Black Mountains (Wales)

Black Mountains Welsh Y Mynyddoedd Duon
Highest peak	Waun compartment ( 811  m ASL )
Coordinates	51 ° 57 ′  N , 3 ° 6 ′  W Coordinates: 51 ° 57 ′  N , 3 ° 6 ′  W

The Black Mountains ( Welsh Y Mynyddoedd Duon ) are a group of hills in a heather area in south-east Wales and a small part of Herefordshire in England, which is still untouched by tourism . It is the easternmost of the three groups of hills in the Brecon Beacons National Park and lies north of Abergavenny , between the Wye and Usk rivers .

The 270 kilometer long Offa's Dyke Fernweg runs between Hay-on-Wye , the secret capital of antiquarian books, and Monmouth along the Black Mountains. The area is popular with mountain hikers and pony trekkers. When Wales was still a separate kingdom, King Offa ruled over the eastern neighbor of Wales in the Kingdom of Mercia in the 8th century . Fearing the Welsh warriors, he had a wall built that ran from coast to coast along the border with Wales to protect Mercia from raids. The highest mountains in the Black Mountains are the Waun Fach (811 meters) and the Pen-y-Gader Fawr (800 meters). The Ysgyryd Fawr (also known as Skirrid or Skyrrid) is famous as the Holy Mountain .

There are few villages and only one youth hostel in the area (near Capel-y-ffin). The Skirrid Inn has a reputation for being the oldest pub in Wales. The sinter cave Dan yr Ogof is located together with other show caves (The National Showcaves Center) on the A4067 in an underground river bed in the national park to which the "Black Mountains" belong. Crickhowell Televillage was completed in 1997 and was the UK's first televillage . The settlement is fully networked and connected to a teleworking center. The developers give the settlement the attribute “life on the information highway”, but also as a community with high quality of living in which people can live and work. John Charles, a former striker for Leeds United, Juventus and the Wales national team, is from Cwmdu in the Black Mountains.

Antiquities in the mountain region

• the megalithic systems
  • Ffostyll North
  • Ffostyll South
  • Gwernvale
  • Little Lodge
  • Mynydd Troed
  • Penywyrlod (Talgart)
  • Penywyrlod (Llanigon)
  • Pipton
  • Ty Illtud also Illtyd
  • Ty Isaf

• Castell Dinas , on the A479, a hill fort and a castle from the 11th - 13th centuries
• the Iron Age Hillfort Crug Hywel
• the Llanthony Priory
• the St Martin's Church in Cwmyoy
• and Tretower Castle

literature

• Vicki Cummings, Alasdair Whittle: Places of special virtue - megaliths in the Neolithic landscapes of Wales . Oxbow, Oxford 2004, ISBN 1842171089