JUNE 2024 · ADVENTURE
Summer Solstice camp - Llyn Y Fan Fach
Llyn y Fan Fach, Black Mountain, Wales
I came up in the evening and pitched the tent on the shore of Llyn y Fan Fach. The lake sits at the base of the escarpment, the ridge rising steeply to the south-east. From the aerial perspective — drone up early in the still air — the sheep herds show as white dots and white lines across the dark slopes. The scale of the mountain flattens everything except those marks.
Midsummer means the light doesn't drop fully. The sky never went black. By 3:30am it was already breaking over the water, a cold pale dawn, the tent still pitched on the grass beside the lake. I set up a tripod to film the light coming through.
The sky never went black.
Llyn y Fan Fach — June 2024
The reservoir workings on the shore: walls still standing to waist height, the courtyard open to the sky. The drain hole in one section has corroded moss around it. I walked through it at dawn in the thin light, the lake a few metres away.
The textures at ground level: close-up of spiky dark lichen on pale stones. Lichen-covered rock on dry grass with pebble fragments beside it. Pink mountain flowers in sharp focus, the rocky moorland and stream blurred behind them. A sheep skull on grass and moss — exposed bone, domestic livestock, unmoved.
Aerial view of rounded mountain peaks with sheep herds visible as white dots across the slopes
Tent pitched on grass beside a still lake at dusk with surrounding mountains and reflected sky
Aerial view of lake shore with pebble beach and water meeting bright green grass
Tent camped on mountainside surrounded by scattered boulders on moss and grass terrain
Aerial view of Llyn y Fan Fach lake with tent and surrounding mountain slopes
Tent camped on grassy mountainside beside dark water with distant peaks at twilight
Aerial perspective of exposed stone shale shore meeting calm lake water with grass
Mobile phone mounted on tripod filming dawn light over lake and mountains
Lichen-covered weathered rock on dry grass with pebbles and stone fragments
Close-up of spiky dark lichen on pale ground stones
Aerial view of mountain landscape with sheep herds marked as white lines on dark slopes
Abandoned stone fort structure on water's edge with weathered walls and central courtyard
Weathered stone wall with corroded drain hole and moss growth
Sheep skull on grass and moss with exposed bone from domestic livestock
Mountain stream flowing through grass-covered slopes with exposed stones and lichen
Scattered boulders on moorland with moss and grass beneath mountain peaks
Single white sheep lying on wild moorland grass and stones
Pink mountain flowers in focus with rocky moorland and stream in blurred background
Gravel path curving through green slopes toward lake with small waterfall and scattered stones
Summer Solstice camp - Llyn Y Fan Fach
Summer Solstice camp - Llyn Y Fan Fach