When you hear of people setting out to ascend Pen Y Fan, you can almost guarantee that later that day, you’ll see them posting online, standing next to the marker that is placed at the highest point on the mountain. In fact, due to the amount of people that climb Pen Y Fan each year, the plaque has become one of the most photographed locations in Wales.
The summit signs have been touched by tens of millions of people over the years, as they pose to take a photo or selfie with it.
You may notice that we said summit signs there, rather than the summit sign. That’s because, the current sign is not actually the original.
As you can imagine, the sign takes a heavy beating, standing proud at the summit. With the constantly changing weather on Pen Y Fan, to the adults and children alike climbing over and touching it, there’s no wonder that every so often, it needs to be replaced.
It last got replaced in 2018 with the old sign being sold at auction, for the grand sum of £2,100 to an anonymous buyer. The funds from the sale were put towards the upkeep of the national park, which Pen Y Fan is situated in.
The sign usually only takes a couple of minutes to replace but due to the publicity of the old sign being removed, along with a busy period at the summit, it took nearly 3 hours to change the sign over to the new one.
The sign itself is made of aluminium and displays the height of which the marker is placed, 886 metres (2,907 ft) above sea-level. It also features The National Trust logo and name, who manage and own Pen Y Fan.