Pen Cerrig-calch is a subsidiary summit of Waun Fach in the Black Mountains in the Brecon Beacons National Park in southern Powys, Wales. Its summit, at a height of 701 m (2,300 ft), is marked by a trig point. The peak sits high above the River Usk valley as it narrows above the small town of Crickhowell.
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Crug Hywel is an Iron Age Celtic hillfort, with a clearly visible earth and stone ditch and rampart. Crug Hywel is approached by a couple of public footpaths across farmland from Crickhowell and Llanbedr and visited by the Beacons Way. It lies within an area designated as open country over which the public have the right to roam.
The name is sometimes given to the flat-topped hill itself, which is also called Table Mountain in English. Located at the southern edge of the Black Mountains in south-east Wales, it rises to 451 m above sea level, from the southern flank of Pen Cerrig-calch, and overlooks the town of Crickhowell, whose name derives from Crug Hywel.
The Welsh name Mynydd y Begwn is also used for this summit. As a result, it has been suggested that the name Crug Hywel may originally have referred to the castle mound in Crickhowell.
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Pen Allt-mawr is a 719 metres high subsidiary summit of Waun Fach and the third highest peak in the Black Mountains in south-eastern Wales. A very recognisable and prominent peak of the Black Mountains, it lies near the end of the more westerly of Waun Fach's two broad southern ridges. Its top Pen Twyn Glas is to the north, while its close neighbour Pen Cerrig-calch is to the south. A prominent spur 1 km to the SSW of the summit is known as Pen Gloch-y-pibwr. The stepped Bryniog ridge curves southward from this point.
Its summit is stony and has damaged Bronze Age cairns and a large shelter cairn together with a trig point. Further Bronze Age cairns are found along the western edge of the plateau to the south.
2.8 km
Llanbedr is a small village in the community of Vale of Grwyney, in the county of Powys, Wales, 2 miles northeast of Crickhowell. It lies above the river known as the Grwyne Fechan just above its confluence with the Grwyne Fawr in the southern reaches of the Black Mountains range. The village lies within the shadow of Table Mountain, an outlying spur of Pen Cerrig-calch on which is perched the Iron Age hill fort of Crug Hywel.
The church of St Peter is a 14th-15th-century church in Perpendicular style. It has a number of interesting 18th-century memorials. There are also several examples of "Brute angels", carved by an 18th-century local family of stonemasons named Brute, inside and outside the church. A large hollow yew tree in the churchyard is reputed to be about 3,000 years old. The church is one of three in the Vale of Gwryne parish, in the St Catwg Ministry Area, together with Llangenny and Partrishow. It has a 14th-century bell tower with a peal of six bells, which are rung to mark notable events. A church is documented here in 1060, but this may have been an earlier building of which no trace now remains.
The village pub, located opposite the church, is the Red Lion.
2.9 km
The Vale of Grwyney is a community in Powys, Wales. It follows most of the border between Powys and Monmouthshire. It takes its name from the river Grwyney which flows through it into the River Usk. The river Grwyney has two tributaries, called the Grwyne Fechan and the Grywne Fawr, which both rise in the Black Mountains and converge into one river near Llanbedr before meeting the Usk at Glangrwyney.
The community includes the villages of Glangrwyney, Llangenny, and Llanbedr. In 2011 the population of The Vale of Grwyney was 738 with 9.4% of them able to speak Welsh. The community is part of the Crickhowell electoral ward and sends a county councillor to sit on Powys County Council.
30 miles from Cardiff and 130 miles from London.
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The Rhiangoll is a river in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Powys, Wales. It rises on the western slopes of Waun Fach, highest point of the Black Mountains and drops steeply down to the west into the north–south valley through which the A479 runs between Talgarth and the hamlet of Tretower and through the village of Cwmdu. It is joined by various minor tributary streams on its left bank including the Ffinnant, Nant yr Ychen, Nant-y-fedw and Nantygarreg, all of which rise on the flanks of the ridge extending between the Pen Trumau spur of Waun Fach and Pen Gloch-y-pibwr. Two tributary streams flowing from Mynydd Troed and Mynydd Llangorse enter on its right bank as does Nant Ewyn east of the village of Bwlch.
The main valley was excavated by glacial ice during the course of the ice ages as it breached the watershed at Pengenffordd. Its broad lower section was influenced by the merging of the Rhiangoll valley ice with that of the main Usk Valley glacier which swept down past Bwlch. The Rhiangoll itself enters the River Usk near Glanusk Bridge 1 mile south of Tretower.
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Pen Cerrig-calch
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The views from here are wide-ranging and extend as far as the Beacons themselves to the west. A ridge runs off to the northwest and the shoulder of Pen Gloch-y-pibwr then turns north to the secondary top of Pen Allt-mawr whose peak at 719m is also crowned by a trig point.