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Wales
Pen-y-FanCairn(s)
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Next stop on a tour of the central Beacons peaks, coming from Corn Du (22.5.2010). Arrived just after 11:30, already blazing hot under a cloudless sky. Despite the hordes of people up here, the enormous flat summit gives enough room to find a spot overlooking the escarpment and Cwm Llwch, falling away dramatically to the north. The cairn itself is a modern construct and it's not easy to know if anything visible is original. To be honest, it doesn't really matter: the key to this site is the location rather than the monument itself. Just awesome. From here it's off eastwards to Cribyn and Fan y Big. |
Posted by thesweetcheat1st June 2010ce Edited 3rd June 2010ce |
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Pen-y-Fan and its companion, Corn Du, are the summit peaks of the Brecon Beacons at 2,907ft and 2,863ft respectively. By far the most recognisable mountains in South Wales because of their enigmatic 'flat tops' - the result of a layer of hard 'plateau bed' rock upon the soft Old Red Sandstone - it's hardly surprising these high places were venerated by the ancient cairn builders. Not a great deal remains of Pen-y-Fan's summit cairn nowadays - the monument having been reconstructed, following excavation in 1991 - but what does exist only adds to the 'other worldliness' of this magnificent viewpoint. To be buried here must have been the Bronze Age equivalent of a spot in Westminster Abbey.... only many times more relevant being 'up here'. The summit of Pen-y-Fan is not a quiet spot by any means, the eroded footpath scars testament to the many thousands of visitors who make the pilgrimage, for one reason or another, every year, a high percentage from the Storey Arms to the west. But find yourself a perch upon the crags a little below the summit to the north, gaze down into beautiful Cwm Llwch with its circular tarn, a cwm resplendent with ancient tales, and Pen-y-Fan remains an awesome place to be indeed. Just make sure you don't forget the sandwiches the Mam Cymru had lovingly prepared. Doh! |
Posted by GLADMAN17th June 2009ce Edited 31st May 2010ce |
Folklore |
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Cwm Llwch, the great glacial valley below and to the north west of Pen-y-Fan is rich with folklore regarding the Tylwyth Teg, 'the little people'. Below is an extract regarding the valley's circular lake taken from 'The Welsh Fairy Book', W Jenkyn Thomas (1907): '..In very ancient times there was a door in a rock hard by, which opened once in each year — on May Day — and disclosed a passage leading to a small island in the centre of the lake. This island was, however, invisible to those who stood upon the shore. Those who ventured down the secret passage on May Day were most graciously received by the fairies inhabiting the island, whose beauty was only equalled by their courtesy to their guests. They entertained them with delicious fruits and exquisite music. and disclosed to them many events of the future. They laid down one condition only, and that was that none of the produce of the island was to be carried away, because the island was sacred...' More of the legend here: http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/wjthomas/bl-wjthomas-welsh-llyn.htm |
Posted by GLADMAN 24th April 2010ce Edited 24th April 2010ce |
On my ascent of the Vann mountain in Brecon, there often came a mass of limestone rolling down the precipice. "Ah sure," said the old shepherd, who was watching his fold on the mountain-side, "the fairies are at their gambols, master, for they sometimes do play at bowls with these chalk stones."From 'The Philosophy of Mystery' by Walter Cooper Dendy (1841). Such cynicism from a man writing a book about apparitions. |
Posted by Rhiannon17th September 2007ce |
Miscellaneous |
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Like the example upon neighbouring Corn Du, the Bronze Age burial cairn upon Pen-y-Fan has also been excavated. According to Coflein: 'Cairn on the summit of Pen-y-Fan, 16m in diameter,excavated 1991, now reconstructed'. |
Posted by GLADMAN 24th April 2010ce Edited 24th April 2010ce |
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