The Afon Sychryd is a river in
Rhondda Cynon Taf,
Wales. Although it is a relatively short river, with a total length of , it is notable for the gorge and two
waterfalls through which it flows.
Course
The river has two upper arms, the first arises near
Penderyn, which has been dammed to create a small
reservoir, known as
Penderyn Reservoir. The second arm starts just below
Craig y Llyn and is known locally as the Nant Gwrangon; it flows past the village of Rhigos and through
Cwm Wyrfa
Cwm may refer to:
* Cwm (landform), a rounded, glaciated valley, also known as a corrie or cirque
* Cwm (software), a general-purpose data processor for the semantic web
* Cwm railway station, a station in Cwm, Blaenau Gwent, Wales, 1852–1963
...
on the edge of the
Brecon Beacons National Park.
Where the two arm joins it flows through the southern slopes of the
Fforest Fawr Geopark and under the
A465
The A465 is a trunk road that runs from Bromyard in Herefordshire, England to Llandarcy near Swansea in South Wales. The western half is known officially as the Neath to Abergavenny Trunk Road, but the section from Abergavenny to the Vale ...
Heads of the Valleys Road and turns northwest to join the
Afon Mellte at
Pontneddfechan
Pontneddfechan, also known as Pontneathvaughan (pronounced ) ("bridge over the Little Neath" in Welsh) is the southernmost village in the county of Brecknockshire, Wales, within the Vale of Neath, in the community of Ystradfellte and in the prin ...
.
[Ordnance Survey Explorer map OL12 'Brecon Beacons National Park: western area']
Its lower section is cut into a spectacular gorge beneath
Dinas Rock (Craig-y-Ddinas), site of an
Iron Age hillfort and of the once-famous
Dinas Silica Mine. The gorge is well used by gorge-scramblers though there has been concern that their activities can cause damage to the rare
bryophytes
The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited i ...
and
mosses
Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and horn ...
that colonise the rocks in this shaded valley and for which it has been designated as a
special area of conservation.
There are several waterfalls of note on the river including those at
Pwll y Crochan near the A645 and
Sgydau Sychryd beneath Craig-y-Ddinas. The former is hardly accessible to the public but the latter is easily seen from the Sychryd All-ability Trail which follows a former tramroad up the river from the car park at Craig-y-Ddinas. It is falls such as these that have resulted in the wider area becoming known as
Waterfall Country.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sychryd
Afon Sychryd
Rivers of Rhondda Cynon Taf
Rivers of the Brecon Beacons National Park