Mynydd Epynt () is an upland region of Mid Wales, within the county of

Powys Powys ( , ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham to the north; the English Ceremonial counties of England, ceremo ...

. It is bounded on the south by the upper stretch of the Usk Valley, on the north by the Irfon Valley, and on the east by the

Wye Valley The Wye Valley () is a valley in Wales and England. The River Wye () is the Rivers of Great Britain#Longest rivers in the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The upper part of the valley is in the Cambrian Mountains an ...

. Its western boundary is less distinct but lies east of the

A483 The A483, officially described as the Swansea to Manchester Trunk Road, although now ending in Chester, is a major road in the United Kingdom. It runs from Swansea in Wales to Chester in England via Llandovery, Llandrindod Wells, Oswestry and W ...

Llandovery Llandovery (; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It lies on the River Tywi and at the junction of the A40 road, A40 and A483 road, A483 roads, about north-east of Carmarthen, north of Swansea and w ...

Llanwrtyd Wells Llanwrtyd Wells ( "church of St Gwrtud") is a market town and community (Wales), community in Powys, Wales, in the historic counties of Wales, historic county of Brecknockshire (Breconshire) on the Afon Irfon. The town is on the A483 road, A483 ...

road. The area is an extensive plateau lying between 400 and 450m, drained by several southward-flowing rivers that empty into the River Usk; these include (from west to east) the Cilieni, the Nant Bran, the

Afon Ysgir is a river which rises on the southern slopes of Mynydd Epynt in Powys, Wales. The tributaries known as Ysgir Fawr and Ysgir Fechan flow past the hamlets of Pont Rhyd-y-berry and Merthyr Cynog to combine at Pont-faen and continue past the villa ...

(with its two headwaters, the Ysgir Fechan and Ysgir Fawr) and the Afon Honddu. The Duhonw drains north-eastward into the River Wye. The highest point is a marilyn (having

topographic prominence In topography, prominence or relative height (also referred to as autonomous height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contour line encircling ...

of at least 150m) of 478m. Since 1940, Mynydd Epynt has formed part of the Sennybridge Training Area, the largest military training zone in Wales.

Etymology

The name of the area is often given as ''Mynydd Eppynt'' or ''Eppynt'' in historical sources and it appears under this spelling in the 1911 ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

''. ''Mynydd'' is the Welsh word for "mountain" or "upland area" but the meaning of ''Epynt'' is less certain. The most commonly stated etymology is "a pathway for horses", deriving from the P-Celtic root ''epos'', meaning "horse" (as in ''ebol'', meaning "a foal" in Modern Welsh). However, Thomas Morgan suggested the name may be interpreted as a place where "the way (referring to the ancient mountain trackway) rises abruptly", deriving from ''eb-'' ("an issuing out") and ''-hynt'' (a "way" or "course"). A ridge continuing south-west from Mynydd Epynt is known as ''Mynydd Bwlch-y-groes'', which may be translated as "mountain at the cross-road pass" or else "mountain at the pass of the cross". These etymologies all suggest that the area was known since ancient times as a place where important upland routes intersected, routes still largely extant in the modern era as

drovers' road A drovers' road, drove road, droveway, or simply a drove, is a route for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to marketplace, market or between summer and winter pasture (see transhumance). Many drovers' roads were anci ...

Geology

Mynydd Epynt is largely formed from the Raglan Mudstone Formation and the St Maughans Formation of the

Old Red Sandstone Old Red Sandstone, abbreviated ORS, is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the eastern seaboard of North America. It ...

laid down during the latest part of the Silurian period and the succeeding

Devonian period The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era during the Phanerozoic eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian period at million years ago ( Ma), to the beginning of the succeeding C ...

though there is little in the way of rock exposures at the surface. The northern and western escarpment of Mynydd Epynt is formed from a suite of rocks assigned to the Ludlow stage of the late Silurian and which include the Temeside Mudstone, the Tilestones, the Cae'r Mynach, Fibua, Aberedw, Cwm Craig Ddu and Irfon Formations. These consist variously of sandstones, mudstones and siltstones. There is a broken spread of

glacial till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

across the area resulting from its inundation by ice from the mid-Wales ice sheet to the north during the ice ages and hill

peat Peat is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most ...

has accumulated in some areas in post-glacial times.

History

Prehistory

The area attracted antiquarian interest from as early as 1809, when Theophilus Jones described a number of enclosures,

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

s and

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of megalithic standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially Stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being ...

s. Modern archaeologists have surveyed the sites at Ynys Hir, Cornelau Uchaf and Twyn y Post, including what has since been described as a "prehistoric monument complex". Many of the features on Mynydd Epynt are known to be

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

in origin, but the diversity of these monuments suggest they did not share a common purpose and that there were numerous phases of construction, in different historical eras. Some of the older monuments form part of later construction areas. These older sites were either reincorporated or left undisturbed, demonstrating a continued understanding of their importance and a respect for the beliefs of previous generations and cultures. The monuments are located near the trackways that cross Mynydd Epynt, and many are positioned at crossroads.

Later history

The modern community of Mynydd Epynt was active from at least the Medieval period, with archaeological surveys detailing preserved field systems, undisturbed by modern farming methods. The importance of the area's trackways is evidenced by the four droving inns that were established on the northern side of Mynydd Epynt (The Griffin Inn, Tafarn y Mynydd, Spite Inn and The Drover's Arms). Following the Ministry of Defence's acquisition in 1940, the Drover's Arms became an important landmark within the Sennybridge Training Area (SENTA). The inn's exterior was restored in the 1990s despite its continued use in active military training. The inns were part of an active Welsh-speaking community, with a school, church, and numerous chapels holding regular cultural events such as

Eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, a ...

au and Gymanfa Ganu. A noted custom of the community was to lay out a white sheet whenever a family was in need of help; this would act as a signal to the rest of the community, who would make their way to the house and offer their assistance.

Military acquisition

Expansion and developments

Training operations have destroyed most of the original structures that formed the community of Mynydd Epynt, including chapels and their cemeteries. However, an artificial village was constructed in 1988. The Fighting In Built Up Areas zone (FIBUA) saw the construction of many mock buildings, including a fake chapel with imitation gravestones. Since the 1990s, the army have expanded the SENTA area and most of Mynydd Epynt is now subject to restricted access because of the use of live ammunition and explosives. Although explosives have destroyed the agricultural land, sheep grazing continues within the area under communal grazing and letting licences. One of the homes acquired in 1940, Disgwylfa, was refurbished in the 1990s as a conservation centre. The property was again refurbished and re-opened in 2009 as (the Epynt Centre). Despite the closure of the ancient trackways over Mynydd Epynt, SENTA's outlying areas continued to be

Open Country "Open Country" is a designation used for some access land in England and Wales. It was first defined under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 (and extended by the Countryside Act 1968), and was land over which an appropr ...

or open access land. In 2004, The MOD created a long-distance path around the perimeter of the range. The Epynt Way is a circular route designed for walkers, horse riders and mountain-bikers. The area was chosen as a special stage in the

Wales Rally GB Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international rallying, motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship ( ...

from

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Welsh TT motorcycle races

From 1948 to 1953 the area was used for yearly motorcycle

road racing Road racing is a North American term to describe motorsport racing held on a paved road surface. The races can be held on a race track, closed circuit—generally, a purpose-built racing facility—or on a street circuit that uses temporarily c ...

.Welsh Road Race History
Retrieved 26 February 2018 Announced at the Motorcycle Live show in late 2017, a new organisation, Welsh Road Race, proposed to once again organise road racing, based on a repeal of certain clauses within the UK Road Traffic Act regulations that previously banned racing on public roads in the UK. The Secretary of State for Defence granted the organisers a licence to re-use a circuit based on a network of private tarmacced roads contained within the Crown Estate, as was previously used to stage the historic Eppynt Motor Cycle Road Races. The anticipated return of road racing to this area in August 2018 was cancelled in early February 2018 because of unforeseen difficulties with the Welsh Road Traffic regulations, its time-frame considered too short for the ACU-sanctioned event, and it was postponed until 2019. Unlike the

Isle of Man TT The Isle of Man TT or Tourist Trophy races are an annual motorcycle racing event run on the Isle of Man in May and June of most years since its inaugural race in 1907 Isle of Man TT, 1907. The event begins on the UK Spring Bank Holiday at the e ...

races, which are free to attend, the organisers had already started to sell admission tickets via their website for the multi-category event over a long weekend. The organisers include racer Jenny Tinmouth and former racer and TT rider Steve Plater, who also acts as a consultant development rider to Norton Motorcycles for their new V4 RR machine.Who we are
Welsh Road Race Retrieved 26 February 2018Welsh Road Racing to return
''Classic Bike Guide'', 7 February 2018. Retrieved 26 February 2018Norton development rider - Steve Plater
Norton Motorcycles, Retrieved 26 February 2018

In popular culture

Musician Gruff Rhys has a song called "Epynt" after the mountain, which features on his first solo album '' Yr Atal Genhedlaeth''. The song is also about money, the ''E'' standing for the Euro, and ''pynt'' sounding similar to the Welsh word for "pound".

References

External links

images of Mynydd Epynt on Geograph website
{{Authority control Marilyns of Wales Mountains and hills of Powys Rally GB Special Areas of Conservation in Wales Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Brecknock Forcibly depopulated communities in Wales Droving roads