Wales
Pistyll Rhaeadr
A 240-foot waterfall at the end of a dead-end valley with a serpent in its legend.
The road stops and the water keeps going. Pistyll Rhaeadr is a 240-foot waterfall at the top of a lane in the Berwyn Mountains of Powys, mid Wales, where the Afon Disgynfa comes off the moor in three stages down a cliff and lands beside a stone house with a tea room in it. The sound reaches you first, and once the fall is in sight the rest of the valley falls quiet.
The fall has been one of Wales's Seven Wonders since the rhyme was written, and it is easily the most theatrical of them: the water drops, pools on a ledge and drops again, the tallest of the three leaps about forty metres. The house at the bottom, Tan-y-Pistyll, means the little house under the waterfall, and it has served tea to visitors for generations with the fall as its garden wall. Above the cliff lies Llyn Luncaws, and the story of the Gwybr, the winged serpent that lived in it and flew down the valley to take women, children and animals until the villagers of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant dressed a stone pillar in red cloth and spikes and let the beast kill itself against it, is still told here. A three-mile circuit crosses the stream below the fall and comes back over old quarry heaps, and a steeper path climbs the right-hand side to the top and on to the ridges of Cadair Berwyn, open walking country with the fall as its front door.
Family
A short flat walk from the car park to the plunge pool, the serpent story on the way, and cake at the tea room; the steep top path is for older legs.
Couple
Come out of season when the water is high, take the path to the top for the view down the drop, and warm up by the log fire afterwards.
Solo
Climb past the fall onto the Berwyn ridge and walk until the noise of the water is gone; the descent brings it back, which is the point.
- The Afon Disgynfa drops 240 feet in three stages over the cliff, its tallest leap about forty metres, into the Afon Rhaeadr below.
- Pistyll Rhaeadr has been counted as one of Wales's Seven Wonders for centuries, at the head of a single-track valley below the Berwyn ridge.
- The local legend gives the lake above the fall, Llyn Luncaws, a winged serpent that flew down to the village to take children and cattle until the people tricked it.
- A three-mile circuit crosses the foot of the fall and returns over old quarry ground; the steep path up the right-hand side leads on to the Berwyn ridge.
Tea, a snack or a hot meal at Tan-y-Pistyll, the little house under the waterfall, eaten in the garden with the fall in view or by the log fire when the valley turns cold.
The tea room is the last kitchen before the Berwyn ridge, so the village of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant down the valley is where a picnic for the hill gets bought.
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