For the first time, the iconic National Trust sign at the summit of Pen y Fan will be going under the auction hammer to raise awareness of the Brecon Beacons appeal.

Pen y Fan is the highest mountain in southern Britain and over 350,000 people set off on their trek to the top every year, with numbers more than doubling in the last five years.

The sign which will be placed in auction has been in situ at the top of Pen y Fan since the early 2000s, experiencing all weathers and witnessing marriage proposals, first outings for new babies and personal accomplishments of beating the mountain, routinely shared by many with a selfie.

To help raise awareness of this special place and people’s connections to it, National Trust Wales are asking for you to share your own stories and selfies next to the iconic sign on social media using #MyPenyFanSelfie hashtag.

As part of routine management, the sign was replaced by a younger model by the ranger team. Switching the signs would normally be a ten minute job, but with a queue of over fifty people regularly waiting at the top of Pen y Fan for their well-deserved selfie, it took the team three hours to make the swap.

This nationally iconic sign took a trip to London for a buyers viewing on 7th October and then goes under the hammer at the Welsh sale with Rogers Jones Auctioneers on 20th October under Lot 3, shortly after the start time of 10:30.

The National Trust launched the Brecon Beacons appeal in February of this year and so far half of the money has been raised to help with urgent repairs to the footpaths up Pen y Fan.

The footpath team have completed 200m of the Pont ar Daf footpath repair since the appeal launched in February, with 200 tonnes of crushed stone airlifted by helicopter onto the mountain in May.

Rob Reith, Lead Ranger for the Brecon Beacons National Trust said: “The stone surfacing work has gone really well so far and donations from the appeal have been a great boost to our programme.

“We couldn’t have completed this year’s work without the funding and efforts of our rangers and volunteers, who have been able to help to create a stable footpath on the Pont ar Daf route so people can continue to enjoy walking this iconic landscape.

“It’s been great to have so much support and to be able to watch the land slowly recover, but there’s still a way to go with 400m of this path left to repair this year and many more routes to work on across the central Beacons.

"These repairs are absolutely essential, to reduce erosion, protect the special landscape and ensure paths are fit for purpose for the hundreds of thousands of people that come to Pen y Fan every year."