The Welsh countryside can become crowded in hotspots such as Bannau Brycheiniog (the Brecon Beacons), which receives around four million visitors each year, and on the UK’s most climbed mountain, Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon). There are reports of tourists leaving litter and clogging up trails as they take photographs.
At Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, sustainable development officer Helen Roderick has suggested that visitors travel by bus and arrive during quieter months. Meanwhile, residents living near a popular path to Yr Wyddfa’s summit have complained of people creating noise along the route in the early hours – the timings of these visits may be prompted by the many photos of sunrise from the peak that have been posted to TikTok and Instagram.
I live in Wales and, while Bannau Brycheiniog and Yr Wyddfa are justifiably popular, the nation has plenty of other beauty spots that offer appealing walks – with fewer tourists.
Here are six of the best to try this autumn.
St Illtud’s Way, South Wales
The 5th century holy man St Illtud might lack the cachet of Wales’ patron saint, David, but he did establish Britain’s earliest centre of learning at Llantwit Major and has a 64-mile long-distance footpath named in his honour. This path commences at Pembrey Country Park by Wales’ longest sandy beach, Cefn Sidan, and zigzags through four South Wales valleys to the 12th century ruin of Margam Abbey.
The trail’s woodland, forest, river valley and moorland landscapes are every inch as scenic as those in the more popular Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. Opt for one of the seven stages, if you don’t have time for the full tramp. Particularly exquisite are the legs between medieval earthwork Penlle’r Castell and Pontardawe (ten miles) and from Afan Forest Park Visitor Centre to Margam (12.5 miles).
Afan Lodge hotel is three quarters of a mile east of St Illtud’s Way at Afan Forest Park Visitor Centre. Double rooms start from £110, including breakfast.
The Golden Road, Preseli Hills
Pembrokeshire is not all jaw-dropping shoreline: the interior soars up to the barren Preseli Hills, which host some of Wales’ most intriguing prehistoric sites. The range’s spine between the road lay-bys at Bwlch Gwent and Llainbanal, a seven-mile stretch, is known as the Golden Road: a 5,000 year-old trading route along which gold from Ireland’s Wicklow Mountains was transported.
There is not much golden about today’s route – it’s mainly wild, weather-beaten moor. Yet the poignant presence of ancient sites – including Bronze Age burial cairns, one of King Arthur’s supposed battle sites at Foel Cwmcerwyn, the legendary king’s purported burial place, Bedd Arthur stone circle and Foel Drygarn Iron Age fortress near the walk’s end – make you wonder why you would endure Stonehenge’s hordes. Preseli’s ancient treasures can be enjoyed on the Golden Road in splendid isolation. To return, public transport is non-existent: have your transport back planned in advance. Bring a physical map and compass, too, in case cloud cover reduces visibility.
Rhostwarch Farm B&B sits north of the Preseli ridge, with footpaths connecting up to the Golden Road at Foel Drygarn. Doubles including breakfast start from £160 for two nights.
New Quay to Aberporth, Ceredigion coast
Plonked between the Pembrokeshire Coast and Eryri National Park, Ceredigion’s seaboard is a serene collection of dreamy fishing villages, deep riven coves and serendipitous sandy beaches.
You’ll invariably spy fewer visitors walking the entirety of the county’s coastline than you would in one Cornish seaside hotspot. This one-way, 13.5-mile ramble traces a mesmeric section of the Wales Coast Path and, besides the devastatingly striking scenery and delightful refreshment spots (such as The Plwmp Tart above Penbryn Beach), it also has good bus connections from the finish to the start point. Highlights include dolphin-watching around the winsome seaside town of New Quay, one of mainland Britain’s largest seabird colonies at Bird Rock, Iron Age hill forts Castell Bach and Pendinas Lochtyn and the sandy Traeth Bach (Little Beach) near Penbryn.
For accommodation, see Pistyll Rheadr, below.
Twm Siôn Cati’s Cave, Cambrian Mountains
Welcome to the great gap in the map in the middle of Wales. From Llandovery on the northern edge of Bannau Brycheiniog National Park and almost to Machynlleth on Eryri National Park’s southern edge, stretch the sparsely populated Cambrian Mountains. The area is so devoid of major settlements that it has garnered the moniker “Desert of Wales”. The tracts of silent yellow-green hills, fringed by ancient sessile oakwoods and draped in big forests and lakes, are all sufficiently off-the-beaten-track to make solitude-lovers’ pulses race in anticipation.
The region’s southern gateway is at Twm Siôn Cati’s Cave, a steep, oak-stippled hill enclosed by churning mountain rivers, which once served as a lair for Welsh outlaw Twm Siôn Cati. This 2.25-mile circuit, encompassing the cave and surrounding nature reserve Gwenfffwrd-Dinas, is 10 miles north of Llandovery. Remote trails and lanes then connect to other must-sees, such as the enchanting Strata Florida abbey ruins and the vast, hill-ramparted Elan Valley Lakes.
Llanerchindda Farm is on a hillside seven miles south of Gwenfffwrd-Dinas Reserve with doubles, including breakfast, from £104 per night.
Yr Eifl from Trefor, Llŷn Peninsula
Llŷn Peninsula is the tranquil appendage of sandy shores and moors hanging off the west side of Eryri National Park. It is the best place for appreciating panoramas across to Eryri’s moody mountainscape, not to mention Anglesey and most of Wales’ west coast. Take in a slice of the Llŷn’s splendid seaboard together with its interior hills, as this 7.5-mile circuit does, and you have a vivid representation of what the region offers.
From beachside village Trefor, circle west on the Wales Coast Path before clambering up on the North Wales Pilgrim’s Way to Yr Eifl (Garn Ganol), the loftiest of a triple bill of coastal hills known in English as “The Rivals” – and a magnificent viewpoint. Loop back via another summit, Tre’r Ceiri, one of the UK’s best-preserved Iron Age hillforts.
The Nanhoron Arms in Nefyn, nine miles south-west along the coast from Trefor, has doubles including breakfast from £100 per night.
Pistyll Rheadr to Cadair Berwyn, Berwyn Mountains
Pistyll Rhaeadr is one of the great “Seven Wonders of Wales”. The beauty spot, with its triple-cascade 240-foot waterfall thundering between steep wood-carpeted cliffs, is the trailhead for this rugged, eight-mile ramble.
The Berwyn Mountains are beginning to be touted as a crowd-free upland alternative to Eryri, but the masses have yet to descend. Pistyll Rhaeadr, with its car park, café and accommodation, can get busy, but begin walking on this route and you’ll encounter few fellow hikers. Ascend over moorland to Wales’ highest point outside the national parks, Cadair Berwyn (2,730 feet), and return via the lonely lake of Llyn Lluncaws. The energetic can roam further along the ridgetop from Cadair Berwyn for more of the range’s billboard mountain scenery.
Tan-y-Pistyll, situated beneath the waterfall, offers an apartment and a chalet for £280/£360 per two or four people, for a two-night stay.
