Hills and mountains in the Brecon Beacons National Park

The Brecon Beacons National Park is named after the hills and mountains at its heart. While the terrain within our Park is remarkably varied, wild, open hillsides, carved by ice and weathered by time, are our signature landscapes.

For upland species of flora and fauna, they form a crucial link between the isolated wilds of Dartmoor and Exmoor in southwest England and the more extensive mountains of Snowdonia and northern England.

There are four main ranges within our Park. Confusingly, two of them, though entirely separate, have very similar names – the Black Mountain range in the west and, in the east, the Black Mountains, which include a peak called Black Mountain.

At the heart of our Park are the Brecon Beacons themselves, often referred to as the Central Beacons. Their peak, Pen-y-Fan, is the highest point in southern Britain.

Between the Black Mountain range and the Central Beacons is the Fforest Fawr massif, the swathe of uplands which gives our Geopark its name.