It’s been about 5 years since our last trip to the Brecon Beacons, when we had rather a lot of rain and hiking opportunities were mostly limited to forest walks or quick dashes up a hill in-between showers. The trauma of how diabolical the weather had been finally wore off last year and we decided to book a return trip to explore the area, with hopefully a bit more sunshine (or at least less rain) to get out on some of the more epic routes that the region has to offer.
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The National Botanic Garden of Wales
On the first day of our trip, our hopes for better weather this time around weren’t looking promising (despite visiting in July this time). With the forecast for heavy rain all day in the mountains, Sam suggested a return visit to the National Botanic Garden of Wales, somewhere we’d visited last time but somewhat rushed around due to impending rain. As the forecast looked much better over there, I agreed and we hopped in the car to drive over.
The gardens here are fantastic and well worth a visit. They were even better than we remembered them being, perhaps because last time we’d visited in September when the flowers were past their best. There are a number of different themed gardens to explore (I especially liked the walled gardens which were bursting with colour), as well as the great glasshouse, parkland walks and bird of prey centre. We spent a few hours here but you could easily spend much longer.
It cost about £35 for both of us to enter, with tickets being valid for re-entry up to 7 days from the date of purchase. When we arrived it was pretty quiet, and at no point did it ever feel busy, even though by the time we left the car park was nearly full. This is a good option for an easier day out, or if the weather isn’t playing along and you at least want a guarantee of well surfaced paths!
Dog friendly rating – 4/5. Dogs are welcome to join you on designated dog friendly days, namely every Monday and Friday, plus the first weekend of each month (make sure to check their website before visiting for the most up to date information). Dogs need to be kept on leads throughout your visit, and are not permitted in the great glasshouse or bird of prey centre (although they are allowed in the cafe and gift shop).
Dinefwr
From the gardens, it was a short drive across to the National Trust’s Dinefwr near Llandeilo (got to get our money’s worth out of our membership). I wasn’t really sure what to expect when we got here, but the very helpful man in the car park gave us a map and explained where we could and couldn’t go with the dogs. I was amazed when he said that dogs were welcome in the main house, a first for us in all of our country house visits!
We parked in the car park (£5 charge for non-members) and started by walking across to visit the ruins of the old Castell Dinefwr. It’s around a 20 minute walk each way, through rolling parkland and a lovely small wood (plus a small but fairly steep hill), and the ruins of the castle are surprisingly intact for your exploration. We climbed up onto the walls, where we got a fantastic view of the countryside and river below – don’t miss this out if you visit.
After exploring the castle, we returned to the main house. Sam and Coal had a coffee from the cafe while Merry and I had a poke around inside – dogs can explore the ground floor and basement with you (I have to say he looked very at home in the drawing room). Passing through the house leads you to a lovely garden with a parterre and fountain, which would be the perfect place to stop for lunch if you had a picnic. Merry entertained a few passersby with his posing on the edge of the fountain, fooling everyone into thinking he’s well trained!
Dog friendly rating – 5/5. Dinefwr is an excellent option for a dog friendly day out, with dogs welcome to join you in most places on the site, doggy water bowels provided, and clear signage where you’re not permitted to take your dog (into the deer park). It’s also surprisingly quiet for a National Trust property, especially considering that we visited on a Saturday in July. Or maybe I’m just used to the mega crowds at Fountains Abbey which is our nearest National Trust site!
The Clydach Gorge
Sam is a big fan of walks with some industrial heritage to look at, and flicking through our Pocket Mountains guide I noticed a walk which passed through the old Clydach Ironworks. Having a Google to see if there was a slightly shorter route available, I came across the Cwm Pwca trail on the Visit Monmouthshire website.
The trail is called the Cwm Pwca, or ‘Puck’s Valley’ trail as Shakespeare supposedly visited the valley and was inspired to write a Midsummer Night’s Dream (I am a little sceptical as to the authenticity of this claim, but you can make your own mind up). The walk started promisingly, with free parking and a very interesting poke around the old ironworks. However, it almost certainly was longer than 3.1 miles and took as just over two hours to complete, with many of the sections of path being littered with small pieces of glass (a legacy of the industrial heritage of the area I think).
I’m not sure if this walk is actually hard work, or if I was just expecting it to be easier than it was and therefore it felt tougher. There’s several long flat sections, but one longer, fairly steep hill to climb, and then a steep descent (made more difficult by trying to avoid the previously mentioned pieces of glass). There is a short detour to view Puck’s Valley, where there’s a pretty waterfall and pool, as well as some nice views over the surrounding countryside in places.
We saw very few other people on this walk (including a lady who came out of her house to point us in the right direction when we were clearly looking a bit lost at an ambiguous part of the trail). For me, I’d have to say I didn’t hugely enjoy this walk, but then a) I was stressing out about the glass on the floor and the dogs cutting their paws and b) I was not mentally prepared for the walk to be this long or to have a big hill in it! Sam enjoyed it a lot and listed it as one of his favourite walks of the week in our holiday de-brief on the drive home.
Dog friendly rating – 2/5. While this is a stile free route, there are lots of things to keep in mind if you do this walk with your dog. Many sections of the path have pieces of glass on them, and some places have sheer drops off to the side. There are two parts of the walk where you need to use a bridge to cross the A465, and some road walking sections on quieter roads. Lastly, when walking through the residential area at the start and end of the walk, several gardens had barky dogs in as we walked past (probably only an issue for other reactive dog owners out there!)
Skirrid Fawr
Feeling a bit cross with myself after the morning’s walk around Clydach, I resolved to stick to walks recommended in our Pocket Mountains guide going forward (the logic being that if you have to pay for the book, the walks in it will have been vetted a lot more carefully than random walks on the internet). The afternoon had brightened up considerably and so I picked a route from said guide up Skirrid Fawr, a small-ish hill close to the town of Abergavenny.
As it was lunchtime on a sunny Sunday (prime time for getting out for a walk), I was rather shocked by how many spaces there were in the car park (which was free for National Trust members, hurrah). Feeling more optimistic about this one, we set off up a quiet lane to quickly enter a lovely green woodland, climbing steadily uphill. Soon we passed through a gate onto the hillside, then took the slightly less well trodden path to the right at a fork, to contour along the edge of the hillside.
The book notes that in summer this path can get rather overgrown, and while there was a fair bit of bracken, at no point was the path invisible (and happily it was completely dry, enabling us to avoid a soaking). It was really very pleasant walking, mostly flat or very gradual inclines, with fantastic views over the Herefordshire and Monmouthshire countryside. We carried on a little way past where the book turned off to climb to the summit in order to find a stream for the dogs to splash in (which turned out to just be a series of muddy puddles), before starting our climb up to the trig.
The ascent from here was very steep but mercifully quite short. We (I) took plenty of stops on the way up to catch my breath – hardly a chore with the incredible views we had back behind us. When we reached the top, there were a few other people milling around but it’s definitely not in the same category of busy as places like the Yorkshire Three Peaks.
The route down from the summit is nice and gentle (mostly), following a nice airy ridge (not remotely scary or exposed feeling), descending gradually and then down some steps to the woods from the start of the walk, steepening a little until you reach the fork to retrace your steps back to the start.
Dog friendly rating – 4/5. This is a cracking dog walk, with no stiles to worry about and not too busy. Livestock do graze on the hill, but it’s clearly signed when you pass through the gate, so you can have dogs off leads in the woods at the start and end with no worries. That being said we didn’t actually see any sheep at all on this walk, and we saw many people who felt happy enough to have their dogs off lead the whole way around.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about what we got up to over the first few days of our trip to the Brecon Beacons – make sure to come back next week for part two, including all the details on where we stayed. You can subscribe below to make sure that you never miss a post:
