Walk up Blorenge, 8.13 miles

3 January 2018

Belatedly got round to walking to the summit of Blorenge – Ruth was keen to do it, seemingly being fired with greater enthusiasm for walking if there’s a summit in view. As 3 January is her birthday and we were down at Mum and Dad’s for a few days post-New Year, we ended up doing it then. I’d intended for us to follow a route that’s part of the Iron Mountain Trail, which goes around the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, situated between Blaenavon and Abergavenny and a World Heritage Site since 2000, though in the event we only followed part of it.

Our route shown in red

We started from the Llanfoist Crossing car park and made our way up the lane opposite, past the church and through the dank and somewhat off-putting tunnel under the canal to come out at the base of a path leading up steeply alongside the Llanfoist Inclines, formerly used to transport stone, iron and coal down to the canal where it got loaded onto boats for its onward journey. I’d expected to find the path demanding but hadn’t realized quite how out of hill practice I was, as it was a struggle to reach the top bit where the path emerges from the woods onto open hillside. Had to stop frequently and clocked heartbeat at around 145 bpm at one point. (Looking at this BHF advice on a safe heart rate while exercising, my maximum heart rate would be 171 beats per minute – so not in the danger level I guess.) 

At the top, leant against a fence briefly, threatening to be sick, but thankfully recovered reasonably quickly. Ruth had been working out at the gym recently on the rowing machines and performed better than I did. After recovering, we walked on around the side of the Blorenge into the Woodland Trust reserve and stopped by the Punchbowl for a snack.

Path around the side of the mountain

The Punchbowl

Continued on eventually turning onto a path leading to the summit, after various tricksy false summits. Stopped near the small brick building apparently once used as a wireless hut (whatever that was) to take pictures – excellent views from this point.

Up we go

A view

As we neared the summit, the weather started to turn rather, and the rough path through the heather that had been pleasant enough on my walk there the previous July was distinctly boggy on this occasion. By the time we reached the summit sleet was in the air and a strong wind was blowing – sufficiently strong that we struggled to stand upright at the trig point to take a photo (it was the day of Storm Eleanor).

Me at the trig point

From the summit, we walked on to Foxhunter car park and the road. At this point, I started fretting about not getting back to the start in time for the afternoon tea we had booked at the Angel Hotel, so suggested walking back to Llanfoist along the road, which was less boggy underfoot but I’m not sure it was actually any quicker. We did just make tea on time.

Would like to do the rest of the Iron Mountain Trail in due course though possibly cutting out the initial climb next time – there are thankfully a couple of car parks near the top.

Blorenge is in the south-eastern corner of the Brecon Beacons National Park. To put its cuddly size in perspective, its highest point is 561m, just under two-thirds of the height of Pen y Fan, the Beacons’ highest peak, and around half the height of Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales. And, to give an international perspective, just over 6% of the height of K2. Not that I have any ambitions to scale that.