Neuadd Path in Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons)
A kilometre-long stretch of one most heavily eroded footpaths in the heart of Bannau Brycheiniog (The Brecon Beacons) has been fixed, thanks to £12,100 of funding from the BMC’s Mend Our Mountains crowdfunding campaign.
The repairs were to the Neuadd path, which rises up from the Neuadd Reservoir and forms part of a popular horseshoe walk taking in Pen y Fan, the highest peak in southern Britain.
Run in spring 2016 by the BMC, in collaboration with eight national park authorities and more than 40 supportive organisations and individuals, the Mend Our Mountains campaign used crowdfunding to raise more than £100,000 for urgent path repairs on some of Britain’s most iconic peaks.
From this, £12,100 was allocated to the Brecon Beacons national park authority to carry out the work.
Desperate need
At risk of eroding away, the path was in desperate need of work. Thanks to cash raised by Mend Our Mountains, the first phase of the project was completed in December last year, with the second and final phase finishing last month.
Repairers had to battle steep ground, heavy rain and snow throughout the winter in order to complete the work in time for the upsurge of visitors that will come with spring.
Around 750 tonnes of stone were airlifted to the site, and over 1,000 metres of path restored.
The Neuadd Path project (Mend the Brecon Beacons) was made possible by the generosity of 213 pledgers, and boosted by pledge rewards provided by local businesses like Adventures With Will, Kevin Walker Mountain Activities, Black Mountain Activities and Borderlands Outdoor.
The overall Mend Our Mountains campaign was supported by Cotswold Outdoor, Alpkit, Steep Edge, DMM, Tentmeals, Vertebrate Publishing, and more.
The outdoors matters
Ian Rowat, the National Park Authority’s Member Champion for Biodiversity and the Environment, said: “The success of the BMC’s Mend Our Mountains Campaign shows just how much the great outdoors matters to people.
“The four peaks of the Central Beacons, Pen y Fan, Corn Du, Cribyn and Fan y Big, receive around 250,000 visitors each year. Patching up of popular footpaths can cost up to £170 a metre and the support from all funders and the public has ensured that this popular mountain path is once again in the best condition for everyone to enjoy.”
Elfyn Jones, the BMC’s Access and Conservation Officer for Wales, added: “Bannau Brycheiniog are a superb accessible resource for hill walkers living in South Wales but also attract walkers and mountaineers from all over the UK.
“This work will help people to enjoy the great scenery of the area while protecting the landscape for future generations. It’s really wonderful that BMC members and people in the outdoor public at large made such a significant financial contribution to this project”.
We repeat our huge thanks to the BMC staff and volunteers who made Mend Our Mountains happen, as well as to the national park teams, individuals, companies, local businesses, accommodation providers, guides and others who sourced or donated crowdfunding rewards to use across the campaign.
These included Cotswold Outdoor, Alpkit, Steep Edge, DMM, Tentmeals, Vertebrate, Tessa Lyons, Terry Abraham, Chris Townsend, James McHaffie, Peak Mountaineering, Peak Walking Adventures, Underleigh House B&B, Wheeldon Trees Farm cottage, Cloud Loft cottage, Snowdonia Walking and Climbing, Higher Climbing, Calum Muskett, The National Trust, Mountain Yak, Plas y Brenin, Yorkshire Dales Guides, Damart, Skyware, the King William Guest House, Adventures With Will, Borderlands Outdoor, Black Mountain Activities, Kevin Walker Mountain Activities, The Tour of Britain, Tri The Beast, Cicerone, Trailblazer, Encounter Walking Holidays, XMAN XXX, Exmoor Stargazers, and all the national park teams who helped to drive the campaign and source crowdfunding rewards.
Related Content
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Work to improve the first route at Roseberry Topping from Newton Woods to the summit is now complete, but there are 9 more sections of path repair to go over the next two years. Here's everything you need to know about the ongoing repairs, where to walk, when and why.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Help the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust raise FREE donations with all your online shopping this Christmas with Easyfundraising
Mend Our Mountains Articles
This Sunday is National Hiking Day, celebrated on 17 November, encouraging people to get outdoors and enjoy the beauty of nature through hill walking. Use the BMC's hiking route ideas to inspire you and our mapping discounts and freebies to navigate your way.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
With a new all-terrain, electric mobility scooter in the Cotswolds Natural Landscape thanks to Mend Our Mountains support, we celebrate the rise in accessible outdoor routes with a top six across the UK.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Part-funded by the BMC, the new Great Bradley Bridge in Exmoor opens up access to the famous, 117-mile Two Moors Way long distance walking trail. Here are our five favourite walks that take in this new crossing.
Hill Walking News
With almost 2,000m of footpath around Haytor Rocks in Dartmoor newly repaired, thanks to BMC Access & Conservation Trust funding from the Mend Our Mountains campaign, here are our top 5 walks and climbs in the area.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The BMC’s Access & Conservation Trust (ACT) is pleased to announce a seventh project within the Mend Our Mountains campaign for 2024.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
One of the biggest projects ever supported by Mend Our Mountains has hit its huge fundraising target, enabling repairs to be made to badly damaged sections along the South Downs Way.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The dramatic skyline of the Great Ridge walk connects the summits of Lose Hill and Mam Tor in Derbyshire’s Hope Valley. Heavy footfall left the path in a badly eroded state and work to repair the damage to the path started in March this year, and has seen 500 metres of the most serious damage along the path repaired to protect the surrounding landscape and bordering habitat.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
England’s highest mountain has been a constant headache for its custodians, the National Trust and Fix the Fells, as ever-increasing numbers seek to top England’s highest summit. Yet a poignant anniversary has highlighted the continuing need for large-scale projects to repair and revamp its slopes and pathways.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
In the last three years Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park Authority have been very active in working on a number of lower level bridleways around Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and more recently started work on the bridleway connecting Capel Curig to Crafnant. While some of these trails have given opportunities to link communities and provide access to lesser-abled users, the scale and nature of the works on some of the routes that pass through some wild and remote areas has also surprised many users.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The money raised through the Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million appeal has started going into work on the ground, after a dramatic helicopter airlift helped path repair work to get underway on Yorkshire’s highest peak.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Commuting with crampons, hard outdoor labour, and spending 120 hours a week with your colleagues - we speak to a mountain path repairer to find out more about the highs and lows involved in this vital job.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million has helped leave a lasting legacy on some of the highest peaks not only in Scotland, but in the whole of the British Isles.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The Nuns Cross Path is used by more than 30,000 walkers and 10,000 mountain bikers, as well as horse riders, disabled ‘trampers’ and many others each year - it is a shining example of the accessible but wild landscape Dartmoor can be. But a combination of extreme weather, like the storms of winter 2014, and erosion damage had taken its toll over the years. In stepped the BMC's Mend Our Mountains campaign.
Access & Conservation
Seven things you always wanted to know about path repair (but were too afraid to ask)
Access Articles
BMC volunteers from the Get Stuck In programme joined Fix the Fells last month in Wasdale on Lingmell Breast, one of the main routes up to Scafell Pike. They spent the day helping to maintain part of this hugely popular footpath up to England’s highest mountain.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Mend Our Mountains is back for 2024 with six incredible access and conservation projects across England and Wales. This project is funded by the BMC’s Access and Conservation Trust charity (ACT) and we would like to thank all our members, supporters and volunteers for making vital work like this possible. Here’s what is happening this year as a result of your funding, including volunteering events you can get involved with.