Scenic Point in Cardiff

The Brecon Beacons National Park covers approximately 1,344 square kilometres of upland and hill country in South Wales, encompassing the central Beacons sandstone massif, the Black Mountains to the east on the border with England, the Black Mountain to the west and the limestone country of the Fforest Fawr Geopark that links them. The park contains the highest ground in South Wales, with Pen y Fan reaching 886 metres as the highest point in the Brecon Beacons range, and the combination of accessible mountain walking, spectacular glaciated scenery, waterfalls, caves and the historic market towns and castles of the Usk valley makes it one of the most varied and rewarding national parks in Britain. The sandstone landscape of the central Beacons is characterised by the distinctive flat-topped summits and dramatic northern escarpments produced by the differential erosion of the Old Red Sandstone layers, the retreating ice of the last glacial period carving the cwms and corries that give the northern face of the main ridge its dramatic form. Pen y Fan, the highest summit, and its neighbour Corn Du are the most visited peaks in Wales after Snowdon, their relatively accessible ascent from the Storey Arms car park on the A470 making them achievable for a wide range of walkers. The western section of the park around the Fforest Fawr Geopark contains some of the most dramatic waterfall scenery in Wales. The Four Waterfalls Walk in the Vale of Neath passes a sequence of falls including Sgwd yr Eira, where it is possible to walk behind the curtain of water, in one of the finest short walking circuits in the park. The cave systems of the limestone country, including the Dan yr Ogof cave complex, are among the most extensive in Britain. The Brecon Beacons is also one of the darkest areas of sky in Wales and England and has been designated an International Dark Sky Reserve, making it one of the best places in the country for observing the night sky.

Pen y Fan at 886 metres is the highest peak in the Brecon Beacons and the highest in southern Britain, a distinctive flat-topped sandstone summit whose characteristic profile of near-vertical red sandstone scarps below a level summit plateau has made it one of the most recognisable mountain silhouettes in Wales. The mountain receives more walkers than any other summit in Wales outside Snowdon, the combination of its height, its accessibility from the main road at Storey Arms and the dramatic scenery of the Beacons making it the flagship walking destination of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The mountain is formed from the Devonian Old Red Sandstone that underlies the entire Brecon Beacons range, the resistant sandstone capping layers of the plateau preserving the level summit surfaces while the softer rocks below are eroded into the steep scarps. The northern face of the mountain, where the full height of the scarp is most impressively seen from the ridge approach from Cribyn, provides one of the most dramatic mountain profiles in Wales, the abrupt edges and geometric plateau form quite different from the rounded profiles of most British hills. The SAS and other special forces use Pen y Fan and the surrounding Beacons extensively for selection and training exercises, the notorious Fan Dance endurance exercise traversing Pen y Fan as a standard element of SAS selection. The mountain's demanding conditions and the distance from Storey Arms that can be extended through various approaches make it an excellent training ground, and the tradition of military use adds an unusual cultural dimension to a mountain better known for recreational walking. The views from the summit encompass the Black Mountains to the east, the Black Mountain to the west, the Cambrian Mountains and on clear days as far as the Bristol Channel and the Somerset hills beyond.