Twr y Fan Foel

Nearest town:
Llandovery (14km NW)
OS reference:
SN82432206
OS sheet:
160
Latitude:
51° 53' 3.19 N
Longitude:
3° 42' 30.27 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

The prominent buttress of Twr-y-Fan Foel is, well, prominent (far right) in this view of Y Mynydd Du from the east, near Bwlch y Duwynt.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jul 20, 2019
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Looking toward the much better preserved – not to mention excavated – monument upon Fan Foel.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Apr 22, 2017
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Highlighting the uncompromising positioning of the cairn, approaching from Fan Brycheiniog. The Usk Reservoir can be seen right background.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Apr 22, 2017
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Looking from the southern end of Llyn y Fan Fawr...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Apr 22, 2017
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

The elegant, sweeping prow of Twr-y-Fan Foel from across the northern extremity of Llyn y Fan Fawr. Fan Foel, with a far better, excavated monument, lies beyond.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Apr 18, 2017
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The original footprint is much larger than the modern walkers’ effort stuck on top.

Image credit: A. Brookes (15.2.2016)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 15, 2016
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The cairn is precariously placed on the top of the escarpment, right. Looking towards the Brecon Beacons.

Image credit: A. Brookes (15.2.2016)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 15, 2016
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Seen from the south. The cairn is right on the tip of the escarpment, left of centre.

Image credit: A. Brookes (15.2.2016)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Feb 18, 2016
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Guess sooner or later the monument will need to be reclassified as ‘not so upland’. Assuming humankind is still interested in such things then. And not extinct. Or living on Mars? That’ll shut up David Bowie. [Edit – following the death of the Starman one assumes he’s now living on Mars :-)]

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Apr 1, 2015
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

I’d suggest there are few better locations for a cairn in all Wales.... than perched up there.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Apr 1, 2015
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Seriously eroded by a seemingly ever-increasing volume of walkers (to judge by my early forays 20-odd years ago) it is perhaps a moot point whether this cairn ever possessed a cist, as still can be found upon nearby Fan Foel (beyond). Nevertheless the location is truly exceptional, arguably the least interesting view being this, looking approx north toward the Usk Reservoir. Note Mynydd Myddfai rising above and to the left of the reservoir, home of Tomen-y-Rhos and Pen Caenewydd.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Apr 1, 2015
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Twr-y-Fan Foel is a classic location for a burial cairn, here looking approx west across Llyn Y Fan Fawr to the site of some of the many other prehistoric monuments which grace these uplands.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 27, 2015
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Sometimes obtaining no view from a prehistoric cairn is more than enough. Highlighting how close the cairn was placed to the escarpment edge... the void.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Feb 3, 2015
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Looking toward the summit of Y Mynydd Du, Fan Brycheiniog. Good idea not to step on that virgin snow...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Feb 3, 2015
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Looking toward Fan Foel, itself crowned by a cairn with surviving (excavated) cist.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Feb 3, 2015
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

There’s quite a bit going on beneath the walker’s cairn...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Feb 3, 2015
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

A cornice leads the eye, highlighting the exciting positioning of the cairn approaching from Fan Brycheiniog.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Feb 3, 2015
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Looking down upon Llyn y Fan Fawr. The people who (presumably) sited these burial cairns for dramatic, theatrical effect.... certainly knew what they were doing.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Feb 3, 2015
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Picws Du (with its own monument) and the Bannau Sir Gaer are visible to left of image.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Apr 30, 2011
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The view east from Twr y Fan Foel, looking down to Llyn y Fan Fawr. The central Beacons and Fforest Fawr peaks lie ahead. Fan Gyhirych with its own cairn is the nearest, sun-dappled on the right.

Image credit: A. Brookes (26.2.2011)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Feb 27, 2011
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Seen from the north-west. The shape of the mound of the cairn is clearly visible under the walkers.

Image credit: A. Brookes (5.6.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jun 9, 2010
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The summit cairn, showing the original construction beneath the modern walker’s cairn. Picws Du is in the background.

Image credit: A. Brookes (5.6.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jun 9, 2010
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Twr y Fan Foel from Fan Hir, looking down on Llyn y Fan Fawr and towards Glasfynydd Forest to the north-east.

Image credit: A. Brookes (5.6.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jun 9, 2010
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Fan Brycheiniog and Twr y Fan Foel from Fan Hir. The cairn is on top of the right-hand peak in the picture.

Image credit: A. Brookes (5.6.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jun 9, 2010
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by cerrig

Looking from Fan Brycheiniog, with the walkers shelter in the foreground.

Image credit: cerrig
C
cerrig May 11, 2010
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Looking towards Twr-y-Fan Foel from Ban Brycheiniog, summit of Y Mynydd Du.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Apr 22, 2010
Image of Twr y Fan Foel (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

The round barrow [top right] perched overlooking Llyn y Fan Fawr. The viewpoint is Fan Foel. Another round barrow crowns Waun Leuci, Fan Gyhirych and Fan Frynych, with two upon Fan Nedd and further examples upon the summit of Pen-y-Fan and Corn Du, far left skyline. Amongst others...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Apr 22, 2010

Articles

Twr y Fan Foel

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 27, 2013

From Fan Foel, it’s not far at all to the next of today’s cairns, Twr y Fan Foel. Last time I came here from Fan Hir, a walk that is do-able using the Neath-Brecon bus service, but there’s no doubt that today’s approach is more satisfying. The cairn itself is a bit of a wreck, eroded at its base and piled into a silly cone. Purely as a structure of earth and stone, it lacks the charm of the wonderful ring on Fan Foel. But the view is astonishing. The ground drops away to north and east, and this is perfect viewpoint for the second of today’s mountain lakes, Llyn y Fan Fawr. From up here, it’s hard to believe that the lake itself is located at as-near-as-dammit 2,000 feet up. The cairn is at the highest point of Y Mynydd’s Du magnificent escarpment and boy, what a place for a monument. Worth every bit of energy and effort to get up here.

Sadly we don’t linger so long at this one, my companions are getting hungry and a bit further along the escarpment, at the southern summit, there is a drystone shelter that has been identified as our lunch spot. There’s nothing on Coflein to suggest that this shelter has been fashioned from an ancient cairn, so I can feel relaxed about making use of it. For all that the sun is shining, it’s still bitterly cold up here and a stop of any duration is going to see a sudden drop in body temperature. It’s here that we meet the only other people that we’ll see today. Not far to the SW of the summit is the spot where an Avro Anson crashed in thick cloud and rain, back in peacetime 1939, a stark reminder of just how bad the weather can get in and above these mountains.

Twr y Fan Foel

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jun 9, 2010

Visited 5.6.2010, on a hot but hazy day. Taking Cerrig’s hint, I got the bus to Dan yr Ogof, home of the National Showcaves and an assortment of megalithic “fakes” – stone circles, rows, chambered tombs.

The Beaons Way heads off the A4067 opposite the Tafarn-y-Garreg (the “Tavern of the Stone”), which has a big white painted stone block outside (just wondering....). Leaving the Way once I crossed the Avon Tawe, for the first of several times today, a rough path heads up the steep side of Allt Fach. The views start to open out, Cefn Cul/Waun Leuci to the right, the distinctive scarp-faced Fan Gyhirych round to the east, and the limestone-spiked Carreg Goch to the south-west. It was blazing hot and the sun was beating down very fiercely on my neck, spurring me to get onto the ridge and a bit of breeze. Taking a few rough paths in a north-easterly direction, you come to the lower slopes of the long Fan Hir ridge. From here it’s a bit of a slog uphill, not steep but climbing continually. Once you get onto the eastern edge of Fan Hir, there is a magnificent view across to the central Beacons (albeit almost invisible in a blue haze today) as well the sheer drop closer at hand (not a path for vertigo sufferers this one). Eventually, after what seemed like a long time and quite a few false crests, I reached the top of Fan Hir. An unremarkable summit apart from the shattered “pavement” along the cliff edge, it does boast some terrific views, notably to Fan Brycheiniog, the day’s first objective.

The path continues north and drops down towards Bwlch Giedd, now enjoying great views of Llyn y Fan Fawr (“Big lake of the peak”?), which itself stands at 600m above sea level. The Beacons Way comes in from the right, where it has made a much steeper ascent than the route I took to get here. And then it’s another climb, the last major one of the day, up the southern summit of Fan Brycheiniog. This mountain, the highest point in Y Mynydd Du at 802m, has two summits of equal height. The first is topped with a trig point and a (quite neat I must admit) drystone walkers’ shelter. From here it’s a quick stroll to the northern summit, where the bronze age cairn is. It’s quiet up here, I saw no more than a dozen people on this visit, compared with the hordes on Pen y Fan.

The summit cairn has been quite badly damaged – and still is being. Aside from the inevitable silly modern walkers’ construct on top of it, the sides of the barrow have been badly eroded by the thousands of feet that have walked up here (mine included now). However, it boasts terrific views and is in a wonderful spot. My next objective, Fan Foel is clearly visible a little way to the north, and I didn’t linger as a group of ramblers appeared, all coming to stand on top of the cairn (doh!).

Miscellaneous

Twr y Fan Foel
Round Cairn
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Apr 22, 2010

Coflein gives this information for the site. Note that there is another monument (excavated in 2004) a little north upon the summit of Fan Foel itself:

‘A turf-covered cairn of small stones is situated on the tip of a promontory of the NE-facing escarpment of Mynydd Du. It measures 11m in diameter and 1.2m high and appears to be undisturbed.‘

Sites within 20km of Twr y Fan Foel

Like all websites everywhere, we use cookies.