New Weekender: The science of deep time: Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons), Wales

August 2024 - 3 days

Register now at tours@newscientist.com and we will contact you later this year with full tour details.

Join New Scientist on a gentle walking weekend in the stunning Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons), learning about the formation and geology of our earth from a range of accompanying experts, as well as how humans are impacting its future. Witness the cosmic, geological, and human forces which have shaped our lives, and understand humankind’s place in the story of the Earth and ask ourselves: are we entering the Anthropocene? 

For some of us, understanding the timeline involved in the creation of our world and the wider cosmos is mind boggling. Millions and billions of years become hard to put into context of our daily lives. This tour was designed to help you do just that. 

Based in South Wales, you will stargaze back through time, journey deep underground in caves, climb mountains, and hunt fossils with palaeontologists. You will learn about the science of deep time from experts in their field, gaining an appreciation and understanding of the timelines and processes involved, and the very small amount of space and time we occupy in it. 

New Scientist would like to invite you to join us for a journey through this timeline by exploring the earth's core and the stars above us, you can map out the geological processes which form our universe and have shaped our world. 

DAY 1: ARRIVE, WELCOME LECTURE AND EVENING DARK SKY ASTRONOMY

Arrive at Llanerchindda Farm, on the edge of the Cambrian Mountains near Llandovery. In the afternoon, New Scientist's Richard Webb will talk you through the development of deep time and how it can be used to understand the timelines of the universe and geological processes. 

After dinner at Llanerchindda Farm you will have an outdoor interactive seminar using a number of telescopes hosted by astronomy experts during which you will be able to put the cosmic processes and timelines into context by seeing star creation in action. See how our own star and neighbouring planets were created after the creation of the universe 10 billion years ago, and how conditions arose which allowed life to evolve on earth. 

DAY 2: DAN YR OGOF CAVE TOUR, OUTDOOR PALEONTOLOGY SEMINAR, YOGA CLASS

Start the day with a yoga and mindfulness class before breakfast, enjoying a morning which is 4.5 billion years in the making.  As your journey through deep time continues, you will spend today exploring the geological processes and timelines of the earth once created. 

Visiting the show caves of Dan yr Ogof, you will be taken on a guided walk through part of the cave system, learning from local geologists how the intricate network and impressive structures were created over 300 million years ago (the last 6% of the earth’s history), and the geological forces grinding away to shape our world.

After lunch, you will be joined by a local palaeontologist to explore the rugged landscape on foot, hunting for fossils created anytime from the same time as the caves themselves all the way up to 65 million years ago. You will learn about the different methodologies used in identifying may be lucky to take home your own piece of our prehistoric world.

As a precursor to tomorrow’s activities, after dinner there will be a viewing of the film: Anthropocene, an age argued by some to have started with the industrial revolution. The film aims to explore how we are entering an age where humans are impacting the face of the earth through our activity. 

You have explored nearly 300 million years of deep time today, so enjoy a good rest.

DAY 3: MOUNTAIN DEEP TIME GUIDED WALK

Today is time to embark on a journey through the epochs all the way to the present day and explore the Anthropocene.

You will explore the mountains of the Brecon Beacons whilst listening to an account of the 4.6 billion years of earth’s history. Each metre walked will represent 1 million years of time. You will hear about the different milestones of earth’s creation. As you summit the mountain you will be able to look back and see your own start point as well as a visual timeline of the deep time history of the earth. With human history being represented by the length of your finger on this 4.6km walk, our impact on the earth is put into stark contrast.

The event officially finishes in the afternoon but you are welcome to stay another night for free at the Llanerchindda Farm and enjoy the stunning location.

Depart the Brecon Beacons with a deeper understanding of deep time up to the present day. You may look on the time, landscapes, people of our world differently, and help spread the word of how humans hold the future of our Earth in our hands.