On a sunny day in Mid Wales, there’s nothing like a drive around Llyn Clywedog.
Situated near Llanidloes, Llyn Clywedog is a man-made reservoir with a dam, constructed in the 1960’s to help supply Birmingham and the English Midlands with water by river regulation (it’s not the first of our beautiful Mid Wales valleys to be flooded to provide an English city with water!) and to help prevent flooding further down the River Severn.
Clywedog Dam is the tallest concrete dam in the UK and holds back a 50,000 megalitres (or 11,000 million gallons) of water when the reservoir is at its fullest.
There is a refreshments kiosk and toilets in the car park above the dam, however, these were closed when we visited at the end of August. Hopefully, they’ll be back open next year.
Beneath the dam sits the remains of Bryntail Lead Mine. During the 19th century, Llanidloes had a thriving smelting industry and Bryntail Lead Mine, along with Van Lead Mine, extracted and process lead ore. The remains are in the care of Cadw and are free to look around (access from the car park if via a path and footbridge, but is unsuitable for wheelchairs). The view of Clywedog Dam from Bryntail is very imposing.
You can drive right around the reservoir (and I would advise doing so). There are various places to pull in and park, with plenty to see and do. Wildlife is in abundance, with red kites, buzzards, peregrine falcon and osprey to be found flying in the area.
If you’re hungry whilst in the area, I would recommend Evans Fish Bar in Llanidloes, where delicious fish & chips are cooked to order (for take-away or dining in).
Such beautiful scenery and the bonus of wonderful wildlife. It looks like you got the weather for your day out too.
What a gorgeous day you had while visiting – blue skies filled with puffy clouds. The ruins look like they’d be fun to explore. I’ve got the urge to fish now. 🙂
A lovely outing!
Hi Nikki,
If the ruins of Bryntail had been left in the care of EH, there would certainly be an admission charge, so all power to Cadw for keeping them free to enjoy and discover the heritage.
I also like places of interest that are circular, either to drive or walk, so Lyn Clywedog once again sounds ideally positioned, especially with all the wildlife which calls it home.
We do have Langford Lakes Nature Reserve only a few miles away from us and that always makes for a good few hours walking and wildlife watching from some of the great hides they have positioned lakeside.
https://www.wiltshirewildlife.org/langford-lakes
Thanks for sharing, your travel posts are so good 🙂
Yvonne
Gorgeous shots of the scenery and ruins!
Hello Nikki, it looks absolutely majestic, although I’m sorry to read about the flooding of the valley. Thanks for the tip about driving around the reservoir and about the fish and chips! We hope to do this drive one of these days.
How lovely, such beautiful images. I’ve enjoyed my virtual visit.
Ohh my god. This place looks amazing!
Corinne x
So impressive, it puts our Kielder reservoir to shame.
http://www.bridgesonthetyne.co.uk/kdr.html
What a beautiful location! I could sit there all day just admiring everything!
Nikki, Is this an all day day out, (if you get my drift)?
If you took in Hafren Forest too, you could make it an all day day out 🙂
Thank you 🙂
Hi Nikki
Under your careful instructions earlier this year we managed to visit Bryntail mine and damn. My father worked on the damn during its construction. We where vary lucky to visit it on a day that it was in full flow. The noise from the water cascading over the top was amazing. To think my father probably visited the ruins almost every day while working there for something to do in the evenings was quite a strange feeling that he probably never thought that one of his children then would walk amongst these ruins some fifty years the later. For this we thank you for you kind help in locating this wonderful place and giving us a lovely kind of piece of mind.