Beacon Ring trail head by Pant-y-bwch.
Route to Beacon Ring's summit.
| Beacon Ring from
Pant-y-bwch Beacon Ring |
| Estimated net time | Less than an hour. | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | No stable access to running water. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (October 2013). | ||
| Parking | Room for one or two cars at trail head, or you can drive up the road to the start of the path, where there is a car park. | ||
| Start height | 283 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 125 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 2.5 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From the town Welshpool, where roads A458 and A483 intersect, in the eastern part of central Wales, drive road B4381 approximately 1.8 km (1.1 mi) to the T-junction where it meets B4388. Turn right and drive 0.5 km (0.3 mi), and turn left towards "Trelysfan". Follow this road 1.9 km (1.2 mi) to where a wooden sign points left towards "Beacon Ring". Find parking here or drive 300 metres up to the car park.
Start your hike by following the narrow road 300 metres up to the car park. Cross the smaller gate on the right hand side of the forest and walk 350 metres along the fence. Turn left through a gate, walk through the small forest, and exit through a gate at the other end. Continue along the fence and follow the farm road straight towards the forest in the summit area. You will find an old gate where the farm road turns left, and should pass through this gate (it requires you to lift the large pole before opening the gate). Walk 140 metres into the forest, due north, and you will find the summit cairn.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
After two fairly miserable hikes this Sunday, thanks to navigation issues, rain and mist, I decided to throw in a bonus hike on my way towards a week of work in Warwick. This would then be my week-end's twelfth top, of which eleven are amongst the 50 most prominent tops in Wales. Leaving only 14 to be done before I could close my small project.
By the time I got to Welshpool it had stopped raining so I parked down at the bottom of the road leading up to the car park in order to get a little more fresh air than the shorter hike would give me. It was still an easy walk, and it even provided some views despite the grey weather. And it was interesting to find a trigonometric point marker even at this top, well into the forest.