Wales

Black Mountain

HewittNuttallHistoric County TopCurrent County/UA TopMarilynHuMPSimm

4 classifications here — Current County/UA Top, Marilyn, HuMP and Simm — belong to lists OpenFell holds only part of, so they have no list page. See how far the coverage goes.

Black Mountain, 704 m, Herefordshire/Powys
Black Mountain, 704 m, Herefordshire/Powys. Photo by Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Height
703.6 m · 2,308 ft
Grid reference
SO 25523 35390
Coordinates
52.01188, -3.08659
County / area
Herefordshire/Powys
OS Landranger
161
OS Explorer
OL13N
Summit feature
no feature 12m W of path
Key col
SO235352 (549 m)

About Black Mountain

Known in Welsh as Twyn Llech, 'hill of the stone', this summit within the Black Mountains has an unusual distinction: it is the only Marilyn to sit exactly on the Welsh–English border, with Powys on one side and Herefordshire on the other.

Its parent peak, Waun Fach, lies to the west. The hill counts as a county top on both historic and current reckonings.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Black Mountain (hill) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Heights, prominence and grid references come from the Database of British & Irish Hills, not from Wikipedia.

Access rights here

Conditional Right to roam: Right to roam only on mapped CRoW open access land.

Permission needed Wild camping: Permission needed everywhere.

General position for Wales — local byelaws, seasonal restrictions and closures can override it. Full details: access rights in Wales · check another location.

Daylight at this summit today

Sunrise
Sunset
Daylight
Civil twilight ends

Computed astronomically for 52.012, -3.087. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Summit weather live

Loading forecast for the summit (704 m)…

Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).

Finding the summit

Surveyor's note

summit 350m S at SO 25560 35023 c.20m W of path is 1m lower.

The recorded summit point is no feature 12m W of path. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method
KR 2x Hand Level/Trimble GeoXH 6000
Record revised
19-Mar-19
Drop measured from
SO235352 · 549 m

Classification history: Bridge and B&L summit lies 350m south near 703m spot. Herefordshire County Top is probably on the path 12m E of the northern summit or a few metres from the path at the southern summit.

Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.

Long-distance paths past this hill

One waymarked long-distance route runs within 2.5 km of the summit — useful if you are linking this hill into a longer walk, or want a made path for the approach.

RouteTotal lengthFrom summit
Offa's Dyke Path 292 km over the top

Route lines © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); distance from the summit computed by OpenFell.

Nearest listed peaks

PeakHeightDistance
Twmpa 690 m 3 km
Rhos Dirion 713.4 m 4.8 km
Chwarel y Fan 679 m 6 km
Waun Fach 811 m 6.7 km
Pen y Gadair Fawr 800 m 7.1 km
Pen Twyn Mawr 658 m 8.8 km