Pen y Fan: Brecknockshire County Top
Significance: Highest peak in Brecknockshire (Historic CT), Powys (Preserved County and Principal Area), Brecon Beacons National Park High Point
Member of: Marilyn, Hewitt, Nuttall
Elevation: 886m
Date climbed: April 2005 and several others
Coordinates: 51.8840° N, 3.4364° W
Route Start / End: Circular from Cwn Gwdi car park, Unnamed Road, 8LE, Brecon
Route Distance: 23.6 km (14.6 miles)
Route Elevation Change: +/- 929m
Subsidiary tops on route: Cribyn, Fan y Big, Craig Cwareli, Bwlch y Ddwyallt
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee
Other routes touched (walk): Beacons Way, Taff Trail
Other routes touched (cycle): NCN 8
OS Trig Pillar: TP1610 - Brecon Beacons
Map: OS Explorer OL12 Brecon Beacons National Park - Western & Central Areas
Guidebook: The UK's County Tops (Jonny Muir)
Links: Wikipedia (Brecknockshire), Wikipedia (Pen y Fan), Peakbagger, Hillbagging
In the years before I got married the Pen y Fan, Cribyn and Fan y Big circuit was my Girlfriend Test. If it was looking serious I would "take them up the Brecons" to see if they survived. If they liked it, it was a good sign.
I did The Test on my wife, then girlfriend, in 2002. She passed it, although didn't quite make it all the way back to the car park. I remember her sitting down on a rock 100 metres from the car park and refusing to move. I went ahead and to get the car to pick her up on the way back to Brecon.
Looking back on it, that was quite an ambitious test for a non-walker. Timi is a big trekker now, but not so much back then. I had probably killed her enthusiasm for walking for 10 years until we got into a rhythm of shorter walks.
The route described here is a longer version of the circuit than I used to do for the Girlfriend Test. This was one that I did with a mate a few years later. For the shorter versions of this route, descend on the north-easterly paths from either the summit of Cribyn or Fan y Big and connect back to the east-west road to the Cwn Gwdi car park.
