The Beacons Way
The Beacons Way is a 159km (99mile) linear walk across the Brecon Beacons National Park. It was devised by ex-Park Society Secretary John Sansom (who died in June 2006), in conjunction with Arwel Michael and Chris Barber.
GOOD ROUTE NAVIGATIONAL SKILLS AND THE ABILITY TO READ A MAP AND USE A COMPASS ARE ESSENTIAL.
The route is waymarked where it crosses farmland, but there is no waymarking on open hills and moorland. Walkers will need the Brecon Beacons National Park 1:25.000 Ordnance Survey maps OL12 & OL13 to enable them to see the trail in its full context. Without these maps, in bad weather or emergencies, it will be impossible to devise escape routes. No person inexperienced in hill walking should attempt this trail without an experienced guide.
THE ROUTE
Click here for a brief outline and description of the route across the Brecon Beacons National Park.
Beacons Way is now on Googlemaps. There are gaps where landowner permission could not be obtained – most notably National Trust have UK policies against it – but the difficult to navigate route in the west is on there.
Please note that the route was revised in 2016. Previous versions are shown on older OS maps and care should be taken to follow the new route. A Route Guide is available in the National Park’s Visitor Centre, Tourist Information Centres in the National Park and by post from the National Park website.
TRAILS AND TREKS
For details of forthcoming guided walks along The Beacons Way click here
ACCOMMODATION
There are B&B’s, Hotels, Campsites and Hostels/Bunkhouses near the end points of each day’s walk. They are too many to list here, so we recommend you contact the local Tourist Information Centre for details of accommodation in the area. From east to west the TICs and other sources of accommodation information are:-
Blaenavon World Heritage Centre
Brecon Tourism Information Centre – 01874 622485
Hay on Wye Tourism Information Bureau
WEATHER FORECAST
A useful weather forecast for the Brecon Beacons can be found here
REPORT PROBLEMS
To report any problems on footpaths or open land please click here
CONTACT US
If you have walked the Beacons Way, we would like to receive any views you might have on the route or any comments you might like to make on the standard of accommodation you encountered, please click here
BEACONS WAY ART TRAIL
The Park Society and the Brecknock Museum Art Trust have developed an art project to celebrate the Beacons Way long-distance trail across the Brecon Brecons National Park.
After an open competition, eight Powys artists were chosen to create an artwork that has been placed somewhere along the route of each of the eight days walk.
The images that have been created are a response by the artist to the landscape, ecology or culture of the Brecon Beacons and the area through which the walk passes. Each work has been cast or etched in metal and set into natural stone along the way and will have to be discovered by the walker.
Whilst the original idea was for people to take a rubbing, now the most popular way to record you have been there is to take a selfie and post it on the Friends of the Beacons Facebook page.
More information on each artist and the associated art work can be found by going to the Beacons Way Art Trail page.
A bilingual publication: ‘Eight Stones, Eight Artists: Exploring the Beacons Way Art Trail’ by David Moor contains clues as to the position of the artworks, information about each artist, images of artists at work, illustrations of other works they have created and a short statement describing the inspiration behind each piece of work created for the project. Interleaved will be sheets of tracing paper so rubbings of each work can be made. Free copies are available in the Tower Gallery Crickhowell.
Listen to Clare Balding in her programme “Ramblings” broadcast in March 2012 walking part of the Beacons Way and looking at one of the art installations and talking to those responsible for it and some of the people helped and inspired by it.
THE LAND OF THE BEACONS WAY
A new, fully-illustrated book by Dilys Harlow, describing the landscape and geology across the Brecon Beacons National Park as seen from the Beacons Way.
Published by the South Wales Geologists Association and available to order for £7.95 from their website www.swga.org.uk .
Also available from the National Park Visitor Centre.