Tafarn Sinc
PubClunderwen, SA66 7QU
- Phone
- +44 1437 532214
- Website
- tafarnsinc.cymru
Photo: Richard Webb (CC BY-SA 2.0)Foel Cwmcerwyn and the Preseli Ridge
The highest ground in Pembrokeshire, with Bronze Age cairns on top and the Stonehenge bluestone outcrops along the ridge to the east.
- Distance
- 4.5 miles / 7.2 km
- Time
- 2½–3 hours
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Climbing
- about 230m
- Type
- Circular
- Dogs
- On a lead
Foel Cwmcerwyn summit at 536mBronze Age summit cairnsThe Golden Road ridgewayViews to Snowdonia and Ireland on a clear dayPreseli ponies
The route
Pembrokeshire is a low county and the Preselis are its exception: a whaleback ridge of open common in the north-east, treeless, boggy and full of prehistory. Foel Cwmcerwyn at 536m is the top of it and the highest point in the county.
Start at Bwlch Gwynt, the small car park where the B4329 crosses the ridge — the name means "windy pass" and it is not ironic. Take the track east and south-east up the flank of the hill, with the forestry at Pantmaenog on your left. The climb is steady rather than steep, the ground is rough, and it stays wet in the hollows well into summer.
The summit carries a trig point and several Bronze Age burial cairns, which is worth thinking about: people were hauling stone up here 4,000 years ago to bury their dead where everyone could see. The view on a clear day is the reason. South over the whole of Pembrokeshire to the coast, west to the sea beyond Fishguard, north across Cardigan Bay, and — on the rare properly clear day — the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland, the Gower, the Brecon Beacons and even the outline of Snowdonia. Most days you'll get some of that and not all of it.
Return the same way, or extend east along the ridge on the Golden Road, the ancient trackway that runs the length of the Preselis and has been in use since the Neolithic. Out that way lie Carn Menyn and Carn Goedog, rocky outcrops of spotted dolerite. Geological work has traced the Stonehenge bluestones to this ridge, with Carn Goedog identified as a source of much of the dolerite and the rhyolite coming from Craig Rhos-y-felin nearby. How the stones got to Wiltshire is still argued over. Standing on the outcrops, the question feels a lot more physical than it does in a book.
Navigation. Take an OS map and a compass and know how to use them. The ridge is featureless, the paths are sheep tracks as much as anything, and cloud comes down fast.
Nearby. Pentre Ifan, the finest Neolithic cromlech in Wales, is a short drive north and takes ten minutes to visit. Newport is the nearest town with food, twenty minutes away.
With children. This isn't the walk for small legs. The Gwaun Valley or Llys-y-frân are better options in the same part of the county.
Getting there
- Start
- Bwlch Gwynt car park, B4329
- Parking
- Free roadside car park at Bwlch Gwynt where the B4329 crosses the ridge. It's small and it's the obvious starting point for everyone, so it fills at weekends.
- Buses
- Poor. There is no reliable year-round bus to the ridge — this is a drive-to walk. Check current timetables if you want to try.
Before you go
Open moorland with no waymarks, no shelter and very few landmarks. In mist this is a compass-and-map exercise and people do get lost up here — do not rely on a phone. The ground is boggy in the dips and the paths are not surfaced. Ponies, sheep and cattle graze the common: give them room and keep dogs on leads, especially in lambing season. Weather on the ridge is markedly worse than in the valleys.
Where to eat and drink on this walk
The nearest pubs, cafés and restaurants to the start and finish. Check hours before you count on one.
2.3km away · about 35 min walk
Other walks nearby
Llys-y-frân Reservoir Circular
A full circuit of Pembrokeshire's biggest reservoir on woodland and lakeside paths, with a short surfaced section by the dam for easier legs.
7.5 miles · 3½–4 hours · Moderate
The Gwaun Valley Woodland Walk
A sheltered walk through ancient oak woodland in a glacial meltwater channel, in a valley that still keeps the old New Year in January.
3.5 miles · 1½–2 hours · Easy
Carn Ingli from Newport
Straight up from the town onto a 337m crag covered by an Iron Age hillfort, with the whole of Newport Bay laid out below.
5 miles · 3 hours · Moderate
Distances and times are approximate. Conditions on the Coast Path change with the weather and the season — take a map, and check tide times and firing times where they apply.