the glacial valleys and the woodlands.
From the car park turn right (N) along the road for 100m to where it bends to the right (NE) and flattens out at the crest of a hill. Leave the road through a gate, taking a track to the left (W). The track leads to Pant Farm after 200m and then curves round to the left in front of the buildings.
Continue on this track, leaving the buildings on your right, and climb steadily up the slope through a gap between hawthorn hedges. Bear right and then left, continuing in the direction of Cwm Sere to Croftau. Leave the house on your left, pass through the gate and a large oak on the right and keep to the left side of the field to another gate where you enter Cwm Sere proper.
Continue through yet another gate along the obvious track leading into sparse woodland and across to a gap in the tree line. Continue across the field for 300m to a line of trees in front of you. In the centre of this barrier is a gate leading to a track which bears slightly right past moss-covered ant hills and through mixed woodland of beech and hazel.
The track is easily followed as it drops through the woods, crossing a small stream running down from the right. At the end of the woodland is the hill fence through which a gate leads out onto the hillside, opening up a magnificent view of Cribyn on the left and Pen y Fan straight in front. Drop into the stream bed and follow this upstream, encountering small waterfalls on the way towards the headwall at the end of Cwm Sere between the north faces of Pen y Fan on the right and Cribyn on the left.
Cwm Sere and Pen y Fan
Cross over the stream and make your way back down the eastern side of the valley. The going is easier if you keep above the steep-sided stream gully, making use of the occasional sheep track. Eventually, the hill fence forces you above the stream and guides you to the gate where you meet the Roman Road. Take the stony track for 250m where you bear left when you meet a road.
CWM SERE WOODLAND
The woods on the eastern bank of Nant Sere are leased from the National Trust by the Brecknock Wildlife Trust and 42 acres are managed as a nature reserve. Even though it has been heavily grazed in the past, the majority of the trees appear to be very old. Parts of the woodland are very wet and these areas are dominated by alder. A particularly rich collection of insects, liverworts and fungi thrives in these boggy conditions where rotting wood is abundant. Drier areas of woodland are populated with ash, rowan, cherry, field maple and sessile oak. Brown birch is common near the top of the wood. Woodland birds are numerous and include willow warblers and redstarts with a surprisingly large rookery located in a clump of birches. Open glades in the wood are ideal habitats for species such as pied flycatchers. The reserve has a wide range of invertebrates including a number of specialities such as a rare lace-wing fly and rare craneflies. All in all, this reserve is a fascinating area, the combinations of damp and dry woodland and damp and dry glades resulting in a great variety of plant and animal species.
Follow this road down the hill and so back to the start just across Pont y Caniedydd.
WALK 8
Cwm Cynwyn and Bryn Teg
| Start | Pont y Caniedydd (SO 039 244) |
| Distance | 8km (5 miles) |
| Total Ascent | 641m (2102ft) |
| Map | OL12 Western Area |
The route enters Cwm Cynwyn and crosses the stream to the other side of the valley, avoiding the busy and rather monotonous walk along the Roman Road. An ascent of Cribyn via Craig Cwm Cynwyn is followed by an exciting descent along the prow of Cribyn and an easy walk back along Bryn Teg ridge. The headwall ascent to Cribyn and the first part of the descent to Bryn Teg are steep. Adverse weather makes the use of map and compass mandatory, and in snow and ice conditions crampons are desirable. The walk is quite energetic. A nature reserve, the glacial nature of the valley, the views from Cribyn and the Roman Road are the main points of interest.
Cross the bridge and head south up the road, passing Bailea Farm on the way. On the right of the road in the valley of Cwm Sere is a woodland nature reserve (see Walk 7) and at the head of this valley is the north-east face of Pen y Fan. To its left is Bryn Teg ridge. Ignore the turning on the left to Bailea Farm and follow the road up the hill to where it swings sharp left and through a gate. Ignore this turning and follow the stony track straight ahead to a gate in the hill fence on the far side of which is a National Trust sign for Cwm Cynwyn. This stony track is popularly known as the Roman Road (see Walk 11).
Fifty metres on the left is a gate which leads into a walled enclosure at the end of which is a second gate. Follow through these and down the rough track to another gate and so to the farm (New Cwmcynwyn) via the lane to the right. Pass through the farmyard to a gate and through this to a stony lane where ahead is a fine view of Fan y Big. At the bottom of this stony lane the track bears to the right up the valley. Ignore this and continue dropping down left alongside the green moss-covered stone wall to the stream.
Cross the river, aiming for the gate opposite. In spate, this river may be very difficult to cross. If so, retrace to the stony lane south of New Cwmcynwyn Farm and continue up the right side of the stream rejoining the route at the stone sheep pens.
Cwm Cynwyn and the Black Mountains from Bryn Teg
Keep left up the hill to the top and round to the right into the grounds of Old Cwmcynwyn Farm.
The fireplace still has its oak lintel in place and a surprisingly large tree emerges halfway up the front of the chimney breast. Its roots have penetrated through the stones and into the ground below.
From the ruins turn left by the wire fence and up the track to a stile and so to the path running along the hillside 50m above. Turn right (SSW), following the path towards the head of the valley. The hill fence turns right and drops down to the river bed.
In front of you on the right is the prow of Cribyn and the ridge running round from that to the gap of the Roman Road and Fan y Big on your left.
Continue along the east side of the valley above the stream down to the right. Eventually the indistinct path you are following meets the stream bed at a hawthorn tree and old stone enclosures (hafodydd).
The ruined stone enclosures in this area were originally small buildings and pens, called hafodydd, used when flocks were moved to higher pastures in the spring. One stone is inscribed with ‘G.H.’, the initials of the Gwynne Halfords of Buckland, a large land-owning family in Victorian times.
Leave the stream course here and strike up left onto the lower reaches of Fan y Big on which there is a double row of small rock outcrops which should be passed on the left-hand side. Traverse right above the lower outcrops and climb steadily to the Roman Road.
You will want to catch your breath after this sustained climb and there are plenty of interesting features to see from this good viewpoint. Down below in the head of the valley is an interesting glacial feature (see ‘Head of Cwm Cynwyn’). Up above to the west is the impressive crag of Craig Cwm Cynwyn (see Walk 10)
