THE DRAGON’S BACK, SOUTH WALES

DISTANCE 37.5KM (23.3 MILES) CLIMBING 1,292M (4,239FT) TIME 3HRS 30MINS TO 5HRS

The route: A great day out in the wilds of South Wales on a wide variety of trails – including undulating singletrack, big grassy climbs and some technical rocky descents – with a bothy en route

Start/finish: The Dragon’s Back car park (£2), Pengenffordd (postcode: LD3 0EP, grid ref: SO 174/297)

1

Go right (north) on the track beside the main road. When you meet a minor one, follow it right, uphill. Bear right around the farm (Dinas) and then left at the T-junction at the foot of the grassy hillside. Continue to the corner of a minor road. Join this, heading straight ahead/ right. Pass a house, ignoring a left turn afterwards. Continue for just over 1km, then turn right, through a gate, by the open green land.

2

Continue ahead, climbing steeply up Y Das, with a fence on your left. Keep ahead/left along the grassy top and down the long descent. Pass the reservoir and join some doubletrack, looking out for Grwyne Fawr bothy. Go left on the road (effectively straight ahead). Follow this for over 3km, then go right on a forest track (‘MTB trail’) by a corrugated shack.

3

Follow this track to the right and then left, and over a crossing. Continue around the hillside, eventually coming to Ffordd-las-fawr. Go left in the yard, then right after 100m, on the bridleway. Continue over the first track crossing, then turn left at the second one, to the edge of the forest. Go right, through a gate, to exit the trees.

4

Continue uphill on a faint track beside a fence. After bearing left past some stones, the way becomes clearer. Follow the track south-west, downhill. At the two gates, go through the right-hand one and zig-zag down the hill. Turn right on the road, up the valley. Keep to the right and continue to the end. When the road becomes a gravel track, follow it along a field edge, down to a bridge.

5

Cross the bridge and head uphill, bearing left near the end, to the cairn at the top. Go ahead/right (northwest), downhill. After 100m, bear left at the fork, down a steep, rocky descent (Rhiw Trumau). Go through a gate, to the road. Turn right and then immediately left, down to a sharp left-hand bend. Bear right on the track here. When you pass behind the pub, turn left to go back to the car park to finish.

THE LOCATION: The Black Mountains dominate the north-eastern part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. While the hills drain well, the trails lower down can suffer.

GETTING THERE: Our route starts from the Dragon’s Back pub in Pengenffordd, on the A479 between Crickhowell and Talgarth. MAPS & BOOKS: Ordnance Survey Landranger 161: The Black Mountains (Abergavenny). Wales Mountain Biking: Beicio Mynydd Cymru by Tom Hutton (Vertebrate Publishing).

FACILITIES: The bar at the Dragon’s Back is only open on weekends (www.thedragonsback.co.uk).

Talgarth has a supermarket. For bike bits, try Drover Cycles in Hay-on-Wye (www.drovercycles.co.uk).

THE BOTHY: Grwyne Fawr (grid ref: SO 225/313) has room for just three people and no fires allowed outside, but there’s a multi-fuel stove.