Llanthony Priory circular up to Hatterall ridge via Black Mountain South Top, along Offa’s Dyke path on the Wales, England border.

All my walking guides and adventures are free to read, thanks to the support of kind folks like you. That said, creating and walking each route takes time (and plenty of coffee!), so if you’ve enjoyed this post or found it useful, feel free to share it around — or even treat me to a coffee or two. It really helps keep the boots moving and the guides coming. You can do that here: click this link. Diolch as always!

Walk this route yourself in 3D!

The Video is a 3D walk through of this route; it will give you a unique sense of having walked through the route before you start.

I have created 3D Videos of my adventures and have shared them with the OutdoorActive community as well as my walking community.

Llanthony Priory Circular Walk up to Hatterall Ridge - 3D Video.

LLanthony Priory is a partly ruined former Augustinian Priory, in the secluded Vale of Ewyas, a steep-sided once-glaciated valley within the Black Mountains area of the Brecon Beacons National Park in Monmouthshire. Above the priory sits ‘Hatterall Hill & Ridge’ on the border of England & Wales, which this route takes you on, before making your way down close to Black Mountain South Top, and returning to the priory, for a great welcome at the cafe/bar.

Recommended: Places to stay in Brecon, in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park.

Recommended: Places to stay in Crickhowell, in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park.

Recommended: Best places to stay in Hay-on-Wye, home of the famous ‘Hay Festival of Literature & Arts’.

Getting There: Directions, GPX and App Link

The Hiking app I use to plan the walks and to also guide me around is the ‘Outdooractive App‘, which has a free a Pro and a Pro+ version, the Pro version will allow you to download the routes to your phone, and use them without using up your data.

The reason I mention it is that if you were to download a route, they are FREE and you can find this link to this route in my hike listings. You can then follow the arrows and voice on your mobile, as most of these walks are a bit tricky to explain.

• Llanthony Priory is close to Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, one route is to follow the A465 road to Hereford, leaving at Llanvihangel Crucorney, and following the lane all the way to the priory.
• The lane is narrow in places and there isn’t enough room for 2 cars, and as a note this lane will take you all the way to Hay on Wye. The priory can be found here – https://maps.app.goo.gl/9N2AonUC6mHG4wYy9

Navigation Aids:

• Follow this route on the Outdooractive App, it is FREE, and it will guide you around safely.
• Download my hand crafted *GPX file, and use it on your own guidance devices.
• If you’re not sure what a GPX file is, I have put an explanation post together here that will hopefully explain it in plain words. It’s worth considering as well as mobile app navigation, as they will make your hikes better & safer.

Hike Map

Hike Profile

• Distance: 7m / 11km
• Duration: 3.5 / 4.5 hours
• Highest point: 2087ft / 637m
• Difficulty: Moderate, due to a short steep climb, muddy terrain and the weather can be difficult.
• Route conditions: Well-worn pathways most of the way around, good walking shoes are a must.

Hike Description & Pics

Let’s get going – If you need help organising this trip, see links below.

My ‘Bannau Brycheiniog Resource Kit‘ at the bottom of this page, will help you organise your travel, trips, food and accommodation when planning your visit to Wales, it’s all there to help you plan, give it a go.

We start at ‘Llanthony Priory‘, which has a main car park, and an overflow car park in the field to the left. It has to be one of the most unique starting points in Wales, and you will be blown away by how beautiful this place is. There are toilets in the main car park for anyone to use and a cafe/bar which we used at the end with facilities for customers.

The start to this walk is behind the priory, and is accessed through the overflow car park, where there is a clear path heading away from the priory towards the mountain behind. Carry along the path until you come to a large tree stump with a sign stuck to it, and you will see that it’s pointing to the left and directing you to ‘Hatterall Ridge’. When you look back you will get a dramatic view of the priory set against the mountain on the other side, it’s so beautiful.

With the priory now behind you and you have taken a left turn at the sign, you will need to step over one more gate and then the path to the ridge appears in front of you. This is the only steep section on the walk and it does zig-zag but you will need some determination to keep going.

As in most of the cases, this wasn’t a challenge or a race, so we took our time, we rested when we needed to, and in honesty the views behind you are so beautiful, it was great to be able to sit on rocks and ledges and just look down at the priory and through the valley.

We did this walk early March and as you will see the ground and water was frozen at the top, which did make it a bit tricky but the atmosphere it created up there made it totally worth it. At the top of the climb, just follow the path straight ahead and you will soon come to the trig point of ‘Pen y Garn Fawr’ standing at 610m.

The trail you are walking is a part of the ‘Offa’s Dyke Path‘, which is 177-mile-long trail that was named after the Dyke King Offa which divided his Kingdom of Mercia away from rival kingdoms in what is now Wales. In many of my walks on this website, you will join many different trails as many crisscross, it would be a great challenge to say you have completed one of these trails.

Keep walking and eventually you will come to another standing stone on the path, but it isn’t a trig point this time, but a small directional stone with ‘Olchon Valley’ carved into it. We stopped here and had a little break, and once we got going again, we walked on a little further to stand at ‘Black Mountain South Top’.

You just get a view of the path going into the distance, then you can turn around and head back to that stone, and then turn off right to follow the path that way. You are now heading to the edge of this mountain and going to snake your way down to the road.

The path down zig zags and you will need to be careful as it is very uneven, and steep in places, but you look up and you can an incredible view down through the valley, which is the way you will be heading to get back to Llanthony Priory.

Eventually, and I say eventually as it is quite a walk down, it will take some effort especially on the front of the legs, and you will need to be using 3 or 4 limbs in places, just to be that extra careful. You will come to a stile, and just the other side is a farm lane, and you will stay on this lane for around 1.5 miles.

You can follow the road all the way back to the Priory, but you know what the farm lanes are like, you get a lot 4×4’s, tractors and cars and it can be a little dangerous. So, at a certain point you will cross over the river you have been following down, but before you go over that bridge there is a path that cuts left through the trees. It is a solid path, but we preferred it as we got off the road and it will cut a little off the distance.

Keep going, and eventually the Priory will come into sight, you can again cut through the farm field, but again the lane will take you around to the entrance.

Back at the Priory, we went into the cafe for a hot drink, and had a look around this beautiful place to start and end a walk. Say hi to the couple who run the Priory for me, say Welsh Man Walking gave you the route, they’ll love that.

That’s it, you’re all done, back at the car and hopefully the weather has been good, and you have had a great experience.

Recommended: Places to stay in Brecon, in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park.

Recommended: Places to stay in Crickhowell, in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park.

Recommended: Best places to stay in Hay-on-Wye, home of the famous ‘Hay Festival of Literature & Arts’.

It is worth downloading this route onto your outdooractive app, it’ll re-assure you time wise and that you’re not heading in the wrong directions. There is so much space up there and lots of alternative paths you could accidently join.

Hope you enjoy this walk, and I’d love it if you could share this post either with the social media buttons that follow you down the screen on your left, or below in the footer. Also, comments are very welcome, I love meeting new people and talking and you never know we could meet up on one of our walks.