Pennorth

A Hamlet by the Lake

A refurbished red telephone kiosk stands near the chapel. Pennorth is otherwise a scatter of houses on the south side of Llangorse Lake, about five miles from Brecon, in a shallow valley cut by a glacier's meltwater on its way down to the Usk. There is no pub, shop or playground within Pennorth itself — a chapel, a Grade II railway bridge by the crossroads, and a great deal of view.

For food and provisions you go round to Llangors, a short way along the lake. The Red Lion was set up by a farming family from neighbouring Tynewydd, and its kitchen leans on named local suppliers. The evening menu runs to pan-fried mackerel with rhubarb and beetroot, ham and Hafod cheese croquettes, lamb and beef ragù with pappardelle, and a crispy curried mushroom burger. There are dog treats behind the bar, water bowls outside, wood burners, a pool table and a piano, with Left Bank Brewery among its named local drinks suppliers, based in the same village.

Llangors Tables and Lakeside Paths

The Castle Inn, also in Llangors, keeps stone walls, a wood bar and a large fireplace, with Wye Valley Butty Bach on the pump and a beer garden that takes dogs. Siop Llangors, the community shop, opened in 2021 and is run by a manager and more than fifty volunteers; it does groceries, locally made pasties and pies, bean-to-cup coffee and soft-scoop ice cream, with outdoor seating where a dog gets a water bowl.

The walking starts at the door. A panoramic path links Pennorth with Talyllyn, and from the Pennorth road the Usk Valley opens out towards Allt yr Esgair and, on a clear day, Pen y Fan. The lake is roughly two miles long and a mile across, glacial and reed-fringed, holding pike, perch, roach, bream and eels. A flat, stile-free trail waymarked with green posts follows the shore, and from St Gastyn's Church at Llangasty it is a level 700 metres through three kissing gates to the bird hide, though the path floods after heavy rain and can close.

The Chapel and Its Ministers

The chapel is the reason Pennorth has a story to tell. The Tabernacle opened in 1841 on land the Holford estate leased for "one peppercorn a year," the congregation having grown from services a Mrs Harvard persuaded her husband to hold at their Scethrog farmhouse in 1813. Rebuilt in 1893, it is plain Gothic — stone walls, a slate roof, rows of pews and a central raised pulpit — and, unusually for an Independent chapel, it has no sedd fawr, or big seat, though the slightly raised platform where it once stood is still visible. The last chapel left in the Llangors area, it now holds coffee mornings in its old schoolroom, with a defibrillator fixed to the outside wall.

Its ministers took some reaching. In the 1920s the Reverend Matthew Owen came by train from Cefn-Coed each Saturday and stayed two nights at Chapel House. Professor John Evans of Brecon sometimes cycled over to lead worship and crossed the fields on foot when snow shut the roads; he was 103 when he preached his last service at Tredomen.

Railway Traces and Limited Transport

The railway is why the houses are here at all. Several are dated 1868, and the chapel's trustees included railway workers, blacksmiths and farm labourers. The Brecon and Merthyr line climbed hard from here, including six and a half miles at one in thirty-eight towards the Torpantau tunnel, and the Grade II bridge by the crossroads carried the road over it. The track is gone, but you can still make it out beside Chapel House, where it dipped under the road by the stone bridge.

There is no A-road, and public transport is limited — check current B49 times via Traveline Cymru before relying on it. A car is the simplest way to get around the wider area; Abergavenny, on the Welsh Marches line, is the nearest useful station. Brecon is five miles off for a bigger shop, and Tretower Court is a possible wider-area visit.

The Schoolroom Window

When the schoolroom was extended, a window was set into the back wall for the view. The people who added it described what it framed as "views to truly gladden the heart across the Buckland Vale." It is still there to look through.