MOUNTAINS! They’re loved by the nation for a reason. These majestic peaks are one of the defining aspects of Wales.

They have provided us with sanctuary, solace, and inspiration for generations.

The ancient Celts used them as a place to hide and ambush invading Roman armies. And Owain Glyndwr would later rely on them to evade capture and fight a guerrilla war against the invading Anglo-Norman hordes.

Literary luminaries such as J.R.R. Tolkien, R.S. Thomas and Philip Pullman would take inspiration from them, and Richard Burton would perfect his famous voice reciting Shakespeare in their airy realms.

Many are drawn to the peaks for a new perspective and a communion with something a lot older, more nuanced, and purer than anything the modern world has to offer.

You expect to find a lot of things on top of a mountain.

Peace of mind, solitude, a hushed stillness, an air of timelessness. What you don’t expect to find is a social media influencer in a bath.

Yet that’s exactly the eyesore greeting anyone making a pilgrimage to the top of Pen y Fan earlier this month.

Admittedly, there aren’t many places on the planet free of the tawdry taint of the influencer.

Like a plague straight out of the pages of the Old Testament, a sickness for clicks, views, followers and validation has turned the world on its head.

Runners and hikers with selfie sticks, grimacing desperately at their phone in an attempt to convince some abstract audience that they are having “a hell of a time,” are now commonplace in many hitherto remote spots.

Yet there is a line, and a social media influencer named Tom Christopher has gone and crossed it.

The 25-year-old thought, for a jape, he’d take a bathtub to the top of Pen y Fan and have a dip as the sun sets on civilisation as we know it.

You might be thinking it’s a lot of work to carry a tub 2,907 feet above sea level, and what’s the point?

That’s because you’re probably not chasing eyeballs in the attention economy, where unusual stunts and wacky videos translate into views, followers and bucks.

Christopher said his rationale behind the stunt was “to make a cool, wholesome video which made people smile.”

Admittedly, most of us never knew there was a big hole in our lives where a Gen Z fly tipper in flip-flops should be,

Now if Christopher had just carried the tub to the top, had a bath for Insta and carried it back down again, that would have been nauseating enough.

Except he didn’t.

He left it on the summit like a bored toddler discarding a toy.

Thankfully, the next day, the boys from Cardiff Rugby Academy stumbled across the tub while carrying out volunteer work and wasted no time in removing the offending item.

Where an influencer saw the mountain as a photo op, the Cardiff lads saw it as an iconic and sacred part of Cymru that had been despoiled and used by a content creator from Swansea.

That’s the difference!

In his defence, Christopher has since said he shouldn’t have left the tub up there and explained to the BBC, “I should never have left anything up the mountain. I'm glad the message of this story is that, even though I'm the villain, everyone's sticking up for the national park.

"It's a dirty mistake; I shouldn't be leaving anything up the mountain.”

Yet the damage has been done. What seeds has the stunt sown in the mind of the next enthusiastic narcissist looking to make a name for themselves?

And although the Welsh Government can’t legitimately ban social media influencers from our mountains, if they could, then perhaps they should.