Buy the OS Route Map and instructions for this route

There are real mountains in southern Britain: don’t ever let anyone tell you differently. And if you really want to put your skills and fitness to the test, there can be few better ways than this infamous 45km loop around South Wales’s magnificent and imposing Black Mountains. It’s an easy one to describe: little more than three up and three down. But it’s the size of those ups and the quality of the descents that make it such an epic outing. The opening leg weighs in with a respectable 13km of climbing, coming to an end in a remote mountain col that’s 617m above sea level. And the longest drop, from Y Das past the Grwyne Fawr Reservoir, is nearly 9km with gravity on the right side.
However, these are only a few of the highlights and we haven’t even hinted at those stone-shrewn gullies on the drop down Rhiw Trumau, or the wonderful heathery singletrack that sits on the top of Crug Mawr.