Ystradfellte: Wales' Wonderful Waterfall County

A photo is worth a thousand words, they say, and waterfalls make fantastic pics, so let me try and keep it short this time and let the photos tell the story. I must say that while several parts of the UK are a paradise for waterfall lovers like myself, nowhere can you find quite so many watery wonders in a small area as around the tiny, almost unpronounceable village of Ystradfellte (try this: oustra-VEL-ter) at the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park in south Wales. Sandwiched between the 3,000-foot-high peaks of the Beacons and the deep valleys of Glamorgan, Waterfall Country is a fantastic place to explore. Just sticking to the named waterfalls around the village, you've got yourself twelve beauties to admire. Add on the several smaller and unnamed (yet no less worthy!) falls nearby, and two especially impressive outliers, a few miles down the valley, and you've got yourself a couple of days of top-rate hiking and some of the finest photo opportunities in this part of Wales.

For easy hike and photo-op planning I've divided the waterfalls into groups by location. The twelve waterfalls around Ystradfellte village (the heart of Waterfall Country) can be explored in one long, thrilling day, but this area is so enchanting it's far better to take your time, divide your explorations over a couple of leisurely days, and visit favourites a couple of times. Just like the Beacons nearby, waterfall country is far from an undiscovered gem these days, so try to time your trip to the Four Waterfalls Walk (by far the most famous hike here) early or late in the day to miss the majority of other hikers. If there's still time after taking your fill of the waterfalls, save the obvious next expedition, an ascent of southern Wales' highest mountain (Pen y Fan) for out of season, when the most popular routes are a bit less crowded, and try the far less well-known Black Mountains range to the west.

Anyway, back to the waterfalls (which, unique to this area go by the name of sgwd (something like 'scood'), rather than the usual Welsh terms rhaeadr ('waterfall', 'RY-ader) or pistyll ('spout', pronounced a bit like 'PIStuth'). Hopefully these photos give some hint of how great this place really is. It's impossible to have a favourite place in a country as rich in amazing places as the UK, but Waterfall Country would be in my short list.

WATERFALLS OF THE UPPER NEATH VALLEY

Although Ystra-thingy is usually regarded as the center of Welsh Waterfall Country, a better base for exploring the area is the village of Pontneddfechan (pont-neth-vaughn) to the south. It's not only more easily accessible, lying just off the fast A465 trunk road, but there are also a pair of pubs and several accommodation options here.

Pontneddfechan is also the start of the hike to the waterfalls on the Neath and Pyrddin Rivers. The village is so tiny you'll have no trouble finding the trailhead, beside the bridge over river near the little visitor centre. There's a useful car park very nearby, on the left just as you enter the village.

Follow the road ahead into the village, turn left through the gate just before the bridge and follow the River Neath upstream into the woods along a wide, very well-trodden footpath. In about 15 minutes you'll reach the tributary of the Neath and Pyrddin rivers. Cross the footbridge over the Pyrddin and follow the opposite bank upstream for just a couple of minutes to Sgwd Gwladys (Lady's Fall), which arches gracefully through the air well clear of the cliff behind, and has a rough, rather crumbly ledge where you can stand behind the falling water if you dare.

Climb up via the right bank to the large, flat, rocky river bed at the top of the fall for views over the brink (be careful!) then continue upstream along the River Pyrddin towards the highest, least visited and supposedly most difficult of the Waterfall Country falls to reach, Sgwd Einion Gam (Fall of Einion the Crooked).

I suppose how easy or difficult you find this short hike depends on your past hiking experience (and the amount of water flowing through the gorge). There's no official footpath to the waterfall, but patches of trail can be followed much of the way. Don't, however try to reach the waterfall if the river is running high unless you really know what you're doing. Personally after many of the waterfall adventures I've had in Taiwan, Sgwd Einion Gam is a walk in the park, and most able-bodied hikers will find its reputation as being inaccessible rather exaggerated. There is one slightly exposed but short section where you should take great care, when a very narrow, crumbly bit of trail scales the cliffs looming over a narrow stretch of the gorge, but once through that you're almost at the waterfall, which is hidden until the last minute. To see the main waterfall properly you have to climb a low rock 'step' below it, where the river falls over a small lower fall, but the footholds are big and fairly easy.

Retrace steps to the footbridge, continue ahead to the the confluence with the Neath River, and turn north along it, soon climbing high above it through the woods before descending to the first couple of (unnamed) waterfalls on the Neath. They're small, but quite delightful, and a good prelude to the larger falls further upstream.

A short stroll further is the multi-layered Sgwd y Bedol (Horseshoe Falls). The uppermost tier really is horseshoe-shaped, but Niagara it ain't. This horseshoe is just a couple of feet high!

The best waterfalls on the Neath lie just a little further upstream: the two Ddwli Falls. First up is the stunning ensemble of Sgwd Ddwli Isaf ('lower gushing falls').

From the top it's just a short stroll to perhaps the best of the Neath waterfalls, the shapely Sgwd Ddwli (you guessed it, the name means 'gushing falls), plunging into a huge pool.

A trail continues north towards Ystradfellte for hikers that want to make a super-long day hike of all the waterfalls. Otherwise retrace steps back along the bank of the River Neath to Pontneddfechan and a well-deserved pint and dinner in the cosy Old White Horse Inn.

If you're still hungry for waterfalls (albeit only small ones) or are a completist, follow Dinas Road past the Inn, and turn right in a few minutes for the impressive cliff of Dinas Rock, one of the the most famous rock climbing sites in this region of Wales. Past the rock is the entrance to the once very hard-to-reach Sychryd Gorge and waterfalls. A short, excellent path has now been constructed through the lowest part of the gorge, and it's now by far the easiest walk in Waterfall Country, although the falls are pretty rather than impressive.

THE FOUR WATERFALLS WALK

How things have changed! When I first visited Waterfall Country as a teenager on his first major hostelling trip forty years ago, the Four Waterfalls Walk was only moderately well-known, and certainly far less popular than today. Aim to visit early or late in the day to avoid the crowds at the Fall of Snow. Whenever you go, though, you're unlikely to have this, the most popular of all the waterfalls here, to yourself.

The walk is usually started at the (well signposted) car park about a mile south of Ystradfellte village. Before starting the walk, scramble down to the riverbank across the road from the car park to the low, glowering mouth of Porth Yr Ogof, which at 20 meters wide and 8 in height is the largest in Wales (although dwarfed by the entrance to Peak Cavern in the English Peak District, the largest cave mouth in Britain at 20 meters high and 35 meters wide).

For the waterfalls, just follow the sign. The first stretch, beside pastoral grassy fields, is surprisingly gentle, and there's no hint of the drama to come until you're almost at the head of the first waterfall, Sgwd Clun-gwyn ('fall of the white meadow'). The view of this bold, forthright plunge isn't great from this side, as you can't safely get to its foot from the path, so if you have time, retrace steps upstream a couple of minutes to a fork in the path, turn left, cross the river above the falls by the footbridge, and head downstream back to the fall, where there are a few ways to get to its base.

Below Sgwd Clun-gwyn the trail to the next two falls on the walk is narrower and steeper. Not difficult in any way, but since this walk is a tourist favourite these days, and attracts a fair number of unfit visitors, a rather dull detour (don't take it!) leads through the forest straight to Sgwd-y-Eira, bypassing the most dramatic section of the walk. Unless you're seriously unfit, indifferent about the prospect of seeing two fantastic waterfalls, have a very poor head for heights, or are wearing your flip-flops, ignore the warning signs and keep right on the (now much narrower) path, soon finally inside the impressive gorge, and down to the head of perhaps the most spectacular waterfall in Waterfall Country, Sgwd Isaf Clun-gwyn, which is in three amazing parts.

At the top, be sure to keep right and clamber up to stand alongside the upper waterfall, a stunning wide curtain which, uniquely, cascades at almost right-angles to the river's normal direction of flow.

Immediately below it, the full force of the river is concentrated over the impressive main fall.

The final fall, easily missed as the main footpath climbs away from the river before reaching it, is a series of powerful cascades into a narrow gorge.

Not far below this amazing sight, perhaps the highlight of Waterfall Country, look out on the right (again it's just off the path) for the beautiful, secluded Sgwd y Pannwr ('Fuller's Fall'), apparently named after the fullers (workers who cleansed just-woven cloth of its oils and dirt to whiten it), who used to work here.

After the Fuller's Fall, the path starts climbing back up the side of the gorge to rejoin the easy path at the top. It's a stiff climb. Turning right at the top when the path is joined by the easy cop-out path from the first waterfall, in another couple of minutes the path descends again down several hundred steps, this time into the gorge of the River Hepste.

You'll hear the sound of the area's most famous waterfall long before you first see it. Once at the bottom, walk upstream for a minute or two to the base of the beautiful Sgwd yr Eira ('fall of snow', also known, less poetically, as the Upper Cilhepste Falls), Like Sgwd Gwladys, the water falls well clear of the cliff, creating a wide ledge behind it. Unlike it, the ledge behind the fall of snow is wide and easy, and you shouldn't get wet!

The footpath passes right behind the wide curtain of water (which is a lot further in front of you than it appears from the front). Walk behind the waterfall and follow the path down the far bank of the river for a few meters for what I think is the finest viewpoint of this most beautiful of Welsh waterfalls.

Follow the north bank of the River Hepste back downstream from the waterfall to the base of the steps you just came down. Before climbing them and heading back (or onwards along public footpaths towards Pontneddfechan), continue along fragments of trail for a hundred yards or so to the smaller but enchanting Lower Cilhepste Falls, a fantastic retreat from the crowds on a busy day. Most people have no idea they exist! If you scramble down the gorge side to see the falls close-up, however, be extremely careful, as a slip here could be fatal.

HENRHYD and MELINCOURT WATERFALLS

It's slightly ironic that two of the three highest waterfalls in this part of Wales are just outside Waterfall Country itself. It's just a short drive from Pontneddfechan to both though, so try not to miss either of them.

Protected by the National Trust, Henrhyd Falls is the highest waterfall in southern Wales at 90 feet, and quite a spectacle when in full voice. Plan a visit after heavy rain, as this lofty plume lies on a fall smaller stream than any of the waterfalls described above, and in dry weather the flow is reduced to a disappointing trickle.

The signposted car park lies beside the stream immediately above the head of the waterfall, but to get to the bottom to actually see it you have to follow a trail downstream along the edge of the gorge for a ways, until a zigzag path descends into the wooded gorge and back upstream to the base of the waterfall. It's a startlingly beautiful spot, with a huge natural ledge allowing you once again to walk right behind the waterfall. Henrhyd Falls has always been pretty well-known, both because it's both very impressive and an easy, ten-minute walk from the road, but it became more famous still after it was seen in The Dark Knight Rises (the third of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, released in 2012), when it stood in for the entrance to the Bat Cave.

The waterfall is 5 miles northwest of Pontneddfechan, just past the village of Coelbren.

Another tall fall at 80 feet high, Melincourt Waterfall lies 7 miles southwest of Pontneddfechan, a short detour off the road to Swansea. Today it's an easy and fairly level walk of ten minutes or so from the car park to the waterfall. Melincourt has been attracting nature-loving visitors for several hundred years - Turner even made a painting of it in 1794, although a trip back then must have been a lot more strenuous than the short stroll to the falls today!

Purely for completeness I should add Aberdunlais Falls, five miles further down the Swansea road from Melincourt. Owned by the National Trust, members might find it worth seeing the waterfall (as they can get in for free), but compared to all the other waterfalls here it's rather underwhelming and the entrance fee is rather stiff if you only want to see the fall. The true reason to visit the site is to learn about its fascinating industrial heritage: tin and copper have been mined or processed here since the sixteenth century.

OK, so I lied, this blog has grown a lot longer than I'd intended at the start. But it's hard not to gush on about this amazing place. The first time I came here as a 16-year-old exploring the area was my greatest adventure to date. Nearly forty years later the area is firmly on the tourist circuit, but like everywhere else, the crowds visit only the most accessible, famous waterfalls. The rest remain untouched and beautiful as ever, and this huge natural adventure playground is still an exhilarating and rewarding place to explore.