Cadair Fawr is a 485m hill above Llwyn-onn Reservoir and Garwnant Visitor Centre. It offers great views across the Brecon Beacons and in every direction and is very quiet. I walked it on a sunny Bank Holiday Monday and didn’t see a single person, yet Garwnant Visitor Centre waws full and laybys all around were busy. As with most hills around this area, the lure of Pen y Fan and surrounding mountains is just too strong for any of the minor hills to get a look-in.
The loop is quite a nice one, starting out on wide tracks and forestry walking before moving into open moorland and still on a fairly established track.
Once you get to the summit the views can be taken in from soft grass and it is definitely a place you want to sit down and just breathe it all in.
The walk from this point is over open moorland following sheep trails and the odd bit of longer grass before you reach the fairly busy road, following this until you take a right turn on a footpath.
This footpath is not the easiest to follow, and when you near the forest you’ll be able to see the gate in, but I could not find the pathway towards it. Instead I was in grass that was often waist height with my feet and legs taking turns sinking into deep hidden mud and water. It was a very frustrating few minutes with plenty of bad language as water overrun my walking shoes and mud and water being sprayed up my legs with each sunken foot.
That is one of the problems with any less-travelled route: at some point the footpath is going to just vanish for a bit.
Once into the woodland the path is clear – and spongy – until you once again hit wide gravel tracks which take you all the way back to the visitor centre.
That one awful section aside, this is a good walk and a hill well worth the effort so I would recommend it, just maybe modify the trail so you avoid that boggy section if you can.