Local Knowledge?

Your November Mountains to Love reminded me of our first walk up Pen y Fan many years ago. We were staying at a pub near Sennybridge with a glorious view of the mountain. After striking up a conversation with a sage-looking elderly local man, we asked how long it would take to walk it. He pondered over his pint before replying ‘oh, about three-quarters of an hour’.

The next morning we set off for the summit safe in the knowledge that we would return before lunch. Five and a half hours later we staggered back into the pub. Our new friend, propping up the bar, asked us how our walk had been. ‘You said three-quarters of an hour – it took us five and a half,’ I replied. ‘Did it now? I wouldn’t know. Lived here all my life and never been daft enough to go up it!’ Daft or not, we have been thrilled to visit and walk Pen y Fan many more times over the years and we always wonder if our friend had passed on his ‘local knowledge’ to many other walkers over the years. Kelvin & Joan Pattison, Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire