Penybontfawr

Hotel and guesthouse options directly in Penybontfawr are limited, in keeping with the size of the village, so many visitors base themselves a short drive away at Lake Vyrnwy, where a long-established hotel sits overlooking the reservoir with views across to the surrounding hills, or at farmhouse B&Bs and small guesthouses scattered through the Tanat Valley around Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant and Llangynog. These tend to be family-run rather than part of larger chains, reflecting the rural character of the area, and often make a virtue of quiet, uncrowded surroundings rather than resort facilities. Booking ahead is worth doing for summer weekends and rugby international weekends, when demand across the valley's small number of rooms rises sharply. For those who prefer a wider choice of hotels with more standard amenities, Welshpool and Oswestry, both under half an hour away by car, offer a bigger selection, making a reasonable base for day trips into the Berwyn Mountains and around Lake Vyrnwy while staying somewhere with more facilities on the doorstep. Wherever you stay, the appeal of this part of Powys is the same: proximity to genuinely dramatic scenery — the Berwyn hills, Pistyll Rhaeadr and the lake — without the crowds that similar landscapes attract elsewhere in Wales.

None of the following are in Penybontfawr itself, but all are within a short drive and form the real reason to stay in this part of the Tanat Valley.

• Pistyll Rhaeadr — Usually described as the tallest waterfall in Wales, this dramatic three-stage fall drops around 73 metres (240 feet) through the Berwyn Mountains near Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant. It has been ranked among the Seven Wonders of Wales since the 18th century and is reached via a short, well-marked walk from a car park and tea room.
• Lake Vyrnwy (Llyn Efyrnwy) — A vast Victorian reservoir built in 1880 to supply drinking water to Liverpool, now surrounded by a 10,000-hectare RSPB nature reserve. There are waymarked trails around the lake, a wheelchair-accessible bird hide, and a visitor centre with information on the ospreys, red kites and other wildlife found here.
• The Berwyn Mountains — The range that shelters Penybontfawr to the north, offering open, little-walked hill country with routes onto summits such as Cadair Berwyn and Moel Sych, the highest points in the range. This is proper hill terrain rather than a waymarked trail network, so a map and some hillwalking experience are useful.
• Llangynog — A former lead and slate mining village a few miles up the valley, at the meeting of two more mountain roads, with the ruins of old mine workings visible on the surrounding hillsides.
• Tanat Valley drives — The B4391 and B4396 wind through the valley linking Penybontfawr, Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant and Llangynog, and are among the quieter and more scenic minor roads in mid Wales, good for cycling as well as driving.

The Railway Inn is the village's own pub, an 18th-century Grade II listed building named after the old railway line, with a slate floor, a snug known locally as the farmers' room, real ale and a menu built around locally sourced food. Siop Eirianfa, the village shop and post office, covers everyday essentials. Beyond the village, the Lake Vyrnwy Hotel and its restaurant, and cafes at Pistyll Rhaeadr and around Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, provide the nearest wider choice of food and drink.

Wild camping is not legally permitted in Wales without the landowner's explicit permission, and the hills around Penybontfawr are almost entirely working farmland, so anyone wanting to camp rough here needs to ask first rather than assume access. That said, the Berwyn Mountains and Tanat Valley are well suited to camping done properly: there are certified sites and small farm campsites scattered through the valley and around Lake Vyrnwy that welcome tents, touring caravans and campervans, usually run by local farmers making use of a field or two rather than large commercial operators, which suits the quiet character of the area.

The terrain itself is a mix of open, exposed hill country on the Berwyn range — bare moorland reaching over 800 metres at summits like Cadair Berwyn — and gentler, wooded valley floor along the Tanat and around the lake, so conditions can vary hugely within a few miles. Anyone heading up onto the open hill, whether wild camping with permission or just walking from a valley site, should be prepared for fast-changing weather, limited shelter and few other people around if something goes wrong; mobile signal is patchy in the deeper parts of the valley and on higher ground.

Late spring to early autumn is the most reliable camping season, when daylight is longest and the hill weather is at its most forgiving, though even midsummer can bring sudden rain off the Berwyns. For those who want the scenery without a tent, a small number of glamping options — shepherd's huts, pods and static options — have appeared around the Tanat Valley and near Lake Vyrnwy in recent years, giving a comfortable alternative base from which to walk the hills or visit Pistyll Rhaeadr by day.