Brecon to the summit of Cribyn and back. 20km, 800m of ascent. 5-6 hours. Can be made much shorter by starting from layby just below Bailea farm. This would make it a 10 km half-day walk.
This is a long walk for the longer spring days, best done in clear weather so you can enjoy the views.
From Bridge Cafe cross the road and walk through Dinas car park, and through the big gate to the right of the lodge.
After about 500m on a stony track there is a junction where you need to go onto the small tarred road and turn left up a steep hill that crosses the bypass. Keep walking uphill, and on a bend in the lane keep straight ahead up the stony bridleway. A stiff climb here for about a kilometre then as the path flattens off you will start to see views of the hills where you are heading, weather permitting.
Straight ahead on the lane for another km, then right by a pretty cottage cross the stile into fields gently downhill following the boundary. You come out on a junction of lanes where you need to go straight on, then first right. At the next junction keep left and go down to a bridge across the nant Sere. The way is now steeply uphill on a lane, past the barking dogs at Bailea, and straight on to stony track. After a short distance there is a gate onto the open hills at the foot of Bryn Teg.
Go straight up the Bryn on the ridge, and stay on this ridge all the way up to the top of Cribyn. The last few hundred metres are steep but there is no real difficulty unless it is icy. Soon you pop out onto a surprisingly flat summit, with a fine view of the valleys to the south, and Pen y Fan and Corn Du to the west.
To make a circular walk, follow the ridge to the southeast, dropping down steeply in places to the well defined track known as “the Gap”. Now it is a fairly easy stroll on a wide track back to the bottom of Bryn Teg. Continue down to the bridge at the bottom, and just after it turn left at the first junction. This road will take you directly back to to Brecon if you just keep straight ahead, but there is a is a more interesting path through the fields just after you pass the turning for The Held.
This path is off to the right through fields on the flat section of road before the final descent into town. Look out for the stile and footpath sign two fields after the sign for “The Held” . Straight ahead through the first field, then diagonally to the far corner of the second, then just keep going down hill in a northerly direction. When you are almost back to the bypass, and the field drops down very steeply with some large trees, head to the right and in the bottom corner there is a stile which takes you back to the lane where you first crossed the bypass.
