YOUR WEEKEND IN...
Ridgetop adventure and wild swims with a view are two of the reasons why this pretty town makes the perfect location to explore the east of Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. Phillipa Cherryson is your local guide
TO THE SOUTH of the Black Mountains and with the River Usk flowing beneath its famous 17th-Century stone bridge, Crickhowell is an absolute gem. Independent shops, pubs and cafés line its High Street; you can picnic next to the remains of its 13th-Century castle, or walk up to Crug Hywel, the Iron Age hillfort that gives the town its name.
Unsurprisingly, it is apopular place for visitors, and the pavements are regularly filled with walkers heading off into the surrounding countryside. The Crickhowell Walking Festival (crickhowellfestival.com) is held in March and it’s also home to the Green Man Festival (greenman.net) in August.
By way of facilities, walkers will want for nothing. Crickhowell Resource and Information Centre (01873 811970; visitcrickhowell.wales/cric-centre) is on the main A40 through town. The pay and display car park is at the rear, it and it also has toilets and an art gallery. The compact Georgian town centre has awide variety of places to stock up on supplies, including two butchers, apetrol station, two grocers, awine shop –and an outdoor gear shop, Crickhowell Adventure (crickhowelladventure.co.uk), which will be familiar with those who follow the annual TGO Reader Awards!
You’ll be spoilt for choice in the surrounding countryside too. The 99-mile Beacons Way and the 298-mile Cambrian Way both skirt the town. But if those sound alittle too time-consuming, you can stroll, cycle or paddle along the Brecon and Monmouth Canal, go rock climbing or caving on the Llangattock escarpment or just laze in the riverside Bullpit Meadows.There’s so much to see and do that you won’t fit it all into asingle weekend –but there’s always next time.
YOUR WEEKEND, SORTED
No time for alie-in this morning! Check the weather forecast and, if it’s clear and calm, then it’s got to be aridgewalk. Leave the car keys at home today and set off from the town on the 10-mile (15.5km) Crickhowell Three Peaks, which takes about six hours.
You’ll head west behind the Manor Hotel, birthplace of Sir George Everest (yes, the world’s highest peak really was named after him). Then you’ll walk asection of the Beacons Way, before heading uphill to take in the three summits of 674m (2211ft) Pen gloch-y-pibwr, 719m (2359ft) Pen Allt-mawr and Pen Cerrigcalch, 701m (2300ft). Ilove this walk and call it my ‘Crickhowell Holy Trinity’.
If the clouds are down or the winds are up, then take aleaf out of Tolkien’s book and enjoy awalk through his Shire. Crickhowell is thought to be the inspiration for ‘Crickhollow’ vil
