Spring The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams

The Brecon Beacons National Park

covers an area of over 500 square miles

and extends over nine counties in the southern half of Wales.

It has terrific scenery and notoriously challenging landscapes.

For many, it's a playground.

For me, it's a place to escape.

A place to be alone with nature.

Over the seasons, I'm exploring the magic of the Beacons.

It's spring and it is the very best time to be out in the woods.

The birds are singing and the spring flowers are putting on

such a terrific show.

I'm in Pwll-y-Wrach wood.

It's a wonderful ancient woodland in the eastern

part of the Brecon Beacons near Talgarth.

It's a landscape that doesn't immediately come to mind when you

think of the Beacons but the National Park has some terrific woodlands.

As the leaves on the trees haven't fully emerged yet, light can

penetrate to the woodland floor and the ground plants are at their best.

Herb paris is a particular speciality of this kind of woodland.

It was used in medieval times to guard against witches,

which seems appropriate

as Pwll-y-Wrach is Welsh for witches' pool.

It's thought that the name Pwll-y-Wrach

comes from the old practice of dunking witches in pools.

Its use today is far more benign.

There's a pair of grey wagtails just underneath me here

and they've both got a beak full of insects.

And this is typical of grey-wagtail country.

You've got the falls, Pwll-y-Wrach here.

Lots of water, high walls with lots of little holes where they can nest,

and all this rushing water means lots of insects, which they feed on.

They're quite comical, actually,

because they're walking slowly across the stream here towards me and I'm

pretty sure that the nest is tucked into the bank just below me here.

Pwll-y-Wrach is on the northern edge of the Black Mountains,

a series of broad ridges running north-south

and separated by narrow steep-sided valleys.

It contains some of the highest land in the National Park,

with many of the peaks between 600 and 800 metres above sea level.

The valleys were gouged out by melting glaciers at the end of

the last ice age, resulting in steep slopes and a precarious landscape.

An odd looking church. It's St Martin's Church in Cwmyoy.

And when I walked in, I couldn't quite make it all out but

if you look at it carefully, you see that the tower is leaning towards me.

There's an arched back to the main roof,

the walls are not quite square but there's a good

reason for all of this

cos it stands on a site that, over hundreds of years, has seen

a succession of landslips and that includes one major incident

that split the mountain behind us here.

St Martin's Church at Cwmyoy

has been called the most crooked church in Britain and it's

one of many stunning historical sites in the Brecon Beacons.

It ended up like this

because it was built by medieval builders on an ancient landslip.

A crack in the hill above the church is clear from above.

The old red sandstone summit, a rock characteristic of the Beacons,

fell apart thousands of years before the church was built

but, unbeknown to the builders, the surrounding land was still unstable.

Like the rest of Britain, the ice age has left its mark on much of

the landscape in the Beacons

and helped to create some beautiful scenery.

Llangorse, the largest natural lake in South Wales,

was also formed by a glacier.

Given the right conditions, a spring dawn is truly magical.

Birds come to feed and breed around the lake.

At this time of year, they're in peak condition

and in their finest feathers.

Llangorse also has more secretive wildlife,

particularly in the ditches leading to the lake.

This is one of the best places in the Beacons for water voles.

They were reintroduced here during the past five years

and Cardiff University student Sophie-lee Lane

has been monitoring them to establish how well they're doing.

But they're not easy to see.

-Have you ever seen a water vole?

-Erm, I haven't, no.

So you've be monitoring for 12 months, whatever it is now,

and you haven't seen a water vole yet?

No, I know they're in this area but I've never seen one in person.

Right, OK, well, I've got a trick. I've got an apple on a stick, right?

And we're going to put it down as bait here,

and we're going to try and draw them out.

It's worked in the past.

-Whether it'll work this time or not, I don't know.

-OK.

But we'll give it a go in the hope that we'll see a water vole.

To be fair to Sophie, she's been monitoring them

using camera traps and by looking for signs of activity along the ditches.

Actually seeing them active is another matter.

Something moving there.

WHISPERS: Might be just bubbles. They've got a hole up on the bank

and they've got a hole right down just down at water level,

those will be connected, will they?

Yeah, they should be connected.

They'll have a number of holes connected into different

escape routes.

They're all connected into one colony.

And what will they be eating? All the vegetation you see?

They kind of are quite selective.

They tend to eat sedge, erm, reeds,

which then allows a lot more vegetation

richness in the area, so they tend to be ecosystem engineers.

So then they kind of modify their habitat, so they increase...

-The variety.

-..the variety of the plants and wildlife.

That's pretty good, that's excellent.

You can hear, like, chomping.

That's moving.

-That's a water vole coming out, is it?

-I don't know whether...

I can see it, yeah. I can see it.

-Where can you see it?

-In the grass there.

-Yeah.

-These are proving pretty elusive - aren't they? - today.

-Yes.

I reckon I put the wrong apples out.

The wrong brand of apple, I think.

Listen, we've been here long enough.

I reckon we leave the apples and just let the voles get on with it.

-What do you think?

-Yeah, sounds good.

-Come on.

You watch, once we've gone, they'll eat everything.

We left the cameraman on his own.

We were probably too noisy and, sure enough, after a while, one appeared.

They just couldn't resist the smell of fruit.

Before reintroduction,

water voles were believed to be extinct in the park and this

is probably the only sustainable population in the Beacons.

Let's hope they recover and extend their range.

The main river in the Brecon Beacons is the Usk.

It flows right through the National Park from west to east

and this section is near Crickhowell.

It's rated as one of the best fly-fishing rivers in Britain

for salmon and trout. Justin Connolly is

a professional angling instructor who lives in the Beacons.

Hello there. Keep fishing, keep fishing.

I'll just sit down here, if that's all right. You carry on.

-Have you had any luck so far?

-No, not yet. A few fish rising.

Fishing for what now? Trout?

-Wild brown trout.

-And what's the technique?

Do you try and drop the fly right on him or up above him?

No, I want it slightly upstream just

so it looks like a natural insect coming down in front of the fish.

And if I cast right on top of him, it's going to spook him a bit.

And then if he takes a bite, do you then strike?

Yeah, just lift into the fish.

Do you then take notice of what insects are around at particular

-times of the year?

-Absolutely.

Through the year you get different hatches of flies and insects

and the trout will switch on to that particular hatch.

So we need to try and imitate what's coming up through the water,

which is the natural food for the fish.

By a hatch, what you mean is a lot of insects will all hatch out,

roughly at the same time, do they?

Yeah, I mean, early morning, the hatches are going to be quite

sporadic and ones and twos coming off.

As the day goes on and the temperature rises,

we get a larger hatch of insects and flies then.

Hopefully the fish will switch on but...

And sometimes I have seen it where you get literally

millions of, say, mayfly or whatever all hatching out at the same time.

-Clouds and clouds of insects.

-That's a lovely thing to see.

-It is.

On the Usk now, is fishing as good as it was 20, 30 years ago?

A lot of the fish have been taken out in the last 20 years.

It is very good fishing but I think we need to be realistic

and sort of look after our fish stocks at the moment.

If you look at some of the statistics,

it gives you cause for concern, I think.

So, for you, it's all about the sort of pitting your wits

against the fish, catching it and then putting it back.

Exactly. If I want a fish for the table, I'll go fish a stock fishery.

I think the wild fish are too precious

and important to be taken out of the river, to be honest.

The best known parts of the Brecon Beacons National Park

are incredibly busy and it doesn't matter what time you go there,

there are always lots of people

but you've got a few parts that are tucked out of the way that

very few people know about and many of those are old industrial sites.

Most of these old industrial sites are in the southern fringes

of the National Park where, historically, the rustic North

gave way to industrial South Wales.

This old quarry is in the Central Beacons

and there are many like it throughout the National Park.

In many of these sites, you'll find special

and protected wildlife during the spring, which is

why I can't disclose the exact location of this quarry.

This is a little ringed plover and, naturally, it nests on river shingle.

It's quite surprising, really, to find

a pair of little ringed plover here in a quarry high up

in the Brecon Beacons but, when you think about it

and look around you, everything the birds need is here.

They have gravel, where they lay their well-camouflaged eggs,

they have grassy banks, where they can go and feed on invertebrates,

they have shallow pools where, later on,

they'll take their chicks to feed on the insects.

So, to us, this might look like the surface of the moon

but to a pair of little ringed plover, this is home.

Another special bird has also taken up residence in the quarry.

It's making use of the quarry cliffs for nesting.

There's a very confiding female peregrine falcon

sat on a nest less than 100 metres away from me here

and they've chosen the old nest of a raven.

These old quarries are great places for peregrines to nest.

I remember as a young lad growing up, these were very,

very rare birds and they're not common now

and there's something really special, I think,

about peregrine falcons and to be able to lie here

and share five minutes with a bird like that, it's a real privilege.

Within the park, peregrine falcons are scarce

breeders that are mainly confined to these former industrial sites.

They're particularly sensitive at the nest site,

therefore we're getting these shots at distance with a long lens.

Although she's relaxed, she has one of the best eyes on the planet

and knows we're here, so we won't be staying long.

More than anything,

the Brecon Beacons is famous for its magnificent uplands.

This is the path above Craig Cerrig-Gleisiad, which has fantastic

views of the mid-Wales lowlands and, across the valley,

Corn Du and Pen y Fan,

the highest peaks in southern Britain.

In the winter, places like Craig Cerrig-Gleisiad

can be very hostile but, in spring,

they're very important for nesting birds.

A regular visitor to this site is bird recorder Andy King.

-Andy. What a setting, eh? What a setting.

-Fantastic, yes, yes.

Are you scanning for anything in particular?

So much of interest here now in early summer.

You know, you've got the summer migrants coming in and some of

the more established birds like the peregrine falcon

and things like that.

Andy, you're the Breconshire County bird recorder. What does that mean?

Every county across the UK has a county bird recorder

and it's really their role to keep tabs on which

species are doing well, which are in decline as well as rarities

that might get blown in from North America or come across from Europe.

Andy, together with an army of volunteer bird-watchers,

gathers information on the birds in the Beacons.

No matter where you go in the uplands,

-there's always ravens, aren't there?

-There always are, yes.

Cronking away.

He's taking me to a good spot for breeding birds on the upper slopes.

Apparently, around 80 different bird species either visit or breed on

Craig Cerrig-Gleisiad.

Wheatears - and this is a fabulous male - breed pretty much everywhere

in the uplands. But the speciality here is the ring ouzel -

a summer migrant from North Africa.

It's the best place in the whole of the Beacons to see this mountain

blackbird with a white bib.

Only around 12 pairs of ring ouzel breed in the entire national park

and most of them nest in Craig Cerrig-Gleisiad.

They come here because they like the crags for nesting

and the surrounding grazed land for worms.

As you head west from Craig Cerrig-Gleisiad,

you move from the Central Beacons to the Fforest Fawr area

of the National Park.

It's a vast area of open moorland and mountain peaks,

which are up to 700 metres above sea level.

In the southern part of Fforest Fawr,

you have a completely different landscape.

Steep wooded slopes and fast-running rivers descend to hidden valleys.

Something very hypnotic, I always think, about water like this

and the power of water.

This is the River Mellte and it's hard to believe, standing here

now, that 100 years ago this was the site of a big gunpowder factory.

The old buildings are still visible,

before they become completely hidden by the spring plant growth.

Judith Morris' grandfather, her great-grandfather

and her great-great-grandfather all worked at the gunpowder works

and she still lives in the valley.

How big was this at its height, then?

Well, it employed around 65 workers.

It had 70 buildings producing gunpowder for civil engineering,

for mining, for quarries all over the world.

-It was an absolute hive of activity.

-Why here?

Because it's a lovely looking valley, it's quiet.

Well, this is a really secluded spot

but that really was one of the reasons it was chosen.

The seclusion meant nobody would come into this area.

-In case there was an accident, of course.

-Yes, yes.

Also, the River Mellte serviced this area

and it was a very strong river and also the woods, they used the trees

for charcoal, so it was an ideal valley for the gunpowder works.

-It's fascinating, isn't it?

-It is.

We're right on the edge of the Brecon Beacons,

a quiet, lovely wooded valley with a beautiful river

flowing through it and there's all this amazing history here too.

With a hidden secret.

There are many reminders of the Beacons'

cultural past in the landscape and,

while today there are stunning scenic locations virtually everywhere,

in the National Park, it's a landscape that's been used, fashioned

and refashioned by people

and this has been going on for thousands of years.

That is an impressive rock. Look at the size of that.

This is Maen Llia and it's one of 30 standing stones in this area.

This one is by far the most impressive one.

What's interesting is that it's made of a rock called calcrete,

which isn't found in this area, so they think that it was carried

here by the ice age some 20,000 years ago

but it was actually raised 4,000 years ago by our forefathers.

And when you consider that they say that a third to a quarter of it is

underground, that gives you some impression of the size of this thing.

It's absolutely huge. Why is it here? Well, we're not quite sure.

Is it to mark a route? Is it a boundary?

Has it got religious connotations? Nobody really knows.

It's clearly a visible landmark on a pass between hills,

so it could conceivably mark an important route.

And there are many known ancient routes in the Beacons.

They say it's spring but, up here, it is cold.

It's really cold and this is an old Roman road. Trecastle,

the village of Trecastle, is about two miles behind me.

I've got Usk Reservoir down below me over there.

2,000 years ago when the Romans were here,

this must have been quite a busy place with the legionnaires

marching back and forth and the best thing for me

is that every step of the way, I've heard skylarks.

Not just one or two skylarks but a choir of skylarks.

SKYLARKS CHIRP

These males are singing for territory.

They're trying to attract females and, when they've paired up,

they'll breed and nest on the ground.

It's a lovely spring sound.

Moorland locations like this attract many species of ground-nesting

birds and they'll breed here from April right through till midsummer.

I've got a nice patch here.

You've got the rough grassland, you've got the rushes

but you've got a little bit of gorse as well and on the gorse here

a male stonechat has been sitting up for a while.

And near our territory, the female will be nearby somewhere.

Probably the nest will be in one of these gorse clumps

and he's a really smart bird.

He's got this sort of very dark head and a white collar

and they'll always sit up somewhere prominent and if you go

anywhere near the nest, they'll "chack, chack, chack" away to you.

They'll tell you, "Listen, keep away here now."

And this is typical meadow pipit habitat.

There's lots of meadow pipits up here.

They're a really important part of the food chain

because all the birds of prey will be eating it.

You have sparrows passing through, the merlins, peregrines as well.

And talking of birds of prey, there's quite a few of those around.

There's a buzzard, a whitish buzzard, perched up on a tree down there.

He's probably keeping an eye open for mice and voles.

Again, you'll have lots of mice and voles in an area like this.

And there's been a kite hanging around too,

floating around using the wind.

And that kite may be looking for mice and voles

but, up here, probably looking for carrion.

Because it's so hostile in the winter

and the end of the winter into spring, typically you'd have

lots of dead sheep, dead lambs,

so there's plenty of food up here for them.

I always like looking for wildlife in the uplands during spring.

You may have to walk for miles

but you quite often find something special.

This is Fan Llia Ridge,

one of the most spectacular paths in the Beacons.

It's the longest of its type in Britain

and leads you out of Fforest Fawr

to Carmarthenshire and the Black Mountain area.

This particular summit, right at the heart of the Black Mountain,

is called Garreg Lwyd.

It probably gets its Welsh name from the grey stones littering the summit.

And it's an important resting area for migrating

birds during the spring.

This is one of those really lucky occasions where you're in

the right place at the right time.

There's a small flock of dotterel. They call them a trip,

a small trip of dotterel. I'm not quite sure, maybe...

I've seen nine birds, there might be one two more.

For me, that's a rare occurrence.

The first time I've seen dotterel in Wales for probably for about seven

or eight years. This is a brilliant find.

And these shoulders, these high tops here,

are a regular passage place for these birds.

They're birds that winter down in Morocco

and probably these will breed up in the Highlands of Scotland

and these ridges they pass through most years.

It's the first time I've stumbled across them here

and they're cracking birds, they're absolutely stunning.

If you look at them, some are more colourful than others and you

would bet money that the colourful ones are the males, but they're not.

They're the females.

Because when they get onto their breeding grounds,

the female will mate with a male, she lays the eggs, but then

she abandons it, she leaves the eggs and the chicks for the male to rear.

She moves on, she mates with another male, lays some more eggs

and moves on again.

That's why she's the one who's colourful

and he's the one who's quite drab cos he's the one who's going

to have to sit on the floor incubating those eggs.

The dotterel will also call in on the Beacons on their return

journey to Africa during early autumn but, at that time, the females will

not be as colourful,

with the breeding season completed for another year.

There are more than 5,000km of stone walls in the Brecon Beacons.

This particular one is right on the western boundary

of the National Park, near Llandeilo.

Stuart Fry has been building and repairing walls for 22 years

and, during that time, he's built 22km of walls.

It's not the best of days to be out on the hill by yourself.

-Good Lord, no, it's not, is it?

-How are you? Good to see you.

-How are you?

-Good to see you. You carry on working. Go on.

-So what's happened here? You've got a bit of a...

-A collapse.

-..a break in the wall or a collapse.

-Yeah, the wall's collapsed.

How old is this wall, then? Do we know?

Yes, we do know, funnily enough,

because there was an enclosure act for the whole of this hill in 1812.

It's classically... The earliest is going to be mid-1700s, you can

tell that by the way it's built.

I don't say it's not built well, cos that's a bit unkind to the...

It's been here for, what? Nearly 300 years.

But it's got characteristics that tell me it wasn't built by...

Craftsmen.

Well, I wouldn't say they weren't craftsmen,

they were being paid for what they put up.

-It was a fast job?

-Fast job. Get it up as quick as they could.

If you see a collapsed wall, look in the middle.

The middle is called the hearting.

It's the heart of the wall and if that fails...

And the way it fails is it's not packed tightly enough

when the wall is put up and it'll sink, it'll rattle down

to the middle, so that the two sides are not supported.

And the fundamental of dry-stone walling,

it's why people's garden walls always fall down, if you think of...

There's a good example here now of why this has fallen.

If you look at that stone...

that is laid in exactly the same way as you'd lay a brick or

a concrete block.

That's not the way to do dry-stone walling.

If you look at this stone, the depth,

the length of the stone is into the wall.

It's zippering into the wall and that's the way to do it.

But, of course, you've only covered that much face

whereas, by putting it that way, you've covered that much face.

So if you want to build it quickly, throw it up like that.

And that's why these walls fail.

Stuart's walls will probably last another 300 years and, who knows?

Someone might be here then to read his stones for an insight

into the Brecon Beacons and its people of today.

Many have lived

and worked in the remotest parts of the Beacons for thousands of years.

Even the bleakest upland has been much more densely

settled in the past.

These walls were built by a Celtic tribe

2,500 years ago.

Do you know?

The Brecon Beacons National Park has got so much to offer,

an incredible amount.

You've got the landscape, you've got the wildlife, you've got peace

and solitude when you want it, and you've got a lot of history, too.

And this is one of the Park's many hidden gems.

It's Garn Fawr, it's an Iron Age hill fort.

Inside this, and this is huge, you could fit five,

six rugby pitches in here, maybe even more.

There would have been a whole village,

if not a town, in here and the views over the Towy Valley

looking towards Llandovery that way, Llandeilo the other way.

I've been lucky because this spring I've had the park pretty much

to myself, but all of that is going to change now

when I come back in the summer.