Pen-y-crug trail head from road parallel to B4520.
| Pen-y-crug from Brecon Pen-y-crug |
| Estimated net time | 1 hours. | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | No access to drinking water. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (April 2013). | ||
| Parking | Room for several cars around trail head. | ||
| Start height | 180 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 160 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 3.3 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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Assume your starting point is the town Brecon, along road A40 in southern Wales. From the town centre drive approximately 750 metres north on road B4520. Turn left where the last road goes left from B4520, where the town/houses end, and find parking along the road. Note that there is a single lane road going left into the forest a few metres further uphill.
Start your hike by walking a few tens of metres through the forest and follow the single lane road north-west for 700 metres. Turn left onto an even more narrow road just before a gate and follow this road 250 metres up to a house. Continue in the same direction on the wide path, up to a gate, and from here follow a grass path, still in more or less the same direction (west), to the summit, which is marked by a concrete cairn.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
After two hikes earlier this miserable Saturday I decided to go for a short evening stroll in what could well be dry conditions. I chose Pen-y-crug since this would mean a short drive from my hotel, and strictly speaking I could have walked from the hotel but that would have meant a hike and not a stroll.
After having messed around a little in locating the trail head I had an easy walk to the summit, and with an altitude of only 331 metres I stayed below the clouds and had a fine view of Brecon and the small tops around the town. Then back to the Castle Hotel and a well deserved pint of Bass, followed by some food in the busy restaurant.