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.
Llyn y Fan Fach, Fan Brycheiniog and Llyn y Fan Fawr Circular Walk - 3D Video.Llyn y Fan Fach, Picws Du, and Llyn y Fan Fawr Circular Walk in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park is a stunning walk through some of South Wales’ most dramatic landscapes. This 9-mile Carmarthenshire route takes you past glacial lakes and along rugged ridgelines, offering breathtaking views and an unforgettable connection to the natural beauty of the region.
Llyn y Fan Fach lake is steeped in Welsh folklore, as according to legend, this is where the tale of ‘The Lady of the Lake‘ tells a story of magic, love, and sorrow that has been passed down through generations.
The route also takes in Picws Du, Fan Foel and Fan Brycheiniog, the highest peak in the Black Mountain range.
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.
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.
- It’s not the easiest to get to, but you are heading for LLanddeusant and the car park can be found here, on google maps.
- One of the closest main roads is the A4069, and Llanddeusant is a small village which you pass through to a tricky approach road to the car park, drive carefully.
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: 9m / 14km
- Duration: 5-6 hours
- Highest point: 2126ft / 648m
- Difficulty: Difficult, due to some short steep climbs, muddy terrain and the weather can be difficult.
- Route conditions: Well-worn pathways most of the way around, good walking shoes are a must.
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Hike Description & Pics
This route is available from my OutdoorActive account, it is FREE and will guide you all the way around, no getting lost. Once on the app, click ‘Navigate’ in the bottom bar, and from the walk’s start point it will guide you all the way around.
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.
The car park we started at is called ‘Llyn Y Fan Fach Car Park‘, and is not far from LLanddeusant.
Hopefully your car made it to the car park, the road to it isn’t the best but once there you are very well positioned to take on the walk. From here you will really feel like you are in the Bannau Brycheiniog, it has a unique and mystical feel to it, and as you walk on, the mountains ahead look like something out of a film set, it’s rugged but beautiful.
The walk up from the car park is obvious and you will cross over a little stone bridge, following the river up until you get to the trout farm, which you have to go to the left of through some steps in the wall.
The trail then continues on, and in the distance, you see the ridges you are going to be walking along, it’s very dramatic, and very soon after you will arrive at the ‘Old Pump House’, which sits in front of the ‘Llyn y Fan Fach‘ lake.
Connected with Llyn Y Fan Fach is the myth of ‘The lady of the lake‘. In the folktale, a young farmer of the 13th century spotted the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen emerge from the lake, she was a princess from the kingdom of fairies. He courted the fairy princess by baking her bread and after 3 attempts he succeeded in winning her hand in marriage on the condition that if he hit her three times, she would leave him.
He complied easily because she was so beautiful and they were happy for years bringing up a family at his farm near Myddfai, with her magic dowry of farm animals. In time the inevitable happened he hit his wife and she disappeared back into the lake taking her prized animals with her, leaving the farmer with her sons. The sons once grown became known as the “Physicians of Myddfai” who became physicians to the English royal court.
You will see a feint path to the right of the lake, and this is the way you need to go as you make your way to the ridgeline above. The lake will stay on your left and once at the top we followed the ridgeline all the way along.
I hope you get good weather and views, as it’s just as you are walking up that you get to see the full route around, and it’s stunning, our views were ok, at moments we couldn’t see anything but then the mist cleared and it all opened up for us.
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There are a few heighest points along the ridgeline, and the first one you come to is ‘Waun Lefrith’.
As you make your way along the ridge, Llyn Y Fan Fach will slowly fade away behind you, and you are now heading towards ‘Picws Du’ which stands at 749 metres. It’s pretty much a mile away from ‘Waun Lefrith’, and after ‘Picws Du’ you will then head to ‘Fan Foel’ which again is nearly a mile away, standing at 781 metres.
– Find accommodation in the Brecon Beacons with Booking.com
From ‘Fan Foel’ you will start to see ‘Llyn Y Fan Fawr’ the second lake on this hike, and from there you are now heading to the highest peak in the Black Mountains, ‘Fan Brycheiniog’ standing at 802 metres. There is a trig point at the peak, and a stone shelter and this peak is on the ‘Cambrian Way’ path.
From ‘Fan Brycheiniog’ you carry on following the ridge around and then start your descent down to the lake. There are a couple of ways, it’s up to you which one you feel comfortable doing. Once down by the lake make your way around the back of it, and then follow the lake along so it’s on your left.
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Once the lake is behind you are now heading back to the car park, it’s a long trek back at almost 4 miles, and you will get to see the full ridgeline on your left from below, it’s very impressive and so is the land you are currently walking on. The path is pretty clear all the way, and just be mindful that it is a 4-mile return walk, so don’t panic thinking your lost.
On our way back from the lake we picked up a lost walker with her dog, so she joined us to walk back. This is why I do these posts and add the gpx file and try and be as descriptive as I can. These walks are on most if not all the hiking apps, you shouldn’t really try these long walks out first time without directions, it can be dangerous and also put you off from discovering more.
You will return at some point to the road that you walked up from the car park on, turn left once on the road and head over the little bridge, to the right of the trout farm, and down to the car.
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.
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.
You could arrange all your accommodation, travel, days out, meals and tickets with all the links below. I have used every one of these options in various countries, and I was very pleased.
- Find ‘accommodation’ in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) using booking.com
- Find cheap ‘bus‘ & ‘train‘ tickets for your next trip
- Rent ‘cars’ at best prices in all countries
- ‘Tripadvisor in Wales‘ – well we all know what this awesome website offers!
- Things to do in ‘Wales’, including niche offers you won’t find anywhere else
- Local trips or cross-country, find info and ‘book train tickets’ for popular journeys in the UK and rest of Europe.