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Fforest Fawr traverse : Craig Y Nos to Llwyn Y Celyn walk

Remote mountain traverse: limestone scenery, Fan Gyhirych, a glacial escarpment, great views all around. Bus travel.

Brecon Beacons Tough

History

This is a list of previous times this walk has been done by the club (since Jan 2010). For more recent events (since April 2015), full details are shown.

Date Option Post # Weather
Mon, 08-May-23 Bank Holiday Walk - Fforest Fawr Traverse : Craig Y Nos to Llwyn Y Celyn [Brecon Trip] 6 damp with some dry spells and some heavy showers
Sun, 06-May-18 Sunday Walk - [Brecon Trip] [Hard Walk] Fforest Fawr Traverse (Craig y Nos to Llwyn-y-celyn) [New Walk] 20 hot and sunny with a nice breeze
Thomas G
Length: 21.4 km (13.3 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 989/872m
Net Walking Time: ca. 6 ½ hours
Toughness: 8 out of 10
Take the 09.20 Bus T6 from Brecon Interchange Stand 5, direction Ystradgynlais (for Abertawe/Swansea). Bus calls Llanfaes, St David’s Church and arrives Glyntawe/Craig y Nos – Adelina Patti Hospital at 09.55.
Return buses (line T4 from Storey Arms or Llwyn-y-celyn Youth Hostel): 16.26, 18.26 (journey time 18 minutes). Buy separate single tickets. A taxi won't cost the earth.

This is a traverse of the dramatic massif of the Fforest Fawr (‘The Great Forest’, with ‘Forest’ here denoting a former Royal Hunting Ground, rather than an area full of trees), one of the least frequented parts of the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, linking the Black Mountain to the west with the Central Beacons to the east.
From the Craig y Nos Country Park, an idyllic spot on the banks of the Afon Tawe (River Tawe) with its Victorian Gothic building, the route follows the Tawe Valley for a short stretch to rise steeply up a hillside to the Penwyllt Quarry, from where you follow old tramways up through the limestone terrain of the Ogon Ffynnon Ddu National Nature Reserve, a large area of shakeholes and caves. You rise further along a good track and then trackless on up the slopes of Fan Gyhirych to its summit, the highest point of the walk, from where you have stupendous views of the surrounding upland moorland, the giants of the Beacons, the Black Mountain and of the Tawe Valley.
Follow a steep glacial escarpment above the Senni Valley down to a saddle and ascend Fan Nedd and then Fan Dringarth, from where the route turns to another dramatic glacial bowl in the Craig Cerrig-Gleisiad a Fan Frynych National Nature Reserve for a descent to the A 470.

Walk Options:
An alternative finish at the Storey Arms Centre bus stop follows the Craig Cerrig-Gleisiad in a southerly direction and then the Craig y Fro escarpment high above the A 470.
A 1 km out-and-back from the main route leads to Maen Llia, an impressive Bronze Age standing stone.
An alternative route through the high plateau (adds 1.1 km) follows the Beacons Way between Penwyllt Quarry and Fan Dringarth, through the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu National Nature Reserve of Shake Holes and caves and along Sarn Helen (an old Roman Road) past an ancient standing stone (Maen Madoc) and an old Roman Camp.”
Lunch: Picnic lunch.
Tea: YHA Brecon Beacons, 200m beyond the bus stop at the end of the walk.

For walk directions, map, photos, height profile, and gpx/kml files click here. T=swc.307

Alternative Walks for today:
Waterfalls and Bluebells - SWC 280 Henrhyd Waterfall/Sgwd Henrhyd from Craig y Nos. Take the same bus to the same stop. Return buses: 15.48, 16.20, 17.20, 18.23 and 19.23 from Craig y Nos Country Park, a few minutes later from Glyntawe.
Or SWC 306 Brecon Circular via Y Gaer, Battle and Pen y Crug (meet at the bus station and see whether anyone else wants to join you).
Or, if that’s too tame: SWC 278 – Brecon Beacons Horseshoe; walk any of the variants straight from Brecon to the ridge and back down a different route.
  • 04-May-23

    Bus times updated, after our very own Sherlock Holmes found a site saying that (despite what bustimes.org says) a Sunday schedule will run on this Bank Holiday. Hence a 10 mins later start than initially posted, but an earlier last return bus.

    Seeing that bustimes.org was wrong last Monday for the Bedwyn walk, this is probably the best assumption of what is going to happen. But to be 100% sure, we will check once in Brecon with a knowledgable person at the Bus Interchange.

  • 07-May-23

    Update: in light of the weather forecast (see mwis.org), the replacement walk SWC 280 will be walked. Same bus, same bus stop, but no mountains, not much ascent, a wooded gorge, lunch pubs, bluebells and South Wales's highest waterfall.

  • 08-May-23

    6 plucky walkers assembled in the rain to head for Craig y Nos after saying goodbye to some who were heading home today. The bus passed through some grim weather and thick mist on the way, justifying the decision to do a lower level walk. In fact it turned out not too bad for a valley walk, damp with some dry spells and some heavy showers .

    The stretch on cliffs above the river was spectacular, the rainforest on the way to the falls was beautiful and we saw an amazing vertical wall of wild garlic. None of us was tempted to walk under the falls in the wet slippery conditions.

    It was dry for a good hour but we encountered drizzle on the hill after the falls, then a very heavy shower as we rushed to the pub, only to find it was jam/packed with no chance of a table for food.

    As there was only a 10 minute wait, we therefore piled on to the 1406 bus. One alighted at Craig y Nos to pick up his car and drive home; 4 others had drinks and/or paninis in the friendly Hop Inn on Brecon high street. That’s all from me for this trip:

    Many thanks to Thomas for his excellent organisation

Thomas G
Length: 21.4 km (13.3 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 949/833m
Net Walking Time: ca. 6 ½ hours
Toughness: 10 out of 10
Take the 08.50 bus (line T6) from Bus Stand 7 at Brecon Bus Interchange. Arrives Craig y Nos 09.27.
Return bus (line T4 from Libanus/Llwyn-y-celyn Youth Hostel) is on: 18.06 (journey time 14 minutes). Buy separate single tickets.
From the pdf: “This is a traverse of the dramatic massif of the Fforest Fawr (‘The Great Forest’, with ‘Forest’ here denoting a former Royal Hunting Ground, rather than an area full of trees), one of the least frequented parts of the Brecon Beacons National Park, linking the Black Mountain to the west with the Central Brecon Beacons to the east. From the Craig y Nos Country Park, an idyllic spot on the banks of the Afon Tawe (River Tawe) with its Victorian Gothic building, the route follows the Tawe Valley for a short stretch to rise steeply up a hillside to the Penwyllt Quarry, from where you follow old tramways up through the limestone terrain of the Ogon Ffynnon Ddu National Nature Reserve, a large area of shakeholes and caves. You rise further along a good track and then trackless on up the slopes of Fan Gyhirych to its summit, the highest point of the walk, from where you have stupendous views of the surrounding upland moorland, the giants of the Beacons, the Black Mountain and of the Tawe Valley. Follow a steep glacial escarpment above the Senni Valley down to a saddle and ascend Fan Nedd and then Fan Dringarth, from where the route turns to another dramatic glacial bowl in the Craig Cerrig-Gleisiad a Fan Frynych National Nature Reserve for a descent to the A 470.
An alternative finish at the Storey Arms Centre bus stop follows the Craig Cerrig-Gleisiad in a southerly direction and then the Craig y Fro escarpment high above the A 470.
A 1 km out-and-back from the main route leads to Maen Llia, an impressive Bronze Age standing stone.
An alternative route through the high plateau (adds 1.1 km) follows the Beacons Way between Penwyllt Quarry and Fan Dringarth, through the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu National Nature Reserve of Shake Holes and caves and along Sarn Helen (an old Roman Road) past an ancient standing stone (Maen Madoc) and an old Roman Camp.”
Lunch: Picnic lunch.
Tea: YHA Brecon Beacons 200m beyond the bus stop at the end of the walk.
For walk directions, map, photos, height profile, and gpx/kml files click here.
T=3.307
  • 06-May-18

    In long established SWC tradition on day 2 the group imposed its basic anarchic streak on proceedings. Out of 31 in town (one more arriving today), 2 drove to Gower peninsula for a coastal walk, 2 tried to find bluebells in Cwm Oergum (and found gorse), 1 fell ill and later walked the woodland gorge section of Friday's walk with 1 other, 1 had to work, 1 walked the town, 1 arrived for the 10.55 bus to do the Black Mountain walk, but found no one else was there so aborted the idea, 2 others actually went on that walk, but by car and uncoordinated, 6 irregulars had seemingly fallen out with the rest and did their own thing, while 14 did this walk (numbers may not add up).

    The weather was hot and sunny with a nice breeze .

    1 explored the Beacons Way option, all else the norm route. 1 regular walk poster suggested adding another top to the route close to the end to this 10 out of 10 walk.

    We trundled into the Youth Hostel one by one and bridged the time with a drink or two until the bus departure. Both buses out and back surprised us with a new scheme of free weekend travel! To encourage outdoor activities...

  • Frankie
    06-May-18

    13 of us had an excellent day out, spectacular views all day. Early start in cool woodland followed by strenuous ascent with views of the reservoir, surrounding mountains, wild horses and lambs. Later on we naturally split into two groups and finished our walk at the Brecon YHA where we enjoyed cool beers and tea in a beautiful outdoor setting. 18.06 free bus back to Brecon and exclusive upstairs dining at the Gurka restaurant followed by the usual post dinner convivial drinks at the Brecon Tap.

  • 07-May-18

    Two corrections: the walker on the 10.55 bus did indeed go to Glyntawe, but decided against the escarpment top and walked along the bottom of the escarpment instead out and back to near the first glacial lake, basically the ending of SWC 279 in reverse. And the walker that "walked the town", in fact walked out of town down the Usk Valley along the canal for quite some distance. So everyone got some country walking done.

  • Sandy
    12-May-18

    I've stood on Scottish mountain tops and been regaled by SAS types boasting that they have walked over the whole horizon to get there. That's very much the effect from the top of Fan Frynych, the "extra top" - the hills you have climbed over the course of the day stretch almost as far as the eye can see to the west. So I'd highly recommend that addition which required almost no extra effort - and I say that as someone who was very tired by the end of the day's walk (SWC 307 main route). Well worth your somewhat downbeat description of our arrival at the YH ;-)

  • 12-May-18

    I'd say that the latter part of the walk was challenging, especially as it involved a lot of vain attempts to skirt the muddy patches by jumping and hopping about. Nevertheless,a very enjoyable walk with beautiful views of the Cray reservoir. For once, I was glad I had chosen the YH to stay.

  • 31-May-18

    ... turns out that the 6 irregulars did try and failed to make it to Brecon in time for the bus, so they returned to base to pick up a second car, drop it at the alt. finish to the walk, the Storey Arms, drove around to the start and walked the walk. 20