Wales

In the east of the Brecon Beacons National Park are the mighty Black Mountains, straddling the border of Wales and England. It’s an area that’s often overlooked, but those who find their way here discover a region that belies its dark name: a greenscape of hills and valleys, home to thriving wildlife and passionate, forward-thinking communities

- DANIEL ALFORD

Near the town of Crickhowell is the Llangattock Escarpment, a craggy limestone ridge that rises hundreds of feet above the landscape. It’s a dramatic glimpse into South Wales’s industrial past: limestone was quarried here in the 18th and 19th centuries and sent down to the limekilns along the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal. The lime was then used as fertiliser, white wash or in the important ironmaking trade. The industry has long gone, and the escarpment is now a popular beauty spot, grazed peacefully by sheep and wild ponies.

At the top of Bryn Arw, a hill north of Abergavenny, Rob Penn (third from left) leads a group of volunteers through the ferns and foxgloves. A former lawyer, Rob co-founded Stump Up For Trees, a tree-planting charity that aims to enhance the area’s biodiversity and restore the mountain to its natural woodland state. Here, in the drizzle, the team are ‘bracken bashing’, which clears away dead or dying bracken to allow hawthorn saplings to grow.