Buckland Hill is a low hill in the

Brecon Beacons National Park The Brecon Beacons National Park ( cy, Parc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog) is one of three national parks in Wales, and is centred on the Brecon Beacons range of hills in southern Wales. It includes the Black Mountain (range), Black Mountain ...

in the county of

Powys Powys (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh succession of states, successor state, petty kingdom and princi ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Sitting transversely across the Usk valley between the river and the village of

Bwlch Bwlch (meaning ''a pass'' in Welsh) is a small village and an electoral ward in Powys, southern Wales. The settlement is strung out along the A40 road which crosses a low col above the Usk Valley at this point on its route between Brecon and C ...

, it provides excellent panoramic views down the valley and across to the Black Mountains. The summit at 316m above sea level is marked by an OS

trig point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they a ...

though this is now within a dense conifer plantation and so no longer affords any outward views. Buckland Hall sits at the foot of the hill's afforested northwestern side.

Geology

The upper parts of the hill are formed from sandstones and mudstones of the Brownstones Formation of the

Old Red Sandstone The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...

laid down during the lower

Devonian Period The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, wh ...

. Small outcrops of this sandstone have been quarried on the hills northeastern flanks. The lower slopes are formed in the slightly older sandstones of the Senni Formation.British Geological Survey 1:50,000 map sheet 214 'Talgarth' & accompanying sheet explanation

Access

The eastern slopes of the hill are crossed hy a handful of public footpaths whilst parts are mapped as

open country "Open Country" is a designation used for some UK access land. It was first defined under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 (and extended by the Countryside Act 1968), and was land over which an appropriate access agreeme ...

and therefore available for walkers to roam at will. Minor public roads gives access from the village.

References

External links

images of Buckland Hill and surrounds from Geograph website
{{Authority control Brecon Beacons Mountains and hills of Powys