The Brecon Beacons National Park has announced that, moving forward, it will be referring to the park by its Welsh name: Bannau Brycheiniog, or, informally, the Bannau.
The change has come into effect on the park’s 66th anniversary, and is a move park leaders have said will be put into place as acknowledgement of the Welsh culture and heritage in the region, as well as an indication of the park’s desire to move towards net zero targets.
Catherine Mealing-Jones, the park authority’s CEO, has said:
“Given that we’re trying to provide leadership on decarbonisation, a giant burning brazier is not a good look.
“Our park is shaped by Welsh people, Welsh culture, and as we looked into it we realised the brand we’ve got and the name we’ve got, it’s a bit of a nonsense, it doesn’t really make any sense – the translation Brecon Beacons doesn’t really mean anything in Welsh.
“We’d always had the name Bannau Brycheiniog as the Welsh translation and we just felt we needed to put that front and centre as an expression about the new way we wanted to be celebrating Welsh people, Welsh culture, Welsh food, Welsh farming – all of the things that need to come with us as we go through this change in the management plan.”
She made it clear that the name change isn’t compulsory and can be referred to by its English or Welsh name, but encourages people to use the Welsh name.
