Having worked in the Brecon Beacons National Park (BBNP) for over 45 years I have had countless emails and phone calls concerning the rebranding of the Brecon Beacons National Park to Bannau Brycheiniog.

All the people who have contacted me clearly state that they have no quarrel whatsoever with using Welsh names. However, if the National Park had continued to use the Welsh translation for Brecon Beacons National Park as their only title most would I feel have been contented.

Some years ago the Wales Tourist Board in an extensive national survey asked people what were the top names that they associated with Wales. Snowdonia National Park, Pembrokeshire National Park, Brecon Beacons National Park, came up as the top three names most associated with Wales.

Therefore, for the tourism industry to have the name Brecon Beacons National Park is an ‘iconic marketing tool’ universally known and without doubt the name draws the attention of millions of people who might be thinking of visiting the area.

To even think about downgrading this name would be an act of ‘marketing madness’. The BBNPA have always had an uncanny knack of upsetting local people with their attitude that they are the ‘elite’ and knowing what is best for the locals. The decision to change the name to Bannau Brycheiniog was done with little or no consultation.

The new name chosen in part refers to the fifth-century King of the region called King Brychan, who was born in Ireland, the son of an Irish Prince in 419 AD, and had a Welsh mother.

History records that he grew up to be a ruthlessly fierce warrior and would collect his enemies’ dismembered limbs after a battle and display their chopped up remains as trophies!

However, if the National Park had done their homework more diligently they would also have found that King Brychan has only one very dubious claim to historical fame. The king was in fact a notorious lecher who prayed on the women of his Kingdom and is reputed to have fathered 63 children!

In old age King Brychan abdicated his throne and became a hermit probably due to being sexually exhausted?

Therefore, by choosing such a sexual predator it may well upset the sensitivities and moral righteousness of the people living in the park, as King Brychan would surely have been jailed for breaching the Equality Act 2010 and Human Rights Act 1998., even if he was still the King of the region today!

In today’s modern world one has to question the authority’s wisdom in promoting a name so closely associated with King Brychan who had such a terrible promiscuity record regarding how he treated the women in his kingdom!

Should the Park Authorities want a logo in the future reflecting King Brychan attributes may I suggest instead of employing a very expensive rebranding consultant, as they did to finally come up with the new name for the park; I will charge them nothing for the suggestion for a logo that will be remembered forever by the inhabitants of the park and symbolise the standing off the Bannau Brycheiniog Authority.

The only possible logo for the Park Authority to use should in fact feature a male erect phallus in tribute to King Brychan, for his amazing feat of fathering 63 children!

Just imagine how tourists would gaze up in wonderment seeing a giant King Brychan phallus sitting on top of the Bannau Brycheiniog headquarters, and the potential for a tremendous increase in visitor numbers with tourists coming from all over the world to see the symbolic symbol of lecherous old King Brychan being displayed so proudly in Wales!

- Ashford P, Dan-yr-Ogof