Dyffryn Crawnon Project

This is an exciting partnership project the Trust is working on with the site owner, the Forestry Commission. This large site (190 hectares) stretches right around the head of the Crawnon valley as a belt of woodland. Large parts of it were planted up with conifers in the 1960's but small pockets of native deciduous trees remained along with patches of wildflower grassland.

The BWT is now providing advice to the Forestry Commission on ways to turn this head of the valley back to a more native wilderness area teaming with wildlife, over the long term.

Conifers will be felled to allow regeneration of the native broadleaf trees such as ash, alder, birch and rowan. The grasslands will be sensitively managed to allow the wildflowers to flourish with areas of limestone and more heathy grassland being present.

What to look out for:

This project only started in 2005 so it is very early days but a walk around the site today can still reveal big moss covered ash trees, old pollarded alder trees and patches of bluebells in the woodland along with lime loving plants such as lemon scented fern, wild thyme and salad burnet in the grasslands.

Birds to be seen, or more often heard, include raven, nuthatch, redstart and goldcrest. Under the conifers old moss covered stone walls that mark old field boundaries now provide homes for wrens and stoats.

The line of the Brinore Tramroad runs through the reserve. This used to carry limestone from Trefil quarry down to the canal at Talybont in horse drawn trams. In places you can still see the old stone sleepers laid in to the track bed that the tram rails would have been attached to.

On the A465 Heads of the Valleys road at Tredegar, take the turning north to Trefil and follow this no through road through the village and on up across the moor. After 1.5 miles there is a stone monument to Dyffryn Crawnon by the road side and the wood itself can be seen just further on.

Nearest town: Llangynidr
OS map sheet 160. Grid reference SO 100 160

The Forestry Commission has an open access policy where sites allow. There is a network of public footpaths and bridleways criss-crossing the site. Please keep to the site paths and any dogs under close control.

The site can be wet in places at any time of year. For your safety, stay well clear of any forestry operations.