UK national park ditches burning beacon logo in climate-friendly rebrand

By Farouq Suleiman

LONDON (Reuters) - A British national park, which attracts millions of visitors every year, has ditched its burning beacon logo and changed its name to reflect its Welsh-language roots in a rebranding designed to strip out any association with carbon emissions.

The rugged and picturesque Brecon Beacons, covering around 520 square miles (1,350 sq km) of mountainous South and Mid Wales, will now be known as Bannau Brycheiniog, park authorities announced on Monday.

"An old name for a new way to be. A name from our past to take us into our future," Welsh actor Michael Sheen said in a film clip on the park's website.

Translated into English, the name means "The Peaks of Brychan’s Kingdom," referring to kingdom of King Brychan who ruled that area of Wales during the 5th century. The park's landscape, which is used to train the country's elite SAS soldiers, attracts more than four million visitors per year.

The overhaul also included a new green and white logo to replace a brightly burning beacon.

"We’re an environmental organisation. We’re trying to cut carbon and push to net zero. So, having a carbon burning beacon just isn’t a good look," the park's Chief Executive Catherine Mealing-Jones told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The park also said there was no evidence beacons, once lit on peaks or coastlines to warn of an imminent attack, had ever been used in the area, and so the Welsh name better reflected its heritage.

The change comes almost six months after Wales’ largest National Park said it would switch from its English name, Snowdonia, to the Welsh Eryri, and use Yr Wyddfa instead of Snowdon when referring to the tallest mountain in Wales.

(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman; Editing by Mark Potter)