Ystradfellte

Village food and provisions

Ystradfellte is a scatter of houses on a low spur in the Afon Mellte valley, south-west of Brecon. At the centre of the village, the small 16th-century New Inn reopened in April 2026 after two years shut.

For provisions, head beyond the village to Rhos Filling Station and Shop near the Clun-Gwyn waterfall parking. It carries basic groceries, ice cream, confectionery and soft drinks, and sells diesel but not petrol. The valley's walks, caves and falls shape a visit more than village services do.

Waterfalls and limestone

Water works through rock around Ystradfellte. Above the village the Afon Llia and Afon Dringarth join to make the Mellte, while farther south the Mellte, Hepste and Nedd Fechan have cut wooded gorges and falls. The strenuous Four Falls Trail takes three to four hours over five miles, passing Sgwd Clun-Gwyn, Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn and Sgwd y Pannwr on the Mellte before Sgwd yr Eira on the Hepste. A track formerly used by sheep farmers passes behind the water at Sgwd yr Eira. Expect spray and slippery footing; the waterfall link paths are narrow, rocky and stepped. The trail is unsuitable for buggies and wheelchairs, and there are no toilets at the falls.

Nearer the houses, the Afon Mellte vanishes into limestone at Porth yr Ogof, Wales's largest cave mouth, about twenty metres wide and three metres high. The river resurfaces roughly three hundred metres south at Blue Pool; both are a short walk from Cwm Porth car park. The cave passages beyond the entrance are for experienced cavers and have seen fatalities. In 1835 William Weston Young wrote of the cave that "there is not another in the valley of so large dimensions".

Getting to Ystradfellte

Aberdare is the nearest railway station, about ten miles away by road, and there is no direct bus into Ystradfellte. Minor roads reach the village from the A4059 above Penderyn or from Pontneddfechan. They are single-track in places, and car parks near the falls can fill before midday.

Saint Mary's Church

The Church of Saint Mary stands above the houses: the body is probably early fifteenth-century, the battered tapering west tower with its battlemented parapet later, fifteenth to sixteenth-century, and the whole was restored in 1882. Inside are a ten-by-six-panel late-medieval chancel roof, a whitewashed octagonal font, and a painted memorial to Thomas Jones of Berthlwyd, who died in 1779, carved with a winged skull and bones.

A deliberately thin history

The history is thin on purpose. An 1813 survey drawing shows only four or five houses by the church, and this may never have been a proper medieval village at all. In 1316 the Welsh rebel Llywelyn Bren surrendered to the marcher lords here before being taken to Cardiff and executed. And as recently as December 2005, sixteen people in four farmhouses in the Nedd valley became the last community in England and Wales to reach the mains, after nearly three miles of line was strung across the hills. "It will be much more convenient than it is now," said Jannet Llewellyn of Berthlwyd farm, which is what you say when you have managed a long time without.