As the festive season unfolds, the Brecon Beacons…
Distance
4.9km / 3.04miles
OS grid reference SO254107
Postcode NP7 9RY
Starting co-ordinates
° 0' 0" N ° 0' 0" W (DMS)
Approximate time
1 hour 30 mins
Walk Grade
(5 = Hardest)
- Facilities
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Come to while away a couple of hours by taking in the extensive views across the Usk Valley towards the Sugar Loaf and the Black Mountains, watching dragonflies and birds on the pond and going for a saunter up the Blorenge. This is a grade 3 walk: Routes with occasional long or steep gradients, a narrow path in places, poor surfaces and kissing gates or stiles. There may be no seats.
Of interest
Pwll Pen-ffordd-goch – pool of the head of the red road – as the pond is known in Welsh was built in the early 19th century to provide water for Garnddyrys Forge. Its original purpose came to an end when the forge was dismantled in the 1860s but the pond then became a beauty spot. As you wind your way across the heather-clad moorland on the Blorenge spare a thought for the gamekeeper who lived in a cottage nearby and who gave the pond its alternative name. Although the epitome of tranquillity today the area would have resounded to the sound of horse-drawn trams during the area’s industrial heyday and so it now falls within the Blaenavon World Heritage Site. Please bear in mind – the name Blorenge may come from the old Saxon word ‘blore’ which means wind and so it’s best to come prepared!
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