The first site visited on a lengthy Black Mountains excursion (15.4.2010). A convoluted trip to get here (train to Newport, train to Hereford, bus from Hereford to Talgarth) bore witness to the Black Mountains at their most forbidding (i.e. completely invisible through very low, dense cloud cover). Luckily, as I got to Talgarth mid-morning the cloud started to lift, revealing the northern edge of the escarpment and saving me from a "should I/shouldn't I" decision about the sense or otherwise of this trip.
Walking east from Talgarth along quiet lanes, the gradient steepens and height was gained quickly as the sun emerged properly. By the open common of Rhos Fach I was over the 300m mark, but the hills ahead still looked pretty intimidating. A byway runs ESE from Rhos Fach, joining a huge area of access land at the southern tip of Wern Frank Wood. From here, the barrow is a short climb, just off the path to the left. It is covered in gorse bushes and quite difficult to see properly, but there are some visible stones protruding through the turf (Coflein mentions a cist). Unusually for Bronze Age barrows in this area, it is situated at the foot of the escarpment (albeit its low ridge 420m above sea level is still pretty high up), where it has a view over the Ennig valley to the west. The view to the east is completely filled by the squared off bulk of Y Das, and Mynydd Troed and Twmpa are visible landmarks to the SSW and NE respectively.
From here a steep climb beckons up to the highest Black Mountains ridge, with Waun Fach and Pen y Gadair Fawr (and Maen Llwyd) the day's main objectives. Another spectacular landscape to wander around in.
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Posted by thesweetcheat
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