Drostre Wood is a small mixed deciduous woodland containing oak and birch. Below the canopy of the tallest trees there is a wide range of smaller tree species including aspen, elder, yew, hawthorn, blackthorn and rowan, with shrubs such as holly and honeysuckle.
This reserve, once the site of extensive coal mining, is a great example of how nature has reclaimed the landscape. It is a rich mix of wildlflower meadow, rhos pasture and young woodland. It is one of the best sites in Wales for the rare marsh fritillary butterfly.
Trewalkin Meadow is a small, damp, flower-rich meadow at the foot of the Black Mountains between Llangorse and Talgarth. It is how much of Brecknock would have looked 60 years ago, before the habitat was lost due to changes in farming.
The reserve consists of three wildflower meadows and a large area of woodland. The reserve lies on the site of a former coal-mine and is a wonderful example of how nature can reclaim an area.
Allt Rhongyr is within the Brecon Beacons National Park, adjacent to Craig y Rhiwarth Nature Reserve and offers dramatic views of the Tawe Valley. It features a diverse mix of limestone grassland, acidic grassland and woodland and it was once the site of an iron age hillfort. The site is now managed by grazing under an agri-environment scheme.
Cwm Wanderers once played football on this site. It is now a nature reserve of wet tussocky grassland known as Rhos pasture. It is home to the rare marsh fritillary butterfly.
This reserve is a good example of a traditional wildflower meadow, a rare habitat in these days of intensively managed farmland where large quantities of both fertiliser and grazing animals are applied to meadows that may have once looked like this, but are now bright green with very few plant species surviving.
This reserve contains some of the finest examples of limestone plant communities in Brecknock. The reserve contains more than 400 species of trees, flowers, moss and lichens.
This nature reserve used to be part of the railway line from Brecon to Hereford. Parts of the railway were built along the line of the earlier 1818 Brecon to Eardisley horse-drawn tramroad that carried coal and wool. The railway company opened the line for steam in 1864. In 1962 the line closed and in 1970 it became a nature reserve.
This wildflower meadow has always been managed traditionally with grazing by cattle or ponies from spring to autumn. This kind of rough, damp grassland is known in Wales as Rhos pasture and is becoming rare. Please keep dogs on a lead as skylarks often nest within the rough grass.
Please note that until further notice, some of the paths on this nature reserve will soon be closed to public access. This is due to the presence of Ash Dieback in the trees.
This is the Trust’s most visited nature reserve in the Brecknock area and was extended in 2012 to double its original size, with the help of a grant from the Countryside Council for Wales.
It is 17.5 hectares of beautiful ancient woodland, which slopes down to the banks of the River Enig. Near the eastern end of the reserve the river plunges over a spectacular waterfall into a dark pool below, known as the “Witches Pool” from which the reserve gets it name.