№ 16Lake · Carmarthenshire, Wales
Llyn y Fan Fach
A black glacial lake whose fairy bride left three sons — and a real dynasty of medieval doctors.
Photographs SNappa2006 (CC BY 2.0) · Alan Hughes (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Thomas Roberts (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Under the scarp of the Black Mountain, Llyn y Fan Fach is where the most durable of Welsh legends begins: a farmer wins a wife from the lake, on the condition that he never strike her three causeless blows. Years and three thoughtless taps later, she walks back into the water, taking every cow she brought with her.
Her sons, the story says, were taught healing by their mother — and here the legend does something unusual: it attaches itself to documented history. The Physicians of Myddfai were a real medical dynasty, serving Welsh princes from the thirteenth century, their remedies surviving in manuscript. The walk up to the dark water takes about an hour, red kites overhead.
The knowledge
- Getting there
- From Llanddeusant in the western Bannau Brycheiniog; a clear reservoir track climbs to the lake in about an hour.
- Best time
- May to September for settled weather; go early — the bowl holds its silence best before mid-morning.
- Local tip
- Continue up onto the ridge of Picws Du if legs allow — the lake looks best from the rim of its own story.
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