Waun Fach
3 classifications here — Marilyn, HuMP and Simm — belong to lists OpenFell holds only part of, so they have no list page. See how far the coverage goes.
- Height
- 811 m · 2,661 ft
- Prominence
- 622 m
- Grid reference
- SO 21552 29989
- Coordinates
- 51.96279, -3.14320
- County / area
- Powys
- Region
- Llandovery to Monmouth
- OS Landranger
- 161
- OS Explorer
- OL13N
- Summit feature
- no feature
- Key col
- SO 1120 2604 (189.1 m)
About Waun Fach
At 811 metres, Waun Fach is the highest mountain in the Black Mountains of south-eastern Wales, and one of three Marilyns over 600 m in the range alongside Black Mountain and Mynydd Troed. South of Snowdonia it is the third highest in Britain, behind Pen y Fan and neighbouring Corn Du.
The summit is rounded to the point of being hard to pick out, and the ridge tops nearby, Pen Trumau and Pen y Gadair Fawr, are far more distinct despite being lower. The mountain stands at the head of the Grwyne Fechan valley, west of and above the Grwyne Fawr reservoir, with Rhos Fawr and the Radnor Forest in view to the north.
Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Waun Fach (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
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Computed astronomically for 51.963, -3.143. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.
Summit weather live
Loading forecast for the summit (811 m)…
Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).
Finding the summit
ground 20m NE of OS bolt in concrete block.
The recorded summit point is no feature. 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
- 23-Dec-16
- Drop measured from
- SO 1120 2604 · 189.1 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 | Total length | From summit |
|---|---|---|
| Cambrian Way | 483 km | over the top |
Route lines © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); distance from the summit computed by OpenFell.
The Waun Fach group
9 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with Waun Fach as the independent hill at its head.
| Summit | Height | Drop |
|---|---|---|
| Pen y Gadair Fawr | 800 m | 47 m |
| Pen Allt-mawr | 720 m | 104 m |
| Rhos Dirion | 713 m | 22 m |
| Pen Cerrig-calch | 701 m | 53 m |
| Twmpa | 690 m | 79 m |
| Chwarel y Fan | 679 m | 72 m |
| Mynydd Llysiau | 663 m | 42 m |
| Pen Twyn Mawr | 658 m | 18 m |
| Pen Twyn Glas | 646 m | 20 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
| Peak | Height | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Pen y Gadair Fawr | 800 m | 1.9 km |
| Mynydd Llysiau | 663 m | 2.2 km |
| Rhos Dirion | 713.4 m | 3.4 km |
| Pen Twyn Mawr | 658 m | 4.2 km |
| Chwarel y Fan | 679 m | 4.3 km |
| Pen Twyn Glas | 646 m | 4.3 km |