Fan Gyhirych 7.2 miles - Brecon Beacons West

So it's been a while since I last posted...part of it is I haven't done much walking recently and part of it is since Mark proposed after our hike up Cadair Idris in July, things have been pretty crazy busy in terms of work and home life! It's all good although I'm knackered!

I decided to post up a local walk we did last weekend as the forecast looked pretty good until 3pm. We spent most of the day outwalking the bad weather and some seriously ominous rain clouds! We drove up to Crai reservoir and turned off the A4067 onto Heol Senni for a short section of road and then pulled up on a dirt track on the right (not long after the cattle grid) and parked here in front of a brown gate. This track heads up the mountain and branches off with paths to Fan Gyhirych, Penwyllt and Fan Nedd.

We followed the track all the way up and passed some very angry looking cows (this seems to be a recurring theme on a lot of our walks)! Luckily, this was uneventful and we carried on the gradual ascent towards Fan Gyhirych.

Looking back onto Crai Reservoir

The track is easy to follow, when it branches, follow the right fork and continue heading up to Fan Gyhirych. You have to climb over a very muddy stile - Dexter took this opportunity to cover me in mud by trying to very enthusiastically jump the fence!

Further along the dirt track, a path branches off up the hill and gets increasingly boggy. As you get to the top of this climb, head to the right and take a moment to appreciate the views off the sweeping vista of this side of Fan Gyhirych.

We carried on trudging up to the trig point for lunch, it's quite far over. The last time we were up here it was really frosty and cold in February.

Gracie got totally caked in mud!

It started to rain by this point but it was still a combination of rain and sunshine so we ended up seeing a rainbow on our descent back to the car.

The walk took around 2 and a half hours in total. It was a good day for it, although a bit windy and cold on the top! We managed to escape the rain as it blew over into the other valley. There were great views back to Fan Nedd and Pen y fan and Corn Du.

Pen y fan and Corn Du in the distance.

This was a pretty easy walk really - the path is clear and easy walking all the way up, with just a gradual ascent and then another short climb up to the summit. There's so many great walks in the area but Fan Gyhirych stands tall in the distance on most of the drives up and down the valley from where we live so it's always great to get up here on foot. If you have more time, head over to Fan Nedd as well to bag another trig point.