Walk #93 Black Mountain, Powys

Walk 20 out of 100
Walk #93 - Black Mountain

Powys

Overall Rating - ✪✪✪✪✪

Suggested Difficulty - Challenging

My Difficulty Rating - ✪✪✪✪✪

Suggested Time - 7 hours

Actual Time Taken - 6h 30m

Distance in book - 20.6km
Map my walk Distance - 3.31km + 15.89km + ??? = oops!

Tafarn-y-Garreg pub Start/Finish

So onto walk 20, a fifth of the 100 done. This is part one of two days walking in the Brecon Beacons, South Wales. The Black Mountain (range) is in the West of the Brecon Beacons National Park and is not to be confused with the Black Mountains in the East or the Black Mountain peak near Hay-on-Wye, very confusing!

The Tafarn-y-Garreg pub was the start of the walk and also provided my camping spot for the night, would recommend.

Overall this is up there with the best walks I've done so far, stunning hillwalking and miles of ridgetop walking surrounded by beautiful scenery. I've given the walk the maximum difficulty rating because the full walk is over 20km, the paths can be indistinct at times and some of the climbs are tough. I may have had a slight technology issue with tracking my walk... At some point I must have accidentally ended the walk on the app so I now have 2 logged walks with a big gap in the middle, face palm.

So one of the reasons why the app may have stopped working is because I went off track and instead of going backwards, I decided to scramble up the steep hill before it turned into a full on cliff face! Not recommended... The picture left shows the steep hill in question once I'd finally reached the top. Try to stay on top of the ridgeline! 

The long ridge of Fan Hir 

The sheer drops to your right as you walk along the ridge are quite spectacular, but if you were to do this walk in bad weather I'd steer well clear! For a brief moment, the hill fog surrounded the highest point of the walk at Fan Brycheiniog which was A. annoying and B. potentially dangerous. I was very pleased when the fog cleared in the afternoon.

Lyn y Fan Fawr

Views gone! Fan Brycheiniog (802m)

Top of Picws Du, Fan Brycheiniog in the background (now clear!)

First sighting of Lyn y Fan Fach along the Bannau Sir Gaer ridge walk. 

Looking back at the peaks and ridgelines completed so far. 

Clear to see the impact of a hot, dry summer.

One of the satisfying parts of the walk was being able to see where you've been. Reaching the shore of Lyn y Fan Fawr was a real treat after all the hill walking and a great place to stop. The final stretch down the valley back to your starting point is still surrounded by great views.



Overall a great days walk, if you can't commit to the time or the distance there are 2 options to shorten the route so don't be put off, it's a great place to visit.  

Lyn y Fan Fawr

Thanks for reading.

Stef.

P.S. join the dots on the maps to work out the route!

Here's the link to the walk on 'Map My Walk'

Here's the link to the walk on 'Map My Walk'

And follow me on Twitter @stefanvilla1991

Walk #5 Ironbridge, Telford & Wrekin

The River Severn from the Iron Bridge

Walk 19 out of 100
Walk #5 - Ironbridge

Telford & Wrekin

Overall Rating - ✪✪✪

Suggested Difficulty - Moderate

My Difficulty Rating - ✪✪

Suggested Time - 4h 30m

Actual Time Taken - 3h 52m

Distance in book - 14.3km
Map my walk Distance - 15.62km

Dale End Road start/finish

So now the sweltering 2018 summer has finally cooled down a bit, I decided to head to Ironbridge for a walk through the beautiful, historic town. The route was supposed to start on the longstay car park, but as it was quiet, it was easy to park on Dale End Road next to the primary school!

Ironbridge

Overall, I've given this a 3 star but I think I was being a bit generous! The history around the town is great, the gorge is very picturesque but the walking up into South Telford is a bit... boring! The Route is very easy to follow as most of the paths follow alongside the river or main roads. All of the inclines are very steady and the paths are so good, I did the whole thing wearing trainers! The substantial distance was the only reason it didn't get a 1 star difficulty.

Looking back at Ironbridge across the River Severn.

Ironbridge August 2018

 This is my chance to be a real history nerd now, so feel free to skip this part if you're not interested!
Ironbridge is a world heritage site and it is really hard to believe whilst you're walking around the small, pretty town that by the end of the 18th century it was the most technologically advanced area in the world!

A key moment in the history of the industrial revolution came about in 1709, in the village of Coalbrookdale (also part of this walk) where Abraham Darby had pioneered a new method for smelting iron. His cheaper method involved producing pig iron in a blast furnace using coke as the fuel instead of charcoal.
The town was named after the world's first ever cast iron bridge, designed by Thomas Pritchard. It was built in 1779 with construction overseen by Abraham Darby III. The ambitious project used 378 tons of cast iron and cost £6,000 to build.

Ironbridge December 2016

As you can see from the picture, the iron bridge is currently undergoing some major surgery! The ironwork has had to endure the weather, ground movement and even an earthquake over the centuries. I have attached a picture I took from a visit to the gorge in December 2016 so you can see what it usually looks like!

All through this walk you see the evidence of the areas industrial past. You spend a large part of the walk strolling along disused railway lines with all original bridges and tunnels mostly in tact.
The Museum of the gorge, Jackfield Tile museum, Tar tunnel and Blists Hill Victorian Town are all accessible from this walk for those of you wanting to explore more of the fascinating history.

Jackfield Tile Museum

Coalport Bridge

Madeley Court

So overall, I would say the first half of the walk is great, but if I'm honest, the rest isn't. I would recommend you walk from Ironbridge to Coalport and back instead of doing this full loop.
I can't however fault the museums and the delightful town of Ironbridge. If you are interested in the history, you can pick up an annual museum passport for a very reasonable price which allows you to visit all the museums. If history isn't your thing, visit the town, take in the views, eat good food and explore the shops!

Thanks for reading.


Stef.

Here's the link to the walk on 'Map My Walk'

And follow me on Twitter @stefanvilla1991

Walk #27 Painswick, Gloucestershire

Looking back towards Painswick

Walk 18 out of 100
Walk #27 - Painswick

Gloucestershire

Overall Rating - ✪✪✪✪

Suggested Difficulty - Moderate

My Difficulty Rating - ✪✪✪

Suggested Time - 5h

Actual Time Taken - 4h 38m

Distance in book - 16km
Map my walk Distance - 18.3km

New Street, Painswick, start/finish

Been a while again, but today was a day worth waiting for! A chilly but sunny February day in the picturesque Cotswolds was just what the doctor ordered. The walk starts on the main street (New street) through the small town of Painswick. There's a small car park or road parking next to St Mary's church.

Painswick stream

This walk got a 4 star from me, mainly for the variety of scenery as you pass through woodland, valleys, commons and nature reserves. The route is fairly straight forward to follow and if you make any mistakes in navigating (which I definitely did NOT do...) you can usually find where you need to be by just heading in the right direction as the lanes/roads surrounding the route are easy to stumble across. There are also plenty of other footpaths around the nature reserves and woodland areas to explore if you want to stray from the guide.

The walk was quite lengthy which added to it's difficulty, it's probably something to do with the severe lack of fitness at the moment too! There is only a couple of steep climbs, the worst of which come at the end of the route, ergh! Due to the time of year, the mud slowed us down a bit but despite this, it wasn't that difficult to stay within the time limit given by the book.

Blackstable Wood

Getting arty with snow drops

The first Daffodil I've seen in 2018!

Down Farm

As you can see for yourself, the area covered as part of this walk has plenty of variety and all of it is rather gorgeous. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't go home and look at right move, just to see how much of my impending lottery winnings I would need to spend to own one of the stunning houses we walked past on today. I don't think a teacher's salary is going to cut it!

Walking through the valleys and admiring the Cotswold stone buildings was my personal highlight of this walk.

Looking over towards Slad

St Mary's Church, Painswick

I would highly recommend a visit to this beautiful part of the country and walking around off the beaten track is one hundred percent a great way to truly see the best of it.

Thanks to Neil for the company and, as always, thanks for reading.

Stef.

Here's the link to the walk on 'Map My Walk'

And follow me on Twitter @stefanvilla1991