{"id":49785,"date":"2026-11-06T09:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T09:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=49785"},"modified":"2026-11-06T09:07:17","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T09:07:17","slug":"black-mountain-nuttalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2026\/11\/black-mountain-nuttalls\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Mountain Nuttalls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first summit of the Day was Twmpa, also known as Lord Hereford\u2019s Knob (689 m). There wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Misty<\/a><\/figure><\/div>
\"Windy<\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Off to Pen Twyn Mawr<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Moorland<\/a><\/figure><\/div>
\"Hills<\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019d try to find a camp spot in the valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019d be in for a cold, clear night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Campsite\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>
\"Bed<\/a><\/figure>
\"Riverside<\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s walk had been just over 11 miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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