Groesffordd

The Inn at the Cross Way

The Three Horseshoes is tucked away in a cul-de-sac, and behind it are heated, lit beach huts that seat eight and can be booked for dinner. This is the centre of Groesffordd, in the sense that it is the village's main amenity: a village of about 73 houses and 150 people on the northern edge of Bannau Brycheiniog, two and a half miles east of Brecon.

The inn is food-led and has been for years. Ashley Haworth has run it for more than two decades, and the kitchen holds two AA Rosettes for cooking that leans Welsh, seasonal and partly foraged. The July menu runs to Black Mountain Smokery salmon pâté with pickled fennel, monkfish scampi with curry emulsion and rock samphire, and slow-braised lamb shoulder with creamed potato, fine beans, butternut squash and wild garlic. Vegetarians get charred hispi cabbage with pomme Anna, miso and pickled walnut; the less adventurous get battered Cornish fish and chips. Pudding might be Perl Las with bara brith and truffle honey. The AA inspector's verdict was "satisfying local food cooked with flair."

Bar, Dogs and Two Centuries

There is a traditional bar with an open fire, two changing cask lines and a 46-seat restaurant added in 2017. Well-behaved dogs are welcome in the bar, the gardens and the beach huts.

The building is much older. A 1797 record calls it Tuy ar y Groes Firdd, "house on the cross way," and by an 1830 conveyance the dwelling, brewhouse and blacksmith's shop had already become the Three Horse Shoes. In 1901 it was run by David Powell, who owned the Brecon Old Brewery and its B.O.B. ales.

Canal and Railway Walks

Beyond the pub, the village is a place to walk from rather than around. Brynich Lock on the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal is about ten minutes away, and the towpath runs west through the wooded Usk Valley towards Brecon Basin. A longer route of roughly eight miles links the canal, the River Usk and Slwch Tump before returning to the door of the inn, best walked with a current rights-of-way map rather than as a signed trail.

East of the houses, a path follows the bed of the old railway into Y Byddwn nature reserve. The line opened in 1864, closed in 1964, and became a reserve in 1980. Treecreepers, goldcrests and bullfinches work the trees; at dusk the cutting is used by foraging bats, including the rare lesser horseshoe. The path is not suitable for wheelchairs.

Crossroads and Connections

Groesffordd means crossroad, and much of it was built to rehouse families from nearby Llechfaen in the 1950s and 60s. There is a village hall, owned by the community council but run by charity trustees, and a playground the council maintains. A bus shelter is served by the B49 Bwcabus on Tuesdays and Fridays only, except public holidays — one booked journey each way to Brecon, Llangorse and Talgarth, reserved at least two hours ahead; worth checking before you travel. A car is otherwise the simplest option, with the A40 half a mile south.

Days Out from Groesffordd

Brecon and its cathedral, founded as a priory in 1093, are a short run west. Llangorse Lake, a dark-sky viewpoint where the Milky Way shows to the naked eye in good conditions, and Tretower Court further east make the obvious days out. But the pull is the inn, its fire, and the huts out the back, where you sit under a heater and watch the light go off the Beacons.