Vicarage Meadows

This wildflower-rich meadow and wet pasture is set on the side of a hill in the Irfon valley and lies adjacent to the Nant Irfon National Nature Reserve.

Location

Nearest town is Abergwesyn, LD5 4TP

OS Map Reference

Main entrance: SN 853525

View on What3Words

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Know before you go

Size

4 hectares

Parking information

Park by the side of the public road, taking care not to obstruct the gates.

Grazing animals

There may be cattle on site, please do not approach them or feed them. Additionally there may be horses, cattle or sheep in the two fields that you walk through to get to Vicarage Meadows.

Please keep dogs on leads at all times or better still leave them at home when visiting this site.

Walking trails

There are no trails as such around the site but there is one small stretch of wooden boardwalk to cross a stream. Please leave all site gates as you find them and keep to the paths. The site can be very wet at all times of year. Unfortunately there is no wheelchair access.

Access

Take the unclassified road to Abergwesyn from Llanwrtyd Wells or Beulah. Just south of Abergwesyn, the road crosses the River Irfon. Parking is by the side of the public road north of the Irfon bridge, don’t park on the forestry drive. Go back over the bridge and follow the track (a public bridlepath, with old sign post for graveyard) . Go through the wooden gates past a small cottage on your left, passing the churchyard on the right which is also worth a visit. Go through the small metal gate into a field (livestock). Walk up the slope and then at metal gate leave the public bridlepath. Go through the metal gate on your right. Head for the metal gate to the reserve 50yds ahead of you. You should see the sign and a small barn.

The reserve is open for exploration with a rough path going through to the meadow.

Dogs

Under effective control

When to visit

Opening times

The reserve is open access.

Best time to visit

Summer

About the reserve

Many years ago, the local vicarage owned Vicarage Meadows. The fields provided a hay crop and a place to graze horses and cows. The small stone barn was used as a shelter for milking cows. Today we continue to use traditional management methods with a hay crop being taken off one field and Exmoor ponies grazing the whole site, giving the reserve’s many wildflowers the chance to flourish.

What to look out for

This is one of the Trust’s most botanically rich reserves. The western meadow is a sheet of bluebells in the spring, followed by a carpet of orchids in the summer. Also to be found are betony, great burnet and dyer’s greenweed. Look out for the yellow flower spikes of bog asphodel in the damper parts of the site.

Look out for small pearl bordered fritillary butterflies here in June. In late summer, the dense mauve heads of devil’s-bit scabious flowers provide a late season nectar source for many other butterflies and insects.