Golden moorland of Blaenpedol - geograph

is a 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 ...

( cy, Parc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog) in the county of

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

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 ...

. Its summit sits atop a plateau-like ridge at above sea level and is marked by one of the three huge

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

s which give the mountain its name. The main ridge leads southwest towards the subsidiary top of Tair Carn Isaf ("Lower Three Cairns", ), which hosts further cairns. The summit of this top lies at , whilst a

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 ...

just to its southwest lies at a height of 459 metres (1505'). To the south of the main ridge lies the subsidiary peak of Drysgol which reaches a height of .

Geology and drainage

To the south is the

Amman Valley Amman Valley may refer to: *The valley of the River Amman * Amman Valley Hospital *Amman Valley Railway The Amman Valley Railway Society ( cy, Rheilffordd Dyffryn Aman) is situated near the former Gwaun Cae Gurwen branch line, that runs alongsid ...

into which flow the streams of Nant Pedol and Nant-y-ffin or Berach whilst the Nant Gwythwch drains westwards into the River Loughor. Rainwater falling on the hill's northern slopes is likely to spend part of its journey underground on account of the band of

Carboniferous Limestone Carboniferous Limestone is a collective term for the succession of limestones occurring widely throughout Great Britain and Ireland that were deposited during the Dinantian epoch (geology), Epoch of the Carboniferous period (geology), Period. T ...

which sweeps across this area from east to west. Northward drainage is ultimately into the River Loughor and

Afon Cennen The Afon Cennen is a river in the county of Carmarthenshire, south Wales. It rises on the northern slopes of the Black Mountain to the east of the summit of Tair Carn Uchaf and flows north to Blaencennen Farm, then westwards past Carreg Cennen ...

. The summit plateau is formed from blocks of the Twrch Sandstone (formerly the 'Basal Grit') of the

Marros Group The Marros Group is the name given to a suite of rocks of Namurian age laid down during the Carboniferous Period in South Wales. These rocks were formerly known as the Millstone Grit Series but are now distinguished from the similar but geograph ...

(former 'Millstone Grit Series') deposited during the

Carboniferous period The Carboniferous ( ) is a Period (geology), geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago (Myr, Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, ...

. Whilst the general dip of the rock

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

is to the south, there are areas which have foundered due to the presence of the soluble limestone not far beneath the surface.British Geological Survey 1:50,000 map sheet 230 'Ammanford'

Access

The hill is open country so walkers can roam across it at will. There are public footpaths along its southern margin and a long bridleway crosses the moors to the east of the hill. two minor roads cross its western flanks. The

Beacons Way The Beacons Way (Welsh: Ffordd y Bannau) is a waymarked long distance footpath in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales. It is a linear route which runs for east to west through the National Park, and passes many of the most important lan ...

route from

Llangadog Llangadog () is a village and community located in Carmarthenshire, Wales, which also includes the villages of Bethlehem and Capel Gwynfe. A notable local landscape feature is Y Garn Goch with two Iron Age hill forts.The Welsh Academy Encycloped ...

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; cy, Y Fenni , archaically ''Abergafenni'' meaning "mouth of the River Gavenny") is a market town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a ''Gateway to Wales''; it is approximately from the border wi ...

runs along the northern flanks of Tair Carn Uchaf.

External links

images of Tair Carn Uchaf & surrounding area on the Geograph website

References

{{coord, 51.8397, -3.8977, type:mountain_region:GB, display=title Mountains and hills of Carmarthenshire Black Mountain (hill)