page_title: Fforest Fawr Geopark
section_title: Principal attractions
hierarchical_section_title: Fforest Fawr Geopark / Principal attractions
caption_attribution_description: English: Main stream way with rock striping.
context_page_description: Fforest Fawr Geopark was the first Geopark to be designated in Wales having gained membership of both the European Geoparks Network and the UNESCO-assisted Global Network of National Geoparks in October 2005. The Geopark aims to promote and support sustainable tourism and other opportunities to improve the economy of the area whilst safeguarding the natural environment. Its aims largely coincide with the statutory duties and purpose of the National Park within which it sits.
context_section_description: The Geopark celebrates the geological and wider natural heritage of the area together with the cultural heritage relating to 7000 years of recorded human occupation of the area since the last ice age. Each of these aspects of the area are closely related to one another.
  The Old Red Sandstone (ORS) forms the principal summits which have attracted walkers to the area for decades.  Walks on Pen y Fan and Corn Du and over the Carmarthen Fans / Bannau Brycheiniog are amongst the most popular.  Carboniferous Limestone forms an east-west belt of country to the south of the ORS which sports some of the country’s longest and deepest cave networks such as Ogof Ffynnon Ddu  and the impressive Porth yr Ogof into which the Afon Mellte flows. Further south again is a Millstone Grit landscape, the most visited part of which is Waterfall Country which boasts the finest collection of waterfalls in the UK.
  Bronze Age standing stones, round barrows and stone circles, Iron Age, hillforts and mediaeval castles all feature with Maen Llia, Carn Goch and Carreg Cennen Castle being outstanding examples of each to be found in the Geopark.  
  The industrial archaeology of the Geopark is outstanding as the industrial revolution shifted into gear in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries making South Wales one of the earliest industrialised societies in the world.  Limekilns dot the hillsides wherever limestone puts in an appearance and tramways for conveying both raw materials and finished products are plentiful.  The ambitious Brecon Forest Tramroad scheme was one of the earliest and longest tramway systems in the world. Tramways also served the silica rock mines and quarries, notably around Dinas Rock and the gorge of the Nedd Fechan at Pontneddfechan.  Many of these sites are interpreted for the visitor, others are left for the enthusiast to discover.
caption: Part of the interior of Ogof Ffynnon Ddu with a terraced cascade and three standing and climbing cave explorers wearing safety equipment
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