The Surrounding Area – Brecon Beacons

There are National Parks all over the world, set up by nations to protect their most valuable scenery and wildlife. Some National Parks are in wilderness areas, others are landscapes where people have lived and worked for thousands of years. The Brecon Beacons National Park is one of these ‘working’ landscapes, evolving over the centuries as a harmonious blend of natural beauty and human history.

Designated National Park status in 1957, the Brecon Beacons National Park consists of some 520sq. miles of beautiful Welsh Countryside. Approximately 7 million visitor days are spent in the National Park each year.
The park takes its name from the peaks at its centre, of which Pen y Fan rises to 896m, but it extends eastwards across the Usk Valley to the high ridges of the Black Mountains where Breconshire and Monmouthshire meet Herefordshire, and westward over Fforest Fawr to the Black Mountain of Carmarthenshire.

In 2005 the western half of the Brecon Beacons National Park was designated as the first European Geopark in Wales.The Great Forest Geopark is one of the most exceptional geological sites in Europe and contains evidence of ancient seas, mountain building and sea level and climate changes. Geologically, the rocks belong to the Palaeozoic group, with old red sandstone escarpments dominating the upland scenery. To the south, millstone grit and Carboniferous limestone produce characteristic features, such as waterfalls, swallow holes and cave systems.