This post is a follow on from last week’s blog about our first few days in the Brecon Beacons at the start of July – so if you missed that, make sure to go and read it after! The walks in this blog will focus on the second half of the week, when the weather was a bit ‘changeable’ and we sometimes needed a Plan B (or even a Plan C!).
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The Four Falls Trail
The Four Falls Trail has to be one of the most famous walks in the Brecon Beacons, and because of this, we saved this walk for mid-week. We started from the car park at Gwuan Hepste (pay and display), one of several car parks serving this walk. When we arrived at 10am on the Monday we were one of the first cars to arrive, but chatting to the parking attendants before we set off, by 10am at the weekend the car park (capacity around 140 cars) is nearly full. We were glad we’d decided to go on a Monday!
The trail is extremely well way marked from the start. It looks a little confusing on the map, with red and green lines everywhere, but in essence the red trail is a circular which you must follow to complete the route, and the green trails are optional out-and-back detours. However, note that it is only by following the green trails that you will see the waterfalls, so maybe they aren’t that optional! When you’re on the route, navigation isn’t tricky at all.
Setting off from the start, the route is deceptively easy. There is a well surfaced clear trail which you follow downhill for 25 minutes or so, before taking the first detour to the first falls. All of the detours to the waterfalls involve some element of steep descent (which you must then climb back up to continue the route) and varying degrees of uneven paths. However, it’s more than worth the effort, with the waterfalls getting increasingly spectacular as you go. At the third falls, a hop onto one of the rocks along the edge of the river is required to get the best view of the falls. Someone had clearly sat here for lunch the day before – luckily I spotted their abandoned wrap before Merry could notice it and drag me across the rather slippery rocks to get to it.
The most impressive of the falls is arguably Sgwd yr Eira, the final waterfall on the trail. This is the famous waterfall which you can walk behind, and I strongly encourage you to try it – it’s a unique experience. We took it in turns to do this rather than take the dogs behind there.
I think a lot of people are possibly caught out by this walk, thinking it’s an easy stroll around some pretty waterfalls. While the falls are lovely, there is a lot of up and down on the trail and it’s definitely more in the moderate/strenuous category – it took us 3 hours to get around, and we didn’t stop much. Sturdy boots are a must, with some sections of the trail being muddy and/or slippery underfoot.
Dog friendly rating – 4/5. There are no stiles or livestock on this walk, and on the quieter sections at the start and end you could let your dog offlead without many worries. However, during the middle section of the walk and especially on the detours to the waterfalls, you may see quite a lot of people and therefore we felt it polite to keep our dogs on the lead here to prevent them getting underfoot. There are steep drops in some places, as well as fast currents in the river. You certainly wouldn’t want your dog jumping in and getting swept over the falls! That being said, there were two places where the water was shallow and calm, where we did let our dogs in the water for a swim (just before the third waterfall and on the approach to Sgwd yr Eira).
Allt yr Esgair
Tuesday dawned grey and humid, but the showers forecast hadn’t made an appearance by lunchtime, so I decided that we could chance a walk up a hill. Rather than doing the full 5 hour walk from our Pocket Mountains guide summiting the two hills on either side of Llangorse Lake, I found a shorter route on the OS Maps App which just did one – Allt yr Esgair. The route had a 4.5/5 star rating from 37 reviews, so I thought it was a pretty safe option even if it was non-book approved.
Parking is free in a large lay-by off the A40 – you’ll also find a burger van and toilets (of the portaloo variety) here. We set off uphill on a lane, quickly passing through a gate into a grassy field, which we walked through diagonally uphill to pass through three open gates. We saw plenty of ‘evidence’ of cows in here but the fields appeared empty. Turns out they were in there with us all along, just lurking in the bottom corner and we didn’t spot them until we passed through the gate at the top. Phew!
From here, we carried on climbing through a rather dense woodland. Usually I like walking in the woods very much, but this path involved navigating my least favourite kind of overgrowth – neck high, dripping wet bracken. Nature also threw in plenty of brambles too, just to make sure we really had no choice but to fully immerse ourselves in the bracken to get through. Thankfully, this wasn’t constant (nothing like our epic bracken saga on King’s Howe), and soon we reached a clearer section of the wood after passing through a nice gate saying ‘Be aware that cattle graze on the slopes of the Allt’.
Now power walking, convinced that at any moment a cow would jump out from behind a tree, I was very relieved to pass through another gate onto a meadow like hillside – at least out here I’d be able to see the cows coming! The path continues along the hillside before almost doubling back on itself to climb up (not too steeply) to the summit of the Allt. We did spot the cows out here, similarly to the first field they were all huddled together in the bottom corner. I suspect they sensibly were waiting for the rain to start, and thought the top of the hill wasn’t the best place to be!
Even with the drizzle starting to come down when we were at the top, there were still some very nice views of the surrounding countryside and down over Llangorse Lake. There’s even an information boarding telling you more about the history of the Allt and what you can see, but by this point it was really starting to come down, so we carried on walking along the ridge (not airy at all) and began our descent.
The walk down is steady, and happily had much less bracken than the ascent. It mostly uses field tracks and enclosed lanes – in the end we cut the last corner off by taking an earlier turn, just to try and get dry a bit quicker. When we got back to the lane we’d started on, the cows in the first field had moved and were lying all over the shop in the fields we’d walked through earlier – I was extremely glad they’d waited until we’d been through!!!
Dog friendly rating – 3/5. While there are no stiles or road walking on this walk, you can expect to come across livestock at any time, and there is a high chance of seeing cows. There is no water along the route so on a warm day you may wish to carry extra for your dog.
The Weir Garden
The weather remained ‘changeable’ the following day, and having no desire to get as wet as the day before, we headed north into Herefordshire for a more laid back day of sight seeing. After quick stops at Arthur’s Stone and Snodhill Castle, we made our way to the National Trust’s Weir Garden (still getting the most out of our membership).
Despite it being a rather grey and gloomy day (where on earth is summer), we still enjoyed our visit here. There are some very impressive trees to admire, and the site was extremely quiet and peaceful. In addition to the riverside walk, there is a walled garden which you can visit, which was a welcome splash of colour on such a dreary day. We even tried our hand at badminton using the set in a corner of the garden (not that easy when attached to a dog it turns out).
Dog friendly rating – 5/5. Dogs are very welcome to join you at the Weir Garden, but must be kept on leads at all times. When we visited it was so quiet and there weren’t many other people around at all (admittedly this was during mid-week), so it might be busier at the weekends given its proximity to Hereford.
Black Hill
Thursday was the last full day of our trip and forecast to be the nicest day of the week. I’d been desperately hoping to be able to do the horseshoe walk including Llyn y Fan Fach, Bannau Sir Gaer and Llyn y Fan Fawr, but unfortunately the forecast here was for mist and fog all day, and there’s no point doing a big walk like that and not getting the views. Instead, we consulted our Pocket Mountains guide for an alternative route, and settled on a walk up Black Hill in Herefordshire (forecast for sun all day).
Black Hill (640m) is a cracking little hill. Sometimes called the Cat’s Back due to it’s profile when viewed from the side, it has a fantastic airy ridge, with incredible views and none of the ‘ridge fear’. You’d never catch me on Striding Edge or anything remotely similar, but this ridge didn’t worry me at all.
Parking is free in a small parking area next to a picnic spot (sign posted once you get near it). The drive to get here is down very narrow, very windy roads – I thought the sat nav was playing up when it said 30 minutes to drive 10 miles, but it wasn’t wrong! We arrived at about 10.30am and we were the first people there. The route picks up immediately from the parking area, crossing a stile (which has a reasonably sized gap under the fence for dogs) to climb straight up the hill to the ridge. It looks like a fairly short climb but it didn’t feel short after I’d been sweating my way up it for 10 minutes!
Walking along the ridge was one of my highlights of the week, with cracking views in all directions. On a clear day (and I recommend saving this for a nice day if at all possible) you can see all the way to the Malvern Hills and the Long Mynd, as well as across the Black Mountains into Wales.
After the ridge, the trig point seemed a little dull in comparison, but the nice views continued as we followed the path along a heathery moor. It was here that we started to be able to spot the ponies who graze here, well in the distance at this point. The route turns to begin the descent a kilometre or so past the trig, dropping steadily (occasionally steeply but never for long) along a hill path.
We did encounter ponies on this path, who we needed to move to be able to continue, they moved out of our way (slightly begrudgingly) and we were able to carry on. Usually we’d just give them a wide berth but with where they’d chosen to stand that was impossible – having a horse of my own I’m very conscious of how much nips and kicks can hurt, so interacting with them is always a last resort.
Once we’d finished our descent, the walk picked up a quiet road for the last 2km back to the car. We didn’t see any traffic down here, just a few midges and the occasional horsefly (which happily were much more interested in Sam than me).
Dog friendly rating – 3/5. There’s just one stile to navigate, which has a gap next to it which easily fit both of ours through. We kept ours on leads throughout as both ponies and sheep graze the area, but a plus for dogs is a few streams towards the end of the descent where they could have a drink (we also carried extra for the start of the walk).
Where we stayed
Last time we visited the Brecon Beacons we stayed in some lovely accommodation, but it was really better placed for exploring further north in Powys and mid-Wales, with the Brecon Beacons being about an hour’s drive before you even started crossing the national park. This time I searched long and hard for a more central base, eventually choosing Chestnut Cottage near Brecon.
The cottage is one of a collection of five holiday cottages on a farm in the village of Llanfrynach. I’d chosen this particular one out of the five as from the photos it looked the most spacious. Sleeping two people, I was amazed at how much room there was when we arrived. The cottage is beautifully decorated and has absolutely everything you need, especially in the kitchen, where holiday cottages are often lacking. It’s a shame that we didn’t get to use the wood burner as I bet it’s super cosy after a chilly day out walking.
Located between Brecon and Talybont on Usk, you can walk from the door along the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal, or up to the central beacons via Fan y Big. All of the places we visited (excluding the National Botanic Garden of Wales) were within an hour’s drive. We absolutely loved it here and I would definitely recommend it as a base.
Dog friendly rating – 4/5. Two dogs can join you for an additional fee of £20 per dog. Both of ours were very settled here and there was plenty of room for both of them without them getting underfoot. There is no private enclosed garden, but there is a shared grassy courtyard where you can take your dog on a lead, or alternatively a shared field which you (and other guests) can use to let your dog have a run off lead.
And that brings us to the end of another trip recap! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our time in the Brecon Beacons. We have more exciting things to come this year, so subscribe below to make sure that you never miss a post!
