Pen-y-Fan in the Brecon Beacons is a place of outstanding beauty and at 2,907 feet is the highest peak in southern Wales. It is famous for the gruelling “Fan Dance” stage of SAS selection which takes place here twice a year.
It seems strange, therefore, that there is a gentle path up to the summit that is perfectly suitable for a Sunday afternoon post-roast lunch stroll – I swear you could get a pushchair up it!
Given its ease of access, don’t expect to be the only person on the mountain, nor a tranquil and peaceful walk. The world and his wife will almost certainly be joining you if you take this particular path up. Once at the top, however, you forget the people and concentrate on the views. The landscape below is laid out for you like a carpet. It’s beautiful!
The vistas are amazing, at any angle you care to view them from.
A word of warning, however, for those wishing to get summit photos. Photobombing is rife up there.
By the way, it’s only a short hop over to the adjoining peak, Cribyn, and well worth the effort. And there are further peaks beyond if you really want to walk that roast lunch off.
Points on this part of the walk (copy and paste the co-ordinates into Google Earth)
- Pen-y-Fan: N 51° 53.042 W 003° 26.190
- Cribyn: N 51° 52.910 W 003° 25.175
Walk Statistics:
- Date of Walk: 30 July 2015
- Walk distance: 6.68 miles
- CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO INTERACTIVE MAP!!!
The Coastal Path 
I did that walk once, but it was over 10 years ago now. It’s a nice area, I really should go back there – but I do remember it being busy! In fact I think it was the first mountain (it is a mountain I think?) that I ever climbed.