The cwrw is in the name
By Kate Simon
The change of name for the Brecon Beacons to the Welsh-language version is surely a good thing. Well, it is in Wales, after all.
Earlier this month, on the national park’s 66th birthday, the area became formally known as Bannau Brycheiniog (say ban-aye bruck-ein-iog). The move follows last year’s formal renaming of Wales’ highest mountain, Snowdon, to Yr Wyddfa (uhr-with-va), while Eryri (er-ruh-re) has replaced the term Snowdonia.
I’d passed by the Bannau (for short – see how easy it is to say) many times over the years but paid my first visit last summer. Until then, I’d always been a bit confused by the English name, lazily imagining the park must roam across the border which, in fact, neatly trims its eastern edge.
Reclaiming the Welsh name leaves no one in any doubt. That’s surely important for maintaining the history and culture of the place, as well as promoting the language – the Welsh government reports that Welsh speakers are now at a record low.
But the authorities here aren’t just concerned with the name, they have pledged to build a future in which everyone can enjoy the health benefits, mental and physical, of a beautiful landscape like this. So, four new park authority members were appointed earlier this year from Black, disabled and LGBTQ+ backgrounds.
The new member representing people with disabilities is already pushing for the expansion of the Miles Without Stiles project, which has removed physical barriers and created better paths and other infrastructure to promote inclusive access.
The members from the Black and LGBTQ+ communities are charged with giving underrepresented groups both the possibility and confidence to get out and about in this rural landscape. Sadly, my mixed-heritage family has been on the receiving end, more than once, of the kind of greeting offered in the Slaughtered Lamb in the Classic 80s movie An American Werewolf in London. It’s not a great experience.
Our family’s trip to the Bannau was a positive one, though. We stayed near the western edge, in the shadow of Y Mynydd Du (aka the Black Mountain, not to be confused with the Black Mountains, Y Mynyddoedd Duon, on the eastern side of the park). The location offered excellent walking and local sights such as the ruins of the medieval castle Carreg Cennen and the Henrhyd Falls. Plus we made plenty of forays into the pretty town of Llandeilo, not least for its remarkable ice-cream parlour – I collect them – the Heavenly Chocolate Emporium.
According to the Bannau’s CEO, Catherine Mealing-Jones, the park authority’s aim is the “...reinvention of what a national park is all about, a picture of hope for the future.” That needs to be a shared future.
Phil’s Beer Notes
In the heart of Brecon town you’ll find the Hop In Beer & Gin House with its small, but eclectic tap list that, at last look, featured a 7.2% NEIPA from Welsh craft masters Polly’s, alongside an IPA from Pretty Decent in east London, a sour from Edinburgh’s Vault City, plus a cask bitter from Cornwall’s Verdant.
Treebeards is a micropub within an award-winning development of what used to be the Corn Exchange pub in the centre of Crickhowell, towards the south-eastern tip of the Bannau. It serves local cask ales, as you’d expect, plus craft beers from further afield.
With a name that means ‘adventure’ in Welsh, Antur Brew Co was established to celebrate the Bannau. Each of its beers is inspired by a local landmark, yet modern in style, from the New England IPA with its nod to the highest peak, Pen y Fan, to the Helles Lager made to match the Lyn y Fan Fach glacial lake. You can taste them all at the brewery tap room just outside Talgarth.
Worth an excursion just south of the national park, in Aberdare, Grey Trees Brewery offers tours and tastings and has a pub in town, the National Tap, serving a wide range of its award-winning beers from both cask and keg.
By the way, cwrw (koo-roo) is Welsh for beer.
Photo: Pen Y Fan © Cymru Wales