17. Cae Pwll y Bo Nature Reserve

This small damp meadow is known for its spectacular display of globeflowers.

What to look out for:

The globeflower is a member of the buttercup family and has beautiful, dense, yellow flowers. Over 1500 flowers have been counted here in early summer (new record of 2055 counted in June 2010) and this is possibly the largest remaining stand in mid Wales of this attractive plant. Elsewhere in Wales, its numbers have significantly decreased.

Other interesting flowers in the meadow include devil's-bit scabious and great burnet.. According to the "Doctrine of Signatures", believed in by ancient herbalists, the dark crimson flower heads of great burnet suggested blood, so for centuries this plant was used to staunch wounds and as a remedy for internal bleeding. Its Latin name sanguisorb means "blood absorbing". More recently, the root was peeled and used to treat burns.

The reserve is all that remains of a much larger field, which was originally part of Pwll y Bo farm (Hobgoblin pool in Welsh!).

The reserve is located a mile south of Abergwesyn, adjacent to the minor road which leaves the A483 at Llanwrtyd Wells and rejoins it at Beulah. The Forestry Commission car-park and picnic site of Pwll y Bo is situated 200 yards north-west of the reserve.

Nearest town: Abergwesyn. Post code LD5 4TW.

OS map sheet 147. Grid reference SN 854 512

The reserve is an open access reserve, you are allowed to visit the reserve on foot for your quiet enjoyment of the wildlife present. Please keep dogs under close control.

There are no trails on site and it can be very wet at all times of year.