Llandovery & Cwm Rhaeadr, South Wales, Autumn
If there’s a feature that—to my mind—typifies South Wales that isn’t it’s glorious coastline, it’s the waterfalls.
In fact, in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park lies an area called Waterfall Country.
Outside of Waterfall Country though there are still plenty of places to find waterfalls. One of the bigger ones can be found in Cwm Rhaeadr Forest, north of the historical town of Llandovery.
After a morning spent wandering around this beautiful little town, we head to Cwm Rhaeadr forest to enjoy some forest bathing, autumnal colours, and one of the largest and most epic waterfalls we’ve ever come across.
All photos taken on my Fujifilm X-T2 using my Vivitar “Series 1” 28–105mm f2.8–3.8 zoom and Laowa 9mm f2.8 prime lenses. RAW files converted in Capture One for iPad, developed and finalised in Affinity Photo for iPad.
Llandovery & Cwm Rhaeadr, South Wales, Autumn by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Llandovery
On the southern side of Llandovery is a small knoll that overlooks the town, atop of which is perched Llandovery Castle. Next to the castle ruins is a stainless statue of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd Fychan, a wealthy Carmarthenshire landowner who was executed in Llandovery by Henry IV of England in punishment for his support of Owain Glyndŵr's Welsh rebellion.
The Normans built a castle here around 1166 AD, and it was rebuilt in stone in the 13th century. It was burnt down in the 16th century and never rebuilt. From the ruins you can enjoy vast views of the nearby hills of South Wales plus Llandovery’s car park. Lovely.
Towns in South Wales seem fond of their colourful buildings, and the Bear Inn in Llandovery is definitely one of the more vivid ones I’ve seen.
This is the 4th incarnation of Llandovery Town Hall, built in 1858 in the Italianate style. The first town hall on the site was built in 1485.
Cwm Rhaeadr Forest
In Cwm Rhaeadr Forest, glorious autumnal colours carpet the forest floor.
Our first glimpse of the massive waterfall as it roars down from Mynydd Mallaen 1,500ft above. Time to get as close and personal with the waterfall as we can.
She’s a powerful beauty! It was damned hard trying to get close to the waterfall, but many slips and slides we made it. I quickly equipped my 9mm ultra-wide lens to snap as many compositions of this waterfall’s sections as I could.
Cwm Rhaeadr waterfall drops about 100m+ from Mynydd Mallaen in between two crags, falling in several stages as various falls and cascades. That means it’s possible to scale down alongside the waterfall and shoot completely different compositions from each particular drop.
I shot many different compositions of this waterfall as we scaled down alongside it. Some were definitely shit, as getting a solid enough footing proved difficult. The ones you see above were the best I could manage.