Four Aircraft crash sites, Two Mountains and One Lake

On another glorious sunny April day 12 walkers set out on a strenuous 11 mile walk in the Western part of the Brecon Beacons. Parking in a layby on a minor road off the A4067 not far from a standing stone. The wind made it feel a lot cooler than when we had set out in our cars. Most of them put on an extra layer of clothing but I thought we would soon warm up as we started, as it was a straight climb up to the top of the hill near Moel Feity. We were on the lookout for bits of wreckage from a wartime crash where the crew unfortunately had not made it over the top of this hill by approx 10 meters. There is very little aircraft wreckage left at this site and we didn’t find any today although we have in the past.

We then proceeded down again heading towards the corner of Glasfynydd forest in a west-north-west direction. The wind was blowing in our faces now and with it being so dry we had no problem walking over what is normally boggy ground. We stopped for a morning break in the deep streambed near the corner of the forest, which has been cut into the peat moor, out of the wind, warming our selves in the sun. After our break we took a compass bearing and headed towards the remains of a Wellington bomber near Bryn Blaen-Wysg. After stopping to read the memorial stone to those who had died at this spot, we then had the long climb up to first Fan Foel and then onto Fan Brycheiniog, at 802 meters our highest spot of the day. The group was well spread out as we made our way slowly up the steep hill. The first walkers had to wait a good five minutes for the rest to make it to the cairn before Fan Foel. We were feeling the effects of the wind at this point; we all put on an extra layer of clothing.

We were hoping to have lunch in a stone shelter near the trig point marking the top of Fan Brycheiniog but when we arrived there a small group were having lunch there. We followed the path along the ridge edge and made our way down hill towards our lunch stop near Bwlch Giedd, unfortunately we couldn’t get out of the wind. This made for a shorter than usual lunch stop.

After lunch we made our way to the next aircraft crash site – the remains of a vampire jet. It’s at grid ref 825199, parts of the tail and jet engine are still there. From here we made our way to where a Wellington bomber crashed above a waterfall and near to unmapped sheep pens at a height of approximately 540m.
Saturday 21st April 2007The group then made its way slowly up to the ridge of Fan Hir and walked along the ridge before dropping back down towards Bwlch Gledd and the steep footpath that leads down from the ridge to the lake below – Llyn y Fan Fawr. The party had become well stretched again so we waited by the lakes edge, in the warm sun out of the wind, for us all to join up again. From the lake we knew we were on the final part of the walk. We followed the footpath down towards the stream from which we then followed the stream back to the cars. The walk was just over 11 miles and we had climbed approximately 900m during it. A tough and enjoyable day out in the hills.

Pant Mawr Moors

Saturday 14th April 2007

On an exceedingly warm April morning 14 walkers left the quarry at Penwyllt to walk what we thought was going to be an 11 mile walk around the Ogaf-Ffynon-Ddu Pant Mawr Nature Reserve. The Western Beacons Mountain Rescue vehicles were parked in the car park when we arrived, we assumed they were out on an exercise. The nature reserve has beneath it the deepest cave system in Britain. There are many shake holes covering the moors here.

We steadily gained height as we left the car park heading up towards the limestone crags breaking through the moorland around us. We were following a public footpath, which is now part of the Beacons Way. The skylarks were singing high up above us. We stopped for a morning break at the boundary wall of the reserve. Carrying on across classic moorland, which was very dry indeed, towards where the footpath met the remains of the Sarn Helen roman road. Just before the this is the remains of an old rabbit farm. The house is now just a couple of walls in a very poor state.

Followed the Sarn Helen track for a couple hours till the road at Cefnwaunhynog. The ground here was boggy in places and had to detour around some fords which 4x4 had made impassable for walkers. We stopped by a stream for lunch, enjoying the hot sun, and all hoping we had brought enough water with us. Slapped on some more sun tan lotion and a sun hat. We were now making our way to the woods at Bryn Bugeiliaid and the wild boar that are bred there. Hoping for some shelter from the sun in the woods, no luck it was along wide forest tracks. We saw the boar with plenty of young in there. Before we exited the wood and made for Saith Maen back in the nature reserve. The ground was harder to walk now as it was a mixture of dry bog and rocky ground hidden amongst the heather. We made our way along to the escarpment of Carreg Lwyd before picking a way down to the quarry where the cars were parked. Most of us had finished all of our water by the time we had got back to the cars 12.8 miles later according to the gps that one of the group had.