Cantref Adventure Farm keeps a pig called Star that reached the second round of Britain's Got Talent, and a second pig, Brydie, that appeared on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway with The Vamps. The farm is three miles from Brecon, signposted off the A40. Colin and Gwen Evans opened it in 2004, with Prince Edward officiating, and it has twice been named Farm Attraction of the Year, in 2005 and 2016.
Inside and out there is a great deal for children to do: indoor soft play and ball cannons, pedal tractors, mini golf, a sledge ride, a swamp boat ride, go-karts and a zip line. Depending on the season you might find bottle-feeding lambs, tractor-and-trailer rides or pig racing. Dogs are allowed on leads away from the animal enclosures, parking is free, and the site is wheelchair-accessible, though you should expect hills.
The on-site Cantref Café does full English breakfasts and breakfast rolls, homemade pulled pork or chilli with chips, salad boxes, chicken bites for children, farmhouse ice cream, and ice cream for dogs. It runs to the farm's calendar rather than keeping village hours, best planned as part of a day at the farm rather than a quick morning coffee.
The riding here is older than the farm. Cantref Riding Centre began when campers asked Elfan and Mary Evans if they could ride the shepherding ponies; the Prince of Wales visited in 2002 and the Princess Royal in 2017. The Brecon Beacons Explorer is around two and a half hours of walking, trotting and, when the ground allows, some hill cantering, with a minimum age of 11.
Cantref is not really a village in the huddled sense. It is a dispersed community of hill farms and houses, the lanes climbing from the Usk valley in what the community council calls a spider's web toward the hills. "Remote and isolated are not words you'd choose to describe a close-knit community," the council writes. "But paradoxically Cantref is just that." Driving those lanes you may meet pony trekkers or a flock of sheep. Pen y Fan lies within the parish, and the National Trust's strenuous ten-mile Horseshoe crosses Craig Fan Ddu, Corn Du, Pen y Fan and Cribyn for anyone equipped for a full mountain day. A gentler circuit links Cantref, Llanfrynach and Abercynrig along the rivers from Brecon.
The church of St Cynidr and St Mary stands on the north bank of the Afon Cynrig, its churchyard approached under ancient yews. The plain west tower dates from around 1600; the body was rebuilt in 1829 and restored by Charles Buckeridge in 1867. Inside are a much-retooled font of the 12th or 13th century, an east window of 1909 showing Christ with St Mary and St David, and a north-chancel window by Mayer of Munich. Six generations of the Powell family served here over some three hundred years; Thomas Powell, born at Cantref, was ejected during the Civil War for holding to the Book of Common Prayer and reinstated after the Restoration. The church is left open, and welcomes both visitors and dogs.
There is no known pub in Cantref itself. Nearby is the Three Horseshoes at Groesffordd, where Ashley Haworth has been in charge for more than twenty years and the kitchen turns out slow-braised shoulder of lamb, battered Cornish fish with crushed peas, and Per Las cheese with bara brith and truffle honey. Dogs are welcome in the bar and the garden, where heated, lit beach huts seat eight.
For anything else — groceries, a wider choice of tables, the bus — Brecon three miles off is the practical centre; there is no station near, and no service runs into the village. Back at the church, the bell cast in 1762 carries the inscription: Good Neighbourhood.