Cody Duncan Photography: Travel, Landscape, Climbing and Life

Twmpa, also known as Lord Hereford’s knob, is a somewhat prominent looking, but fairly low peak in the northern part of the Black mountains, Brecon Beacons national park, Wales

Hay Bluff is a small (677 meter) peak on the northeast edge of the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons national park.

The English/Welsh border runs roughly through the left side of the peak in the above photo, as well as Offa’s Dyke national footpath which follows the border for the most part.

The bluff is only a few kilometers south of town here, so it’s probably my most visited area of the Brecon Beacons national park and Wales in general.  It’s a good place to go for some hillwalking in the late afternoon and provides some scenic views of the surrounding countryside.

Above and Below: Hay Bluff as seen from near the summit of Twmpa.  The peak rises into a broad plateau which then turns into a ridge that forms the eastern border of: the Black mountains, Brecon Beacons national park, Vale of Ewyas, and Wales itself.  The small single lane road skirts the side of the peak and over Gospel Pass (center right of both photos) and down into the Vale of Ewyas.

Craig Goch reservoir and dam, Elan Valley, Powys, Wales.

Craig Goch is the uppermost of the Elan Valley reservoirs.  From here the road meets up with the mountain road towards Aberystwyth at the coast or back east to Rhayader.

Claerwen Reservoir and dam on a surprisingly pleasant summer day, Elan Valley, Powys, Wales.

These waters flow some 70+ miles to quench the thirst of the city of Birmingham.  Claerwen was finished in 1952 and was the last of the reservoirs to be built.

Wild Welsh mountain ponies in and around Hay Bluff in the Black Mountains area of Brecon Beacons national park, Wales.

I’ve posted previously about the wild ponies that run around the mountains here in south Wales.  There’s several herds that hang out on Hay Bluff, just outside of town here.  They make for more interesting subjects than near infinite amount of sheep cruising around.

Black Mountain (yes, singular, not plural) is the name of the westernmost range of the Brecon Beacons national park.  The other two being the Black mountains (plural this time) in the east and along the English border.  While the Brecon Beacons range, from where the national park takes its name and home to the highest mountain in south Wales (Pen Y Fan), sits between the two ‘black’ ranges.

Access into the Black mountain is about an hour from here, so I’ve only just begun to explore the area in the last weeks.  They are much more rugged and isolated that the Black MountainS here in my backyard, so I’m looking forward to spending more time out there.  There is also a roughly 100 mile long trail called the Beacons Way which runs east to west across the park which has also caught my attention for some time in the future.

Welsh mountain ponies.  They seemed to think either I and or the car was edible.  Out in the Black mountain area on a mostly fine summer day.

Brecon Beacons December 2009 photo gallery

I’ve uploaded about 40 new photos so far from the mountains after the snow in December.  I made a few trips up Corn Du and Pen Y Fan and once up Fan Fawr.  Recently added photos appear at the top of the gallery, which I’ll still be adding to during the next weeks as I get more photos processed.  There’s also a few old photos from 2006, you can tell which ones they are as there’s no snow.

Water overflow after heavy rains, Claerwen Reservoir dam, Elan Valley, Wales

View from Pen Y Fan of Corn Du partially hidden in Clouds, Brecon Beacons, Wales.  December 21, 2009

Super cold and lots of snow, but the winds were calm. The clouds were slowly blowing over the summits creating total whiteouts with occasional moments of visibility. Would have been easy to get lost if I wasn’t familiar with the area.