Three Peaks Trial Links to the JRR Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings'

Lord of the Rings - Map of Middle Earth

If you click on this link https://youtu.be/9zxXgJN-sSs you'll have an extract from Derek Brockway's Weatherman Walking series on BBC Wales in which Emma Harrison, who runs the Star Inn in Bwlch, tells Derek about the links between the Black Mountains and how it's believed it inspired Tolkien's vision of the landscape in his Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tolkien stayed in the village of Talybont-on-Usk in the 1940s, while working on parts of The Lord of The Rings and whilst in Talybont-on-Usk he walked the local hills and would have seen the conical topped Sugar Loaf which is very similar to his 'Lonely Mountain'. He named the hobbit settlement of Crickhollow after Crickhowell, nine miles from Talybont. Also in The Lord of the Rings, Buckland was a colony of hobbits between the Old Forest and the Brandywine River. Tolkien is thought to have based this part of Middle-earth on the Buckland Estate, whose ancient, protected woodlands stand beside the River Usk. It's also believed Merthyr was the inspiration for Mordor.

The drawing of the Lonely Mountain and the photo of Sugar Loaf do seem to support the theory. The ridges at the base of the Lonely Mountain also have a similarity with the Llanwenarth, Rholben and Deri ridges which come off Sugar Loaf.