Bannau Brycheiniog National Park
— the long ridge above the valley floor.
Not only on a wall.
“The Welsh upland park between Hereford and Carmarthen, renamed Bannau Brycheiniog in April 2023 to retire the older English translation. Pen y Fan, 886 metres, is the highest ground in southern Britain and the long ridge that most walkers come for. The park became an International Dark Sky Reserve in 2013, the fifth in the world, and the high common stays dark enough that the Milky Way is visible most clear nights.
Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Bannau Brycheiniog National Park covers 1,344 square kilometres of mid-Wales, from the Black Mountains on the English border west through the central Beacons to Fforest Fawr and the Black Mountain. It was designated a national park in 1957, the third in Wales, and renamed from Brecon Beacons National Park in April 2023, returning to the older Welsh name meaning the peaks of Brycheiniog. The highest point is Pen y Fan at 886 metres, the highest ground in Britain south of Snowdonia.
The park was designated an International Dark Sky Reserve in February 2013, the fifth in the world and the first in Wales. The core dark zone covers the central Beacons and the Fforest Fawr commons, where light pollution is low enough that the Milky Way is visible on most clear nights from October through March. The National Park Visitor Centre near Libanus runs public stargazing through the winter, and the Black Mountain ridges hold the darkest skies on the western side.
The principal trailheads for Pen y Fan are at Pont ar Daf and the Storey Arms layby on the A470, both about ten minutes' drive south of Brecon. The standard out-and-back is roughly 7 kilometres with 500 metres of ascent, allowing three hours at an unhurried pace. Summer weekends are busy, with parking full by 9 a.m.; weekdays and the shoulder months of April and September are quieter. The visitor centre at Libanus has the toilets and the maps.