Hill farms and Beacons days
Cantref
A dispersed Cantref community with family farm activities, guided riding, country walking and a church beside the Afon Cynrig.
- Best for
- Family farm activities, guided riding and country walking
- Give it
- A planned day with transport arranged for the final leg
- Don't miss
- The ancient yews on the churchyard approach
The Fox verdict
A scattered community built for planned days out
Cantref combines a family attraction and riding centre with a rural church and routes into the surrounding landscape.
Come for a focused visit rather than a compact village stroll: choose farm activities or a guided ride, make time for St Cynidr and St Mary, or follow the published circuit linking Cantref, Llanfrynach and Abercynrig.
Where to go
Places in Cantref
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesCantref Adventure Farm
Indoor and outdoor activities include soft play, pedal tractors, mini golf, rides, go-karts and a zip line, with animal activities varying seasonally.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 2 hours
- Locality
- Cantref
- Access
- Dogs are permitted on leads outside animal enclosures; parking is free, and the farm says the hilly site is wheelchair-accessible.
Cantref Riding Centre
The Brecon Beacons Explorer combines basic instruction with walking and trotting, plus hill cantering for capable riders when conditions allow.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Around 2 hours 30 minutes for the Brecon Beacons Explorer
- Locality
- Cantref
- Access
- The Brecon Beacons Explorer has a minimum age of 11; hill cantering is for capable riders when ground conditions allow.
The Three Horseshoes Inn
A historic gastropub serving seasonal modern-British food, with a beer garden and heated, lit beach huts seating eight.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 1 hour 15 minutes
- Locality
- Groesffordd
- Access
- Well-behaved dogs are allowed in the bar, beer garden and bookable beach huts.
Walks & outdoors
1 placeBrecon Beacons Horseshoe
A strenuous 10-mile ridge circuit crossing Craig Fan Ddu, Corn Du, Pen y Fan and Cribyn for properly equipped walkers.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow a full mountain day
- Locality
- Central Beacons
- Access
- Mountain weather can change quickly; this route is for properly equipped walkers.
History & heritage
1 placeSt Cynidr & St Mary
A Grade II rural parish church with a tower dating from around 1600, a much-retooled 12th- or 13th-century font and ancient yews on the churchyard approach.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- beside the rushing Cynrig brook
- Access
- The ministry area says the church is permanently open, welcomes visitors and dogs, and has roadside parking; check locally before relying on access.
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Three ways to explore Cantref
Signature outings
Four summits on one ridge circuit
The Brecon Beacons Horseshoe crosses Craig Fan Ddu, Corn Du, Pen y Fan and Cribyn on a strenuous 10-mile mountain circuit for properly equipped walkers.
Centuries beside the Cynrig
Visit St Cynidr and St Mary for its tower dating from around 1600, medieval font and yew-lined churchyard approach.
Modern British food in Groesffordd
The Three Horseshoes pairs seasonal modern-British food with a dog-friendly bar and beer garden.
The village story
Cantref Village Guide
From famous farm animals and family activities to mountain riding, a rural church and a nearby gastropub.
Famous pigs and family days
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.
Farm food and mountain riding
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.
Scattered Cantref and its church
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.
Nearby food and practical connections
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.
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A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- Cantref Adventure Farm — cantref.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Cantref Riding Centre — cantref.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- St Cynidr & St Mary — breconandepyntma.org.uk other published source
- The Three Horseshoes Inn — threehorseshoesgroesffordd.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Brecon Beacons Horseshoe — nationaltrust.org.uk national body or asset manager