1.Leave the car park via the exit in the bottom right hand corner (facing out to the main entrance). Cross the road and turn left then right through a gate into the playing fields. Turn left onto a track and follow it past a barn to a gate into the rugby playing fields. Continue diagonally across the field to a stile and continue ahead on a rough hedged track that veers left to a gate onto the road. Turn right and then left, ahead of a bridge, onto a signed footpath. Follow this around the edge of the field and through a stile then continue ahead, keeping the river Llynfi to your right, to the far end of the field, where you’ll join a lane. Turn right and then left onto a track, marked Pont Nichol. Walk up the track and pass beneath the buildings, which sit on the site of the old railway crossing, then fork left to a stile that leads into woodland. Follow the path through woodland and up to a stile that leads onto the B4560, close to College Farm.
2.Turn right to walk right through Trefecca Village and out the other side and then take the ‘No Through Road’ on the left, which leads to Trefecca Fawr. (The car park lay-by for the shorter walk is 200 yards further along the B4560).
3.Follow the lane up and around to the right and then continue through Felin Cwm Dingle to a sharp left hand bend, where you should go through the facing gate into a field. Continue with the wood on your left and go through a gate and up through the next field to a stile. Cross this and turn right, over a stream, and then left to follow a line of trees up and then right, aiming towards the farm buildings. Continue to a gate but don’t go through, instead turn left to keep the hedge to your right, to a stile by evergreens that leads onto the road. Turn right to walk past Whole House Farm.
4.Continue past the farmhouse and turn left onto a track that leads up through three fields. On entering the third, bear half left to the bottom left corner, and turn right onto a lane. Pass the turn to Garn y Castell and continue around a sharp left hand bend to a narrow path that leads into a copse on the left. Follow this path through two gates onto the open ground at the foot of Mynydd Troed.
5.Turn left and follow the obvious track along the foot of the mountain until the path dips leftwards to a gate that leads onto a road.
6. If the weather’s been wet, there’s a better, parallel path a little further up the hill. If you wish to climb to the summit, turn right upon reaching the open ground, then cut back left to another path on the right that climbs to the top (609m). Return by the same route. (Link to Walk 3 to the right from here).
7.Turn left onto the lane and then right at the junction and continue past Penyrheol and Trewalkin farms. Continue for 100 yards and bear left, through a gate, and head towards the farm beyond the next field. Aim just to the left of the house, where you’ll cross a stile and then a track and then another stile, to enter a field. Keep to the right to another stile and then head diagonally right, over the brow of the hill and down to the far corner, where you’ll see another stile beneath a small plantation of evergreens. Cross this and a stile on the right to enter the site of the Long Cairn.
8.Go back over the stile and turn right down to another stile. Continue with the hedge on your right and pass through a gate to continue to a cluster of buildings. Keep these to your left and locate a path that ducks into bushes on the right. (If you started from Trefecca, turn left beyond the buildings and take the track down to Trefecca Fawr and on to the lay-by, which is across the field from here).
Continue down, with the hedge to our right, to pass close to a new barn to a gate and stile that leads onto a lane. Turn left and follow this down past Trefecca College to the B4560.
Cross the road and continue down the lane opposite, which turns into a steep, stony track and drops to cross the dismantled railway. Bear left then right to cross a footbridge over the Afon Llynfi. Now head up the steep bank ahead to join a lane by the farm buildings at Tredustan Hall. Turn right (motte on the right by the barns) and follow the lane back to Talgarth, taking a right and then left at the junctions. Alternatively return by the route of your outward journey by turning left at Pont Nichol.
In the footsteps of time
College Farm
Originally known as Lower Trefecca, or Trefecca Isaf, but was purchased by Selina, Countess of Huntingdon in the late 1700’s as a College to teach young preachers for the Methodist faith, and consequently became known by it’s present name. The house was probably first built in Queen Elizabeth the First’s reign and the porched doorway is typical of houses of that period, dated 1576. It is believed the house was originally built as home and farmhouse for Walter Prosser, High Sheriff of Brecknockshire in 1592, but was extended by The Countess of Huntington. Interestingly, the name ‘Trefecca’, may be in Welsh, named after Rebecca Prosser. Note the coat of arms above the door-way of a circle quartered and a cherub in each quarter!
In 1972 a farmer looking for stone, excavated a large mound on his farm. What he discovered became known as the Penyrwrlôdd Long Barrow. Archealogical investigation revealed the remains of of at least fifteen humans, along with flint arrow heads and a flint knife and most interesting of all a hollow sheep bone which appears to be fashioned into a flute, making it the earliest musical instrument found in the British Isles. The barrow was estimated to have been built around 3500BC making it the earliest in Southern Britain and the best preserved in the Black Mountains. Only partially excavated, it is estimated the remains of over 50 people may still remain in the barrow. As you look around, it is a sobering thought that this structure was built and the area inhabited before the Welsh or the Romans arrived in Britain.
View looking southwest from Cwmdu Evidence suggests that…