Region
Berwyn and Tanat
Berwyn a Thanat
The north-eastern corner: deep valleys running off the Berwyn range, a drowned village, and the place where Welsh got its Bible.
Three valleys — the Tanat, the Vyrnwy and the Cain — running south-east off the Berwyn range towards the Severn lowland. Steep and enclosed at their heads, open and agricultural at their mouths.
Llanfyllin is the market town. Meifod holds one of the most important early church sites in Wales. Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant is where William Morgan translated the Bible into Welsh, published in 1588, which did more to preserve the language than anything else in its history.
What to look for
Lead and slate. Llangynog at the head of the Tanat was among the richest lead districts in Wales in the 1720s, and later quarried slate. The valley head is still scarred with it.
Lake Vyrnwy. The village of Llanwddyn was demolished and flooded in the 1880s to supply Liverpool. The dam, the straining tower and the new village below it are all part of the same act.
Clas churches. Meifod's enclosure preserves the shape of an early monastic site of a kind that predates the parish system entirely.
Pistyll Rhaeadr, the highest single-drop waterfall in Wales, at the head of the Tanat.
Sources
- Heneb — the Trust for Welsh Archaeology, Historic Landscape Character Assessments covering the Tanat and Vyrnwy valleys and the Berwyn.
- Coflein (RCAHMW), the national monuments record for sites within the region.
- Cadw, Cof Cymru designation records for listed buildings and scheduled monuments.
- British Geological Survey, 1:50,000 mapping and memoirs for mid Wales.
- Montgomeryshire Collections, Powysland Club, available through Welsh Journals Online.