Photo story: community and conservation in the lush, bucolic Black Mountains of Wales

​In the east of the Brecon Beacons National Park, the Black Mountains are often overlooked, but those who venture here discover a region that belies its dark name: a greenscape of hills and valleys, home to thriving wildlife and passionate communities.

ByDaniel Alford
November 13, 2022
5 min read
Near the town of Crickhowell is the Llangattock Escarpment, a craggy limestone ridge that rises hundreds of feet above the landscape. It’s a dramatic glimpse into South Wales’s industrial past: limestone was quarried here in the 18th and 19th centuries and sent down to the limekilns along the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal. The lime was then used as fertiliser, white wash or in the iron-making trade.
Photograph by Daniel Alford
Now that the lime industry has long gone, the canal has been reclaimed by nature and visitors, while the escarpment is a popular beauty spot grazed peacefully by sheep and wild ponies.
Photograph by Daniel Alford
At the top of Bryn Arw, a hill north of Abergavenny, Rob Penn (third from left) leads a group of volunteers through the ferns and foxgloves. A former lawyer, Rob co-founded Stump Up For Trees, a tree-planting charity that aims to enhance the area’s biodiversity and restore the mountain to its natural woodland state. 
Photograph by Daniel Alford
Here, in the drizzle, the team are ‘bracken bashing’, which clears away dead or dying bracken to allow hawthorn saplings to grow.
Here, in the drizzle, the team are ‘bracken bashing’, which clears away dead or dying bracken to allow hawthorn saplings to grow.
Photograph by Daniel Alford
The handsome border town of Hay-on-Wye is renowned for its literary heritage, celebrated each year with its annual arts and literature festival. The town, tucked into the northernmost corner of the national park, is steeped in history, too: the castle was built during the Norman invasion of Wales and was used as a manor house until the 17th century.
Photograph by Daniel Alford
Hay’s winding narrow streets are full of cafes, bookstores and shops, including Welsh Lavender, which stocks creams and balms made with lavender grown in the Welsh hills by Nancy Durham. It also makes an ideal base for exploring this rural corner of Wales, with river walks along the River Wye’s grassy banks offering plenty of opportunities for swimming and wildlife-spotting.
Photograph by Daniel Alford
Forming a natural frontier between Wales and England, the Black Mountains were used to great effect by the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon king Offa, who had his eponymous dyke built here to delineate Wales from his kingdom of Mercia. The 177-mile Offa’s Dyke Path follows the ancient earthwork along the modern-day border.
Photograph by Daniel Alford
On the English side, in Herefordshire, is Black Mountains Botanicals. In the shadow of Black Hill (also nicknamed the ‘Cat’s Back’) the team craft gin in their barn using locally sourced produce, from the clear mountain water to the region’s many different orchard fruits.
Photograph by Daniel Alford
The hills around Llangorse Lake offer incredible views westwards to the central Brecon Beacons, including to South Wales’s highest peak, Pen y Fan. These mountains are by far the most popular places to visit within the national park.
The hills around Llangorse Lake offer incredible views westwards to the central Brecon Beacons, including to South Wales’s highest peak, Pen y Fan. These mountains are by far the most popular places to visit within the national park.
Photograph by Daniel Alford
While they might be lesser-known, the Black Mountains to the east provide a calmer, more gentle escape, with ancient oaks dotted along the valley slopes, awe-inspiring priory ruins like those at Llanthony, and welcoming local pubs between remote villages. It’s possible to walk for miles in this green swathe of countryside, passing only ponies, sheep and the occasional feathered friend, too.  
Photograph by Daniel Alford