Glyntawe - Llyn y fan fach

When you live in London, the Bannau Brycheiniog seem far away. I had been to the national park once before, in October 2021, less than two weeks after having abdominal surgery. I fell completely in love with the area and had been dying to go back ever since. I don’t have a car, but also desperately wanted to make the most of the late May bank holiday weekend. Turned out public transport links were actually decent!

I knew I wanted to spend a night at Llyn y Fan Fach lake, and I had agreed to meet some friends to summit Pen-y-Fan on the last day. That left me with the task of plotting a route across the entire western Beacons to the centre in two days. Armed with OS Maps and two packets of Smarties buttons, I set off at 05.40 from London Paddington. I took the train to Swansea and a bus (avg passenger age: 84) to the tiny outpost of Glyntawe. There was only really a tavern and some farmhouses. The trailhead lay right off the small car park on the west/true left side of the road. The trail goes through two gates and a pretty meadow next to a river. Refill water here if needed as you won’t have another source until the lakes. The path takes you along a stone fence and up to scale your first hill. After a moderate climb, you’re standing on a rounded ridgetop, having crossed the Nant Tawe Fechan, and arm of the river Tawe.

From here you will hike inwards, towards the two stunning lakes with the enormous Black Mountain on your left. You can choose between the trail that goes along the top or the bottom of Black Mountain (not to be confused with the Black Mountains at the eastern end of the Beacons). I would recommend walking the lower route westward towards the lakes and walking the top route back out towards Glyntawe. That way you get to appreciate the amazing look of the mountainside one way, with the top-level views of the lakes the other way.

The path takes you along the shores of Llyn y Fan Fawr (pronounced vaorr), where plenty of people swam and wild camped on the blazing hot day I hiked here. This is where the trail splits up towards the top of Black Mountain (Fan Brycheiniog) or continues along its base. Llyn y Fan Fawr is gorgeous, with lots of little sandy bays it is perfect for a dip. Keep to its eastern shore, and the path will take you northwest as you digress slightly from the base of Black Mountain. Here the landscape opens into those beautiful open vistas the Beacons are so famous for. You can eventually choose to stay out in the open or trace the base of Black Mountain towards Llyn y Fan Fach. The lake itself is impossible to miss, as it is nestled where Black Mountain ends, with the mountainside swooping steeply down in a C-shape around the lake.

Semi-wild Welsh ponies graze freely here. They are a lovely breed, with big eyes and intelligent Arabian-like concave faces. You’ll see their fluffy foals (some of whom look like woollen mittens!) throughout the warmer months. I did see herds of cows on my second day, but they mostly graze slightly lower in the valleys. Note that the presence of animals means that you must not drink water from the streams without filtering it. This should go without saying, but I’ve seen so many people in the UK drink water straight up in these areas!

Camping at Llyn y Fan Fach means that the first day is relatively short and the second is quite long (30 km), but it also allows time for travel, and an afternoon basking by the lakeshore is time well spent! I pitched my tent on a spot of perfectly flat ground in the innermost corner of the lake, directly between the giant shadow of the mountain. There’s a road that leads directly to the lake (where there is a dam), and so you won’t have it all to yourself. I saw at least two other people wild camping on the lakeshore. I had a glorious afternoon of swimming, lying in the sun, and making my trail dinner inbetween the pale rocks on the lakeshore – before nestling in for a warm night.