Usk Valley

The Usk rises on Fforest Fawr and runs east through the widest, kindest valley in Powys. Everything about settlement here follows from that. The valley floor is broad enough to farm properly, the old red sandstone weathers to a deep red soil, and the towns — Brecon, Crickhowell, Talgarth off to the north-east — sit in the open rather than tucked into a defile.

South of the river the ground rises hard into Bannau Brycheiniog. North of it the land is gentler until it reaches Mynydd Epynt.

What to look for

The canal. The Monmouthshire and Brecon runs along the northern flank of the valley from Brecon to Talybont and beyond, built to carry lime and iron rather than tourists, and its wharves and lime kilns are still legible.

Motte-and-bailey castles at intervals along the valley floor. The Normans came up the Usk and fortified as they went, which is why the density of earthwork castles here is higher than anywhere else in the county.

Field patterns. This is one of the few parts of Powys with genuinely old enclosed fields rather than nineteenth-century parliamentary enclosure, and the difference in hedge species and boundary shape is visible from any of the ridge paths.