BRECON BEACONS

Take it slow through South Wales and discover endless trails over moor and mountain, coaching inns creaking with history, ghostly goings-on and moody landscapes to make the heart sing

Words: Kerry Walker

Wales makes quite an entrance. As rolling, chequered fields fade in the rearview mirror, the Brecon Beacons begin to loom on the horizon: a clear reminder you’ve reached a wilder, more mountainous land. Snowdonia to the north may have the upper hand heightwise, but these peaks are just as dramatic, rippling across 520sq miles of national park. Rising like the prows of great ships, they hoist their sails above moors misted with purple heather and glacier-carved valleys, the ramparts of Iron Age hill forts and the dark skeletons of ruined castles. And whether they’re seen in the gilded light of a late-summer afternoon, cloudwreathed in the rain, or frosted with snow, their beauty is entirely their own. This weekend-long journey heads off the beaten track — or igam ogam, as the Welsh say — from the eastern Black Mountains and their secluded valleys through to the central Brecons, where lofty summits, hiking trails and dark night skies await, before dipping south to waterfalls hidden in ferny woodlands ripe for a fairytale. Pack sturdy boots and clothes that can handle mud, and look forward to getting stuck behind that pootling tractor or stray sheep. This is one journey not to be rushed.