Explore the Brecon Beacons National Park with a Cicerone guidebook

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Updates
• Reviews

In Cicerone’s usual format with sections of OS 1:50,000 map included, this book consists of guides to circular walks in the Brecon Beacons. One or two might serve
as diversions for paddlers wanting excursions from the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal. Some routes might be relevant to enthusiasts wanting to tackle spate streams, the frequent snow in the pictures helping set the scene for winter runs.

The hill walks are relevant as they are often the only was to reach launch points. For those interested in wildlife there are long lists of plants with scientific names, birds to see are noted and a hatred of conifer plantations is repeated at intervals.

Of the book’s seven sections, the waterfall country will be the one of greatest interest to paddlers, also the section with least hillclimbing. Sgwd yr Eira is the jewel in the crown and the book recalls how canoeists used it to set the British height record (Shaun Baker and friends, Jun 87 cover story, actually a world record, with Sgwd Isaf Clun-gwyn Part 1 as a bonus) although there are plenty of others pictured for waterfall jumpers to contemplate. Some informative sketches explain the geology which results in the falls in this area andexplains why there are deep pools below the falls, essential for jumpers. Information on the falls and how to reach them is of particular value, perhaps not obtained so easily elsewhere (although it was a book on walking in this area that alerted Shaun to the possibilities in the first place).

Canoeist magazine, December 2010