Tor y Foel is a hill in 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 ...

in 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 ...

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 is located on the eastern flank of Talybont Reservoir, and the summit at 551m is marked by a small cairn. It gives excellent panoramic views over the valley of the

River Usk The River Usk (; ) rises on the northern slopes of the Black Mountain (''y Mynydd Du''), Wales, in the westernmost part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Initially forming the boundary between Carmarthenshire and Powys, it flows north int ...

, across to the Black Mountains and west to the

Brecon Beacons The Brecon Beacons (; ) are a mountain range in Wales. The range includes South Wales's highest mountain, Pen y Fan (), its twin summit Corn Du (), and Craig Gwaun Taf (), which are the three highest peaks in the range. The Brecon Beacons ha ...

Geology

The hill is formed entirely from sandstones and mudstones of the Brownstones 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 lower

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 ...

. Where they are exposed these rocks are seen to dip gently southeastwards. Small diggings near the top of the hill may have been for stone suitable for use as roof tiles.British Geological Survey 1:50,000 map sheet 232 'Abergavenny' & accompanying memoir

Access

The upper reaches of the hill are mapped as

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 ...

and therefore available for walkers to roam at will. A minor public road from

Talybont-on-Usk Talybont-on-Usk () is a village and community in Powys, Wales, in the historic county of Brecknockshire. It lies on both the Caerfanell river and the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal, about from the River Usk. In 2001, it had a population of ...

skirts the western side of the hill and a bridleway from Llangynidr gives access to the eastern corner of the hill.

References

External links

images of Tor y Foel and surrounds from Geograph website
{{coord, 51.8669, -3.2874, type:mountain_region:GB, display=title Brecon Beacons Mountains and hills of Powys Marilyns of Wales