Editing Brecon Beacons (section)

==Toponymy==
The name ''Bannau Brycheiniog'' is first attested in the sixteenth century, and 'Brecon Beacons' first occurs in the eighteenth century as "Brecknock Beacons".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Owen |first1=Hywel Wyn |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191731809 |title=Dictionary of the Place-Names of Wales |last2=Morgan |first2=Richard |year=2007 |publisher=Gomer |isbn=978-1-84323-901-7 |location=Llandysul |publication-date=2007 |pages=45 |oclc=191731809}}</ref> ''Bannau Brycheiniog'' derives from the Welsh ''bannau'', "peaks", and ''[[Brycheiniog]]'', the name of an early medieval kingdom which covered the area.<ref name="Gomer">{{Cite book |last1=Owen |first1=Hywel Wyn |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191731809 |title=Dictionary of the Place-Names of Wales |last2=Morgan |first2=Richard |publisher=Gomer |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-84323-901-7 |location=Llandysul |pages=45 |oclc=191731809}}</ref> The English name is derived from the Welsh one; in the eleventh century the town of Brecon is recorded as 'Brecheniauc', which became "Brecknock" and "Brecon".<ref>{{Citation |last=Mills |first=A. D. |title=Brecon |date=2011-01-01 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199609086.001.0001/acref-9780199609086-e-2171 |work=A Dictionary of British Place Names |access-date=2023-06-09 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199609086.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-960908-6|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In a paragraph on Brecknockshire, [[John Leland (antiquary)|John Leland]]'s 1536–1539 ''Itinerary'' notes that:

{{Blockquote|text=<nowiki>Blak Montayne is most famose, for he strecchith, as I have lerned, his rootes on one side within a iiii. or v. myles of </nowiki>[[Monmouth|Monemuth]], and on the other side as nere to Cairmerdin ([[Carmarthen]]). Though this be al one montayne, yet many partes of him have sundry names.}}

Leland ascribes the name "Banne Brekeniauc" to the hills surrounding "Artures Hille" (Pen y Fan), also calling the range the "Banne Hilles".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/itineraryinwales00lelauoft/page/104 |title=The Itinerary in Wales of John Leland in or about the years 1536–9 |publisher=George Bell and Sons |year=1906 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Lucy Toulmin |location=London |pages=104, 106, 110}}</ref>

The term "Brecknock Beacons" was used in the eighteenth century and referred to the area around Pen y Fan, which was itself sometimes called 'the (Brecknock) Beacon'. For instance, Emanuel Bowen's ''A New and accurate map of South Wales'' (1729) labels the peak as 'The Vann or Brecknock Beacon',  John Clark's 1794 ''General View of the Agriculture of the County of Brecknock'' refers to 'the Vann, or Brecknock Beacon, the undisputed sovereign of all the mountains in South Wales', and an 1839 [[tithe map]] of Cantref parish labels the mountain simply 'Beacon'.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bowen |first=Emanuel |date=1729 |title=A New and accurate map of South Wales containing the counties of Pembroke, Glamorgan, Carmarthen, Brecknock, Cardigan and Radnor wherein are exactly laid down and delineated from an actual survey and admeasurement all the towns, villages, churches, chaples, gentlemen's seats |url=https://viewer.library.wales/4997624 |url-status=live |access-date=17 April 2023 |website=National Library of Wales |archive-date=15 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220615083859/https://viewer.library.wales/4997624 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Clark |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-qsQAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22The+Vann+or+Brecknock+Beacon%22&pg=RA4-PA9 |title=General View of the Agriculture of the County of Brecknock |year=1794 |location=London |pages=9 |access-date=18 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418105933/https://books.google.com/books?id=-qsQAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22The+Vann+or+Brecknock+Beacon%22&pg=RA4-PA9 |archive-date=18 April 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Plan of the parish of Cantref in the County of Brecon |url=https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/767251 |url-status=live |access-date=15 February 2023 |website=People's Collection Wales |archive-date=16 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230216172656/https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/767251 }}</ref> A slightly wider definition was used in 1809 by the Breconshire historian [[Theophilus Jones (historian)|Theophilus Jones]], who wrote that 'of the lofty summits of the Brecknock Beacons, that most southwards is the lowest, and the other two nearly of a height, they are sometimes called Cader Arthur or Arthur's chair'.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Theophilus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QZDnAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22brecon+beacons%22&pg=PA388 |title=A History of the County of Brecknock |year=1809 |volume=II.I |location=Brecknock |pages=388 |access-date=17 April 2023 |archive-date=18 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418105927/https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_History_of_the_County_of_Brecknock/QZDnAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22brecon+beacons%22&pg=PA388&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> This implies that "Brecknock Beacons" referred to only three summits, including Pen y Fan and Corn Du.

To distinguish the Brecons Beacons range from the national park, the range is sometimes called the "Central Beacons".<ref name="Central Beacons">{{Cite web |date=2020-03-03 |title=Central Beacons |url=https://geotourismroute.eu/interests/central-beacons/ |access-date=2023-06-23 |website=European Atlantic Geoparks Route |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Five great places to walk in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park |url=https://www.visitwales.com/things-do/adventure-and-activities/walking/five-great-places-walk-brecon-beacons |access-date=2023-07-17 |website=VisitWales |language=en}}</ref>