This walk I think has the best variety of tracks of all the walks, it’s not the highest peak, it’s not the longest, it’s not as famous as the Dragons Back walk just up the road, but what this has is a town start, an Iron Age hill fort on Table Mountain, a mountain peak to climb, bit of a ridge walk, through farmland, over a busy main road, through a beautiful estate and then a peaceful canal walk back to Crickhowell, and on a sunny day the walk along the canal cooled by the tree shade, is just what you need to finish the day off.
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.
Another amazing lucky strike we had with this one, was bumping into ‘Rhodri’, a local man who dresses in a traditional Iron Age Welsh outfit, and if you get to speak to him, he will fill you in on all the history of the area, which is a great story. We sat at the hill fort, and you can see the earthworks, had our lunch break a coffee and chatted to Rhodri before moving on up to the highest point, Pen Cerrig Calch at 700m, which is the peak that pretty much dominates the northern part of Crickhowell. The rest of the walk is all below to follow yourself.
Getting There: Directions, GPX and App Link
The Hiking app I use to plan the walks and to aslo 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 it, below is the 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.
- Crickhowell is situated between Abergavenny and Brecon on the A40. Or you can use the A465 and turn off for Crickhowell and use the A4077 which will allow you to turn into Crickhowell from the bottom over the River Usk bridge.
- If you use the A40, when you arrive in Crickhowell, turn down the hill (A4077) opposite the Shell garage, and the school is on your right to park on weekends and afternoons.
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 this post together 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: 10m / 16km
- Duration: 5/5.5 hours
- Highest point: 2300ft / 700m
- Difficulty: Moderate (steep short climbs)
- Route conditions: Well-worn pathways all around, good walking shoes are a must really.
Hike Description & Pics
We started in Crickhowell Secondary School car park, it was a Sunday so it’s always free, but it does fill up quickly. Whilst in the car park head towards the school building keeping to the right, and you will then appear in a street called ‘Everest Drive’, (don’t worry we’re not doing that mountain today). Keep heading straight and you will then after a short distance need to cross the busy A40 and walk to the left of Crickhowell Community Primary School, and rather than taking any of the streets to your right, continue walking north, and you will find a path that heads right, allowing you to join up with the ‘Great Oak Road’.
Walk up the ‘Great North Road’ a few hundred yards, and some buildings will appear on the left, go through the farm gate and walk up to the farmyard (The Wern). Once in the farmyard go to the top right corner, through the gate and across the field in an easterly direction until you arrive at the style. Follow the path to the left, up the hill to the next style, then through the fields towards Table Mountain.
Once you’re in the clearing you will see Table Mountain in front of you, there are a number of ways up, it’s looking at the paths and seeing which one you fancy really. We walked north until we got to the foot of the mountain, then went around to the right and up. This way will mean heading left once your nearly at the top, but it’s pretty obvious, and if you’re lucky Rhodri will be there.
The peak is 451m, so it’s not the biggest but the views back into Crickhowell and around the area is stunning.
We took a lunch break on Table Mountain, chatted to Rhodri and basically took in the hill fort and tried to work out all it’s structure. The views are all around, and the history to Table Mountain is very interesting. Table Mountain’s Welsh title is Crug Hywel, ‘Hywel’s Fort’. It’s not sure if it was Hywel the Good, King of all Wales, who kept a stronghold here in the 10th century, or a more local King, Hywel ap Rhys of Morgannwg? No-one’s sure – and anyway, the double rampart, the rock-dug ditch and tumbled stone gateway that fortify the knoll were made a thousand years before either Hywel reigned here.
Once you’re ready to move on, the peak is easily identifiable in the distance again to the North. You’ll need to walk slightly to the left to the reach the peak, and at 707m it’s a very decent climb up and the wind can be pretty strong, and quite cold even on good days, so pack well.
When leaving the peak, head Southwest and eventually you will come to a bit of ridge, you can miss this bit out and just carry on straight down the mountain, but it was worth a quick look just to take everything in. You will know your heading in the right direction, as you will see a farm at the bottom of the mountain, and once there turn right and head down the lane a little while.
The next trail type is some farmers fields, they were ploughed when we tried and we walked along the plough lines, until we got to the bottom of the field, then it’s a case of finding the best place to jump over the fence from that field and onto a road (A479) very briefly, and then you will be on the main road the A40. Turn right and head up the road, crossing a little further up when you see the ‘GlanUsk Estate‘ sign, and its beautiful cottage entrance. A little into the estate you will cross a bridge, and you can then see the full beauty of the area, and the mountains you just climbed up to on your left.
Carry on walking through the estate, bare left, and head towards a coach house with a big arch, directly after the arch turn right and you’ll walk towards a little cottage, pass through the gate over the road and at a little canal bridge you will see a step down to the left, and that’s your start along the canal back to Crickhowell via Llangattock.
That’s it, you’ve done the Table Mountain circular, back to 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 you 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.