Foel Fraith is a hill in the Black Mountain in the county of

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire (; or informally ') is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. ...

, southwest

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. It lies within the

Brecon Beacons National Park Brecon Beacons National Park, officially named Bannau Brycheiniog National Park (), is a National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Wales. It is named after the Brecon Beacons (), the mountain range at its centre. The national park ...

and

Fforest Fawr Geopark Fforest Fawr Geopark is a Geopark in the Brecon Beacons National Park, south Wales. It is the first designated Geopark in Wales having gained membership of both the European Geoparks Network and the UNESCO-assisted Global Network of National G ...

. Its plateau-like summit attains a height of above sea level. To the north the subsidiary summit of Cefn y Cylchau reaches , and to the southeast is the subsidiary summit of Carn Fadog or Cefn Carn Fadog, which reaches a height of .

Geology

The hill has a split personality with its northern slopes dominated by the succession of Carboniferous Limestone rocks and its southern slopes by the Twrch Sandstone (formerly known as the 'Basal Grit') of the overlying

Marros Group The Marros Group is the name given to a suite of rocks of Namurian age laid down during the Carboniferous Period in South Wales. These rocks were formerly known as the Millstone Grit Series but are now distinguished from the similar but geograp ...

, but also dating from the

Carboniferous period The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Permian Period, Ma. It is the fifth and penultimate perio ...

. In common with the regional trend the rock strata dip moderately to the south though locally the beds overlying the limestone have foundered as this soluble rock has dissolved away over millennia. There is an extensive area of

shakehole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...

s across the entire hill. Carn Fadog is similar in character. Its summit plateau conceals three small bodies of water. On its flanks are numerous quarries both for limestone and for gritstone.British Geological Survey 1:50,000 map sheet 230 'Ammanford'

Access

The hill is designated as open country so freely accessible to walkers. A long bridleway runs north to south from Cwm Sawdde Fechan to Cwm Twrch on the eastern side of Foel Fraith and Carn Fadog. The

Beacons Way The Beacons Way (Welsh: Ffordd y Bannau) is a waymarked long distance footpath in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales. It is a linear route which runs for east to west through the National Park, and passes many of the most important landmar ...

from

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; , , archaically , ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a "Gateway to Wales"; it is approximately from the England–Wales border, border with England and is loca ...

Llangadog Llangadog () is a village and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales, which also includes the villages of Bethlehem and Capel Gwynfe. A notable local landscape feature is Y Garn Goch with two Iron Age hill forts.The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of ...

crosses Foel Fraith from east to west.

External links

images of Foel Fraith & surrounding area on Geograph website

References

{{Reflist Hewitts of Wales Mountains and hills of Carmarthenshire