valley…..

… and I was happy to pick my way on firm ground between thick tussocks of reeds….

… to find a wide farm track.

This track quickly improved….

… gaining a metalled surface as it served a very fancy property…

….. a tasteful barn conversion…..

…. and some very fancy sheep.

Sorry, a bit out of focus. I failed to identify them as well.

This road was was very short-lived as I needed to turn due East to take a track shown on my map as “other routes with public access”.

This lane started off OK, though I created huge stress by cornering a rather fine badger-faced sheep (and, I presume, its lamb, though it did not have the same markings as its Mother).

Blocked by the gate and by me, the poor things first tried to force an exit through the stock fence which lined the track and then pelted by me as if there was no tomorrow.

I had an uneventful half a mile….

….. until I came across a very decomposed and smelly fly-covered sheep carcase. Yuk.

Coming across an occasional dead sheep is not unusual but a few hundred yards further on I came across another, which made me suspicious that they may have been dumped there; there seemed to be no shortage of grazing for them in the lane.

And then this route with public access started to become less accessible. The next gate across the track was netted and comprehensively tied up with twine and fairly dilapidated.

And the next.

A waist high meadow gave me no option but to wade through – more tiring than you might think.

And on the far side, once again I was faced with tied up gates that I had to climb over.

A load of dumped earth and tree roots didn’t present me with any difficulty…..

….but immediately after that the track stopped at a shallow river. The map showed a weir but I couldn’t find it or any other means to cross without getting my feet wet. So, choosing the shallowest section I crossed, getting my feet and legs wet.

On the other side I scaled the bank to find a track thickly overgrown with bramble and nettles and I made good use of my walking poles to fight my way to another tied up gate……

….. followed shortly afterwards by what appeared to be an electrified fence.

That hazard got the benefit of the sole of my boot. This was getting quite tiresome.

They were sending me sympathetic vibes

Looking at my watch (well, Fitbit actually)  it seemed unlikely that I would make it back home for supper at 7.30pm so I rang Anne. She was very sympathetic and encouraged me to take it easy – which was easier said than done but I did slow down somewhat. The path alongside the horses field was completely overgrown with more bramble and nettle so I slowly bashed my way up the steep slope; it was clear that despite the footpath waymark on a somewhat redundant gate, no one had been here for a long time.

At least I only had one fallen tree to climb over.

By now it was just tall grass on the path

The waymarked gate at the top of the path had been thrown aside and replaced by another which actually opened. Huzzah!

It led into a field that was thick with Yellow Rattle.

Rhianthus minor -parasitic on grass

No path was visible but I followed my map on the phone to a gate beyond which was a property called Pant y cefn. Just as I was climbing over a man asked me (with only a little tension in his voice) if he could help me. I told him that I was heading for Llanddeussant (mentioning the somewhat challenging journey I had had to get to that point). I think he could tell that I was a bit flustered and he became more friendly and gave me directions (back over the gate) to the road. My final field was a sea of buttercup….

…which led out onto the road.

At this point I found that my phone had died. I was pretty sure which way to go on the lane but not sure enough to risk it, so I dug out my backup charging pack, plugged it in, and took 5 until the phone came back to life.

I had about half a mile on this road, passing “the largest deer farm in Wales”.

I’ll take their word for it. The deer that I saw as I peered through the fence looked a bit manky.

Probably moulting

I reached the Youth Hostel at 6.30pm.  So the earliest that I was going to get home was around 8.15. No matter, my car was OK and the plastic duck hanging from the hostels doorway was cheerful.

Of course, what I had forgotten was the road diversion. Rather than retrace my route to the main road, I made the huge mistake again of putting my faith in my Sat Nav. That brought me 20 minutes later to a farm gate, from where a young man in a car was leaving. I told him that I was f–ked and he said that he could get me to the A40 and he sped off with me in hot pursuit. He was true to his word but I hadn’t a clue which way to turn at that point (in recounting this saga later my Mother very sensibly suggested that I might have checked my road map). I chose the wrong way and 20 minutes later was back at this junction (albeit arriving at it from a different road).  I got home about 9.20pm having passed through Llandovery.

The use of most of these pictures are available for purchase at Getty. If you a huge corporate buyer you probably will only to have to pay about a dollar or less. One pic recently sold to a Foto Press Portal in  China for 8 cents. I got 2 cents.