Right in the middle of the west Brecon Beacons National Park is a mystical lake, high up in the mountains, the Llyn y Fan Fach lake sits at the foot of the Black Mountain. Even without the folk tales the lake has a sense of eery silence to it, almost entirely surrounded by ridges the lake is quiet and still with shadows cast over parts of it.
Llyn y Fan Fach has its very own folktales that add to the magical sense of the place, it’s definitely worth reading about before you go. Here is a short narration of the tale.
Llyn y Fan Fach Circular Walk
Llyn y Fan Fach is a great place to go for a short walk with some incredible scenery that you will struggle to find anywhere else, the atmosphere around the lake is just incredible and well worth a visit anytime of the year.
Getting there
Getting to Llyn y Fan Fach is pretty simple but the roads are country lanes at best, I certainly wouldn’t advise coming during bad weather unless you have a decent 4×4 and even then you will struggle to get out in the snow. Around summertime you can access the carpark easily after driving down a few gravel lanes, which have been improved recently, it’s a bumpy ride but an enjoyable one.
The walk is around 5 miles in total but can be longer depending on where you come back down the ridge. I’ve mapped out the route I took although I definitely missed something somewhere as I ended up coming down a small but steep gully, a path I certainly wouldn’t recommend to most.
In general it’s a very easy going route with most uphill parts being pretty gradual, the walk along the ridge is spectacular and follows all the way to distinctive escarpment of the Black Mountain.
Depending on your fitness you can complete the walk within a few hours but keep an eye on the weather either way. From the car park you can follow the gravel track all the way up, past the fish farm and all the way to the Llyn y Fan Fach lake. From the the lake you can easily see the path right of the lake following up along the ridge. This might not be as obvious in mist or cloud so it goes without saying, take a map and compass.