Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons)
The great sweep of red-sandstone mountains across southern Wales — a national park of flat-topped peaks, glacial lakes and dark skies. Bannau Brycheiniog crowns the country with Pen y Fan, hides a whole 'Waterfall Country' of falls you can walk behind, and props the dramatic ruin of Carreg Cennen on its western crag.
5 places covered · 1 towns to stay.
🏰 Castles & history
🥾 Walks & hills
💧 Waterfalls & views
Peaks, falls and dark skies
Pen y Fan, at 886 metres, is the highest point in southern Britain. The popular path from Pont ar Daf and the Storey Arms is a steady there-and-back 'motorway'; the finer day links Corn Du, Pen y Fan and Cribyn on a horseshoe. It's a busy hill — start early.
Around Ystradfellte and Pontneddfechan lies Waterfall Country, a cluster of falls including Sgwd yr Eira, where the path leads right behind the curtain of water. Nearby Henrhyd Falls, the tallest in South Wales, doubled as the Batcave on film.
There's more than mountains and water: Carreg Cennen castle crowns a limestone crag above a torch-lit cave passage, Llyn y Fan Fach carries the ancient lady-of-the-lake legend, and the whole park is an International Dark Sky Reserve — pack a torch and look up.
Build a day out here
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