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Fan Gihirych

Fan Gihirych is an imposing peak, especially from the E where the huge cwm that burrows into its N face gives it a charisma lacking in its peers. The summit plateau, a sea of tangled heather, is so large that only by walking around it can you appreciate the full extent of the views (the Black Mountain W, the Usk Valley N, Fan Fawr and the Beacons E, vast rolling moors S). There is no cairn, just a solitary trig point.

Fan Gihirych

Maen Llia route (FF11)

The Senni Valley is a memorable sight on cold winter mornings when the golden tints of autumn mingle with the dazzling white of early frosts.

The finest approach starts from 924189 where a ladder-stile gives access to the fells. With care it is just possible to park on the grass verge nearby. Over the stile follow the remains of an old stone wall (which soon degenerates to a line of posts) until you meet another wall crossing your path. Turn L and follow this along a superbly engineered track that crosses the steep upper slopes of Fan Nedd. Below R lies the Senni Valley, an oasis of long bracken-clad slopes and scattered woodlands far removed in spirit – if not in distance – from the bleak windswept uplands.

Fan Gihirych is hidden at first but soon begins to swell on the W skyline. At the same time a prominent cairn (shaped like a shark’s fin) comes into view half-R across a boggy depression where the track fades in the mire. Pass through an iron gate at the far end of the bog, and it is then but a short climb up to the cairn where you meet a noticeably pink bulldozed road. You are now at Bwlch y Duwynt with the Penwaindwr route (FF12) coming in from the R.

Stay with the road until you come to another iron gate. Either follow the road for another 0.5 mile before scrambling up the slopes R or, better, advance through the heather by the edge of the cwm, keeping Fan Gihirych in view the whole way.

Penwaindwr route (FF12)

All that prevents this becoming a more popular walk is the difficulty of fitting it into a round trip.

Little guidance is needed. Simply follow the wall that climbs the hillside next to the dwelling of Penwaindwr at 907229 and let it lead you, via the minor top of Fan Bwlch Chwyth, to Bwlch y Duwynt from where you finish as in FF11. The views are all you would expect from an isolated finger: Fan Fawr and Fan Llia on one side, the Black Mountain on the other and the Usk Valley behind.

Bwlch Bryn-rhudd route (FF13)

Quick if you have good leg muscles, but unrewarding.

This is the shortest but dullest route to Fan Gihirych. It is also the most difficult to fit into a satisfying day. It starts from a stile in the layby on the A4067 at 870195 from where it is a straight slog up the hillside.