Dyfi and the Western Hills

The western edge of Powys is upland, wet and thinly populated, running from the Dyfi valley south across the Plynlimon massif. It is the part of the county that feels least like the rest of it.

Machynlleth sits at the western end where several valleys converge, which is why Owain Glyndŵr held a parliament there in 1404 rather than anywhere else.

What to look for

Metal mining. Dylife and the workings around it produced lead and silver on a scale that supported hundreds of people in places that now hold almost nobody. The spoil, the leats and the wheel pits survive across open moorland.

Drove roads. The routes east out of Ceredigion and Meirionnydd converged here, and the line of them is often clearer than any modern road.

Chapel-centred settlement. Llanbrynmair and the parishes around it were strongly nonconformist and lost heavily to emigration in the nineteenth century, mostly to Ohio and Pennsylvania. The chapels are often the largest buildings for miles and frequently the emptiest.

Modern intervention. Wind farms, forestry blocks and the Centre for Alternative Technology outside Machynlleth all belong to the same century and all changed the look of the ground.