Chwarel y Fan

About Chwarel y Fan

Chwarel y Fan is the high point of the long ridge running south-east from Rhos Dirion in the Black Mountains. The summit sits on a narrow crest and is crowned by a cairn. Beyond it the ridge continues south-east over Bal-Mawr, which carries a trig point at 607 m, and then to Bal-Bach, a little over 520 m, about a kilometre further on.

Valleys separate it from Pen Twyn Mawr to the west and Black Mountain to the east. It is the county top both of the historic county of Monmouthshire and of the present Monmouthshire local authority area.

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

Access rights here

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

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Sunset

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Daylight

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Civil twilight ends

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Computed astronomically for 51.958, -3.081. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is cairn. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method

Abney level

Record revised

30-Jun-07

Drop measured from

SO241309 · 607 m

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.

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

Which hill this one belongs to

Chwarel y Fan is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to Waun Fach (811 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 607 m.

Grouping is by prominence alone: a summit belongs to the nearest higher Marilyn it connects to without a deeper intervening col. Over a large massif that can gather hills no one would walk in a single day, and which few would describe as parts of the same mountain — it is a measure of independence, not a suggested route.

Nearest listed peaks