Black Mountain Nuttalls

by Alan Cole · Friday, November 6th, 2026

With the forecast looking good, Morgan and I decided to bag some Nuttalls last weekend. I still have quite a few to do in the Black Mountains so we drove through a gorgeously autumnal Wales and parked at the Gospel Pass. So much for the nice weather, it was freezing cold, shrouded in thick mist and the wind was howling. We layered up, complained about the weather and headed off, determined to summit, but not necessarily looking forward to the camp we had planned.

The first summit of the Day was Twmpa, also known as Lord Hereford’s Knob (689 m). There wasn’t really much of note here, just mist, murk and a howling wind. We laughed at our predicament, commented on the fact that this had been one of the easiest summits to get to and then carried on our way along the escarpment to the next summit of Rhos Dirion (713 m). The hills here barely have summits really, they are rounded tops with the high point difficult to distinguish. Now and then we did get some views down onto the lowlands of Mid Wales below the escarpment.

We stopped for some lunch and sheltered from the wind, then continued on, turning left to head generally south along the ridge where we ticked off the Nuttalls of Pen y Manllwyn (775 m), Waun Fach (811 m) and Pen y Gadair Fawr (800 m). There were a few more people around here, but it was never busy and we had the summits to ourselves when we got to them.

Off to Pen Twyn Mawr

Here we left the obvious, wide, easy paths behind and followed a smaller, less well-defined track across heather-clad moorland on a 2.5 mile out and back detour to bag Pen Twyn Mawr (658 m). This was our fifth and last Nuttall of the day.

Rather than retrace our steps back we followed a slightly different path and ended up slightly east of Pen y Gadair Fawr where we dropped down off the ridge and started looking for a camp spot. We were both quite tired now, so the idea of filling up with heavy water and heading back up onto the top of the next ridge was abandoned. We decided we’d try to find a camp spot in the valley.

The wind had now dropped completely, which was a blessing as far as camping was concerned. The clouds had gone too and we looked as though we’d be in for a cold, clear night.

We topped up with water as we crossed a little waterfall and then wandered along the valley bottom and almost immediately came across a perfect camp spot. Today’s walk had been just over 11 miles.

Campsite in the Valley

It wasn’t quite dusk yet but we set up our tents anyway, and both seemed more tired than we should have been. Morgan therefore headed to his tent to lie down and chill for a while. I faffed about and then we cooked dinner, planned our itinerary for the next day, played cards and headed off to bed for an early night.

Despite clear, starry skies when I got up in the middle of the night, the morning dawned misty and damp. So, after breakfast we packed up soaking wet tents and headed off once again. We may have reduced pack weights thanks to having eaten most of our food, but the extra weight due to the wet tents seemed to counteract that. We had a big climb to come as well.

Up to Chwarel y Fan

First up though, was a river crossing as there was no bridge. So, we rolled up our trouser legs, took our shoes and socks off and waded through the chilly waters. On the other side we started the climb, first through dark, damp forests and then out onto open hillside covered in dew-laden cobwebs. It wasn’t too long before we reached the ridge, turned right and headed towards the first and only Nuttall of the day at Chwarel y Fan (679 m). It was still misty here, so expansive views eluded us and we didn’t stop for too long.

We retraced our steps for a while and now had a long slog along fairly unremarkable trails along the ridge, stopping at a minor summit for some snacks and then joining more well-trodden gravelled trails for what seemed like miles on end. The mist was slowly lifting and there were a couple of people about, but not many. As we approached the ridge we had started on yesterday, we detoured out across the moorland to cut off the corner, passed wild horses and then eventually emerged onto the gravelled trail once again. We were now just above the car park so soon found ourselves on the road having completed our objectives, and having covered 7 miles today. That was six more Nuttalls ticked off, taking my total to 148/189.

They might not have been the most exciting or impressive of peaks, but the camp in the middle made it more of an event and added to the trip. Morgan seemed to enjopy himself too which is good.