Llanddeusant

Kites above the Sawdde valley

The hide at the red kite feeding station gives close views without binoculars. Kites come in low, with buzzards and ravens often in the same airspace. The station opened in 2002 through a local partnership, and the hide has ramped, wide access; dogs are allowed on leads.

Llanddeusant is a scattered farming community under the Black Mountain, spread along the upper Sawdde valley with the loose hamlets of Twynllanan and Capel Gwynfe below it. The village hall is the community's confirmed indoor meeting place.

Ridge church and valley history

The Church of St Simon and St Jude stands on a ridge above the valley, 2.5km east of Twynllanan on the road toward Llyn y Fan Fach. It is 14th-century in origin, with a broad west tower and a south aisle added in the 15th, and its churchyard is rounded, the shape usually taken to mark an older Celtic site. Inside are panelled wagon roofs from the 15th century, a four-bay red-sandstone arcade and a medieval octagonal font of conglomerate stone. The paired dedication may originally have been to two saints named Potolius and Notolius rather than Simon and Jude. During a leaky spell in the 1980s, a jackdaw flew across the altar in the middle of a service and out through a gap in the ceiling.

St Simon and St Jude’s Church was restored in 1885, again in 1913–14, and in 1987–88; its Ascension stained-glass window dates from 1885.

Mountain route, legend and reservoir history

The published short walk is a 4.2km return from the car park, following the River Sawdde past a trout farm into the glacial bowl of Llyn y Fan Fach. The ground can be muddy and the path is unsuitable for pushchairs or wheelchairs. Fitter walkers can continue over Picws Du and Fan Brycheiniog toward Llyn y Fan Fawr on the 15km mountain route. The Beacons Way heads the other way through 20.5km of wild, sometimes pathless country to Carreg Cennen Castle.

Llyn y Fan Fach is the lake of the Lady of the Lake. A fairy woman married a local farmer on the condition that he never strike her three times; when he did, she returned to the water with the farm animals, and her sons became the Physicians of Myddfai. Work to turn the lake into a reservoir began in 1914. From 1916, around 200 conscientious objectors, many brought from prisons in Cardiff and Llanelli, worked on the scheme, which was finished in 1921.

Food stops and the nearest train

For a café stop, head to nearby Myddfai or Llandovery. Myddfai's visitor centre café serves cawl, broccoli-and-Stilton soup, bara brith and Welsh cakes, with herbal teas under names like Ceridwen's Brew and Myddfai Magic. Llandovery has Mathews Butchers for Welsh lamb, home-cured bacon and faggots, and the West End Café, on Broad Street for more than 30 years, for a carvery and its own sourdough. The nearest train is at Llangadog, unstaffed and step-free with four free parking spaces; the road out to the lake narrows the closer you get.

A pub stop in Llangadog

The Red Lion in Llangadog is a traditional village pub and restaurant with food, accommodation, family facilities, outdoor seating, a beer garden and parking.