Moel Penderyn is a hill on the edge of Penderyn village, in the

Brecon Beacons National Park The Brecon Beacons National Park ( cy, Parc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog) is one of three national parks in Wales, and is centred on the Brecon Beacons range of hills in southern Wales. It includes the Black Mountain ( cy, Y Mynydd Du) in ...

in the

county borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent t ...

of Rhondda Cynon Taff, south

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

. It also appeared on older maps as 'Y Foel Penderyn'. Its summit at 371m is marked by a

trig point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they ...

. Moel Penderyn is in the ''

Dyffrynnoedd Nedd a Mellte, a Moel Penderyn Dyffrynnoedd Nedd a Mellte, a Moel Penderyn () is a 421.1 hectare biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest on the border of Neath Port Talbot and Powys, Wales, notified in 1954. The name of the site means "The valleys of Nedd ...

'' biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Geology

The hill is formed from both

Carboniferous Limestone Carboniferous Limestone is a collective term for the succession of limestones occurring widely throughout Great Britain and Ireland that were deposited during the Dinantian Epoch of the Carboniferous Period. These rocks formed between 363 ...

rocks and the overlying Twrch Sandstone (former 'Basal Grit') of the

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 geogra ...

(former ' Millstone Grit Series'), also of Carboniferous age. It lies along the east-northeast to south-southwest aligned Neath Disturbance, a geological structure associated with the

Caledonian Orogeny The Caledonian orogeny was a mountain-building era recorded in the northern parts of the British Isles, the Scandinavian Mountains, Svalbard, eastern Greenland and parts of north-central Europe. The Caledonian orogeny encompasses events that oc ...

which locally comprises both a major fault and two tight anticlinal folds.British Geological Survey 1:50,000 map sheet 231 'Merthyr Tydfil' & accompanying memoir

Industrial remains

The remains of

tramways Tramway may refer to: * Tramway (industrial), a lightly laid railway for uses such as logging or mining * A tram transport system (public transport vehicles running on rails) ** The tracks which trams run on (also a section of reserved track for t ...

skirt the eastern flanks of the hill and a former tramway incline can still be seen to rise up towards a quarry which once worked deposits in the centre of the hill. Disused quarries working both limestone and gritstone adorn its eastern and northern sides.

Access

The hill is open country and therefore available for walkers to wander at will. Additional access is provided by a public bridleway along its southern flanks and a public footpath between Penderyn village and the waterfall of Sgwd yr Eira on its northeastern edge.

References

External links

images of Moel Penderyn and surrounding area on Geograph website
{{coord, 51.7672, -3.5395, type:mountain_region:GB, display=title Fforest Fawr Mountains and hills of Rhondda Cynon Taf