Not much parking in Capel-y-ffin, but a few spaces for earlycomers, and almost immediately into a typically ‘Beacons’ steep ascent up to the ridge of Darren Lwyd. The faintish path is thick with bracken and pretty testing going, but it’s over quickly enough in favour of a very gentle couple of miles along the broad ridge to the fine summit on the edge of the fall away to the north.
- Twmpa from the approach to the Gospel Pass
- Starting the climb onto Darren Lwyd
- Black Mountain through the bracken
- Chwarel y Fan
- The Vale of Ewyas
- Pen y Gadair Fawr from cairn (broken wall?) on the prow of Darren Lwyd
- Twmpa & the Gospel Pass
- Hay Bluff
- Rhos Dirion from Twmpa
- Looking north from Twmpa
The descent bridleway along the valley of the Nant Bwch is lovely, a well made path dropping gently above the stream, past a lovely little waterfall, to the village; a really fine short single-peak walk.
- Descending above the Nant Bwch, Chwarel y Fan ahead
- Falls in the Nant Bwch
- Back up the valley
- The little church in Capel-y-ffin
Afterwards, a surprisingly good short walk on Craig y Llyn, the 600m highpoint of the hills south of the Beacons.
This isn’t an especially challenging approach, the road climbs more than 80% of the way up for you, but nice paths/tracks wend through the open edges of the forest to quite an attractive cliff above the eponymous Llyn Fawr reservoir. The views along the escarpment edge are stunning – an uninterrupted broad vista in which you can pick out all of the Beacons peaks. It might not be as good for much longer though, as – outside the protection of the national park – the summit and the area south are currently being heavily worked on by the windfarm engineers. The trig itself has been spared, but the fenced workings stop only a couple of yards away, and the preparations seem to be in place to block off a lot of the paths ‘until 2018’…
- Craig y Llyn over Llyn Fawr from the parking spot
- Fan Nedd to Waun Rydd
- The Carmarthen Fan to Fan Nedd
- The summit is to the left of this little encampment... 'Pedestrians and Cyclists Beware'
- Hirwaun Common and the road up
- Craig y Llyn
