About Brecon Beacons Waterfall Walk (Sgwd Clun-Gwyn, Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn, Sgwd y Pannwr, Sgwd yr Eira)
The Brecon Beacons Waterfall Walk (also known as the Brecon Beacons Four Falls Trail) took me by surprise both with the amount of exertion need to visit all of the major waterfalls as well as with how scenic each of the falls were.
I kind of expected a walk this long to have waterfalls that would be lukewarm like the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail in England’s Yorkshire Dales.
However, the Brecon Beacons Four Waterfalls Walk turned out to be quite the adventure and photo run.
In fact, the nice photo you see above was just scratching the surface of what I was able to experience.
The main features of the Four Falls Trail were its namesake waterfalls.
They were the Sgwd Clun-Gwyn (“SGOOD clin-goo-un”), Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn (“SGOOD ee-sahv clin-goo-un”), Sgwd y Pannwr (“SGOOD uh PAN-noor”), and Sgwd yr Eira (“SGOOD uhr ehr-uh”).
The first three waterfalls were on the Afon Mellte (Mellte River) while the last falls was on the Afon Hepste (Hepste River).
It was hard to pick out the most impressive waterfall of this set.
Sgwd yr Eira had a classic rectangular drop, where apparently some people could go behind it (though I didn’t try that).
Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn took me by surprise with its many shapely cascades tumbling one after another while culminating in the uppermost tier (shown in the photo at the top of this page).
Sgwd Clun-Gwyn had a two-tiered drop that presented opportunities to get a contextual look at it as well as a closer and more intimate experience.
Finally, the Sgwd y Pannwr was one cascade that I was able to get real close to as it had a large plunge pool that I’d imagine would be an opportunity for a dip on a hot day.
Indeed, all four of these Brecon Beacons Waterfalls each had different characteristics, and perhaps it was this variety that made me better appreciate this collective as a whole.
The Brecon Beacons Waterfall Walk
First, I have to preface everything by telling you that the Brecon Beacons Four Waterfalls Walk was not easy.
It would probably require at least a 2.5-hour time commitment to really experience it all.
That said, I might have taken a bit of a shortcut from the official trailheads, which I’ll get to later (so the time commitment could be longer than what I experienced).
Anyways, I say this hike wasn’t easy because there were some sections that involved some steep hand-over-foot scrambles that contained dropoff hazards as well as some slippery spots.
It was also a very up-and-down hike largely because I had to drop down to each of the waterfalls before going back up to the main trail.
Given the degree of difficulty and length of this hike (which was a semi-loop hike done in a clockwise manner), I did it solo without my wife and daughter.
The Brecon Beacons Waterfall Walk – Trailhead Options
I actually started my hike from an unmarked trailhead that was closest to the Sgwd Clun-Gwyn waterfall (see directions below).
It really seemed like the authorities wanted visitors to either park further away at the Cwm Porth Car Park near Ystradfellte or the Gwaun Hepste Car Park nearby to the east (also near Ystradfellte).
I wasn’t sure if the more established Waterfall Centre further south would provide access because it would make for an even longer walk than it already was.
Anyways, the more official car parks were pay and display so perhaps that might have a lot to do with the signage advocating the more distant trailheads.
Otherwise, I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to add another hour or more of hiking just to park further away.
I’m pretty sure there must be a reason why the trailhead I ended up taking was as obscure and unknown as it was.
And I’m willing to bet the situation would be prone to changing to force most of the traffic towards the more distant car parks that they wanted you at in the first place.
The Brecon Beacons Waterfall Walk – Sgwd Clun-Gwyn
Starting from the aforementioned unmarked trailhead, I walked the trail passing by subtle signposts pointing the way to Sgwd Clun-Gwyn.
It passed through a pasture before leaving the open spaces and entering the forest.
About 15 minutes after I had gotten started, the trail descended towards top down views of the profile of the Sgwd Clun-Gwyn Waterfall.
From this side, there was a very steep and slippery scramble that seemed to allow me to go onto a ledge in the middle of the falls.
It also appeared to let me go all the way to the bottom of the gorge where I would be able to go right up to the base of the falls.
However, the scramble seemed a bit hairy for my liking so I was content with just experiencing the falls from its precarious top.
As I continued walking further upstream on the trail, I then got to a bridge crossing the Afon Mellte.
On the other side of it, there was a trail junction branching left towards the Cwm Porth Car Park some 25 minutes away.
That trail would eventually lead to a cave where the river would disappear from the surface and flow right through it (called Porth yr Ogof or “Door of the Cave”).
I didn’t have time to do it, but I always wondered whether I would regret the decision not to explore it.
Anyways, as I continued uphill on the linking trail, it ultimately joined with with the official Four Falls Trail where I saw more red arrows reassuring me that I was indeed on the official trail.
And just when I got onto that trail, there was steps on a branch trail leading down to a more frontal view of Sgwd Clun-Gwyn from the other side of the river.
I had to be careful here because there was some mild cliff exposure at this overlook.
Then, when I had my fill of this viewpoint of Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn, I followed the “recommended route” back up the steps to the main trail above me.
During this ascent, it wasn’t lost on me that there were red signs in the area telling me that a path closer to the river was “closed” for reasons that would become clearer later on.
The Brecon Beacons Waterfall Walk – Sgwd yr Eira
Next, I continued on the Four Falls Trail along what turned out to be a pretty dry part of the apparent loop trail.
While I was up here, I was straddling what appeared to be the edges of the forest and some open spaces.
Throughout this stretch of the trail, I also started paying more attention to some numerical signposts, which I’d imagine would be keyed to some guide that I didn’t possess.
Eventually after nearly 25 minutes after leaving Sgwd Clun-Gwyn, I found myself at the David Morgan Memorial, which was between the spur trails for both Sgwd y Pannwr and Sgwd yr Eira.
This memorial was basically a tree that was planted in his honor as he was credited with being the first National Park warden of the Brecon Beacons.
Shortly thereafter, I had to descend what seemed to be a pretty long series of steps leading down the immediate gorge walls eventually reaching the banks of the Afon Hepste.
After a short distance of hiking along the banks of the river, I finally got to see the Sgwd yr Eira waterfall and its classic rectangular shape.
I was content to take somewhat distant photos of the falls from the riverbank because the morning sun was against me.
Thus, I didn’t feel the need to scramble on the slick boulders along the river to get even closer to the falls.
The Brecon Beacons Waterfall Walk – Sgwd y Pannwr
After having my fill of the Sgwd yr Eira Waterfall, I went back up the way I came on the long series of steps.
Then, after returning to the trail junction for the Sgwd y Pannwr, I then went down down that spur trail.
About 20 minutes after I had left the Sgwd yr Eira, I then found myself at the bottom of the descent and right above the Sgwd y Pannwr waterfall.
This waterfall was shorter than those that I had seen to this point, but the experience intimate.
After all, I was able to sit on a ledge and watch the Afon Mellte spread out over its ledge as the waterfall then plunged into a dark pool below me.
At this point, I had visited three of the four waterfalls on the trail, and there was only one more to go.
Fortunately, I saw there was a trail continuing along the river towards it so I wouldn’t have to go back up then back down for it like the case with Sgwd yr Eira.
That riverside trail was what I pursued next.
The Brecon Beacons Waterfall Walk – Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn
After a few minutes of pretty tame walking along the Afon Mellte, I was then confronted with a sign warning me to be careful.
Apparently, I was about to embark on a section of the trail that would be very steep, rough, and slippery.
Little did I realize just how much rougher it would get.
Anyways, the trail started hugging ledges and traversing boulder and rooty slopes.
Then, I started to see and hear some cascades composed of smaller drops before more of the impressive larger tiers were revealed.
During my visit, I noticed that someone must have left unfinished or uncooked food in containers down by the stream fronting some of these cascades (not cool).
But shortly thereafter, I started noticing some other hidden waterfall tiers further upstream.
That compelled me to keep scrambling on the trail to get a closer look at what turned out to be the rest of the Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn.
As I ascended this very steep stretch, I went above the lower cascades and found myself in front of the base of the uppermost of this waterfall’s multiple drops.
It involved some more sketchy scrambling to get to this point so it was pretty much a one-way scramble going up.
Even though I wanted to linger here a bit longer and just bask in the remoteness and tranquility of this spot, I knew Julie and Tahia had been waiting for me for over 2 hours at this point so I had to keep moving.
The trail continued scrambling very steeply along the gorge walls above the Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn waterfall.
It was a good thing I was climbing this stretch, because I couldn’t imagine how anyone would want to scramble down this very steep stretch.
Clearly, a fall here would have been fatal.
Eventually, the scary part of the scramble was over when I finally found more familiar (albeit narrow) trail still hugging the ledges above the Afon Mellte River as it followed its general course.
Ten minutes later, I would eventually be at the other side of the red closure sign I had seen earlier near the Sgwd Clun-Gwyn waterfall.
That was when I realized that this “closure” was really a one-sided closure as they wanted you to do this part of the hike in one direction.
After having hiked this sketchy part of the trail, I had to concur that this one-sided closure was for good reason since the steep scramble was best done as an ascent and not a descent.
Eventually after another 20 minutes from the closure sign, I was finally back at the car park to end this epic waterfall hike.
Welsh Nomenclature
In terms of the Welsh meanings, apparently in South Wales, a lot of waterfalls had the name sgwd meaning “cascade” as opposed to rhaeadr meaning “waterfall” (which we saw a lot of in North Wales).
According to my Welsh dictionary, the word clun meant “hip” and gwyn meant “white” if the letter y was obscure, but it could have meant “ache” if the letter y was clear.
Meanwhile isaf meant “lowest” so I suppose the first two falls (Sgwd Clun-Gwyn and Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn) could mean the White Hip Cascade and the Lower White Hip Cascade, respectively.
As for the other waterfalls, pannwr meant “fuller” so Sgwd y Pannwr could be the Fuller Cascade.
Meanwhile, the word eira meant “snow” so the last falls (Sgwd yr Eira) was the Snow Cascade.
Authorities
The Brecon Beacons Waterfall Walk resides in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Ystradfellte in Powys County, Wales. It is administered by the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.
To get to the Brecon Beacons Waterfall Walk from Cardiff Bay, we drove the A4232 motorway for about 9 miles towards the M4 motorway.
Then, we drove east on the M4 for about 3.3 miles to the A470 exit.
Next, we continued north on the A470 for about 20 miles to the Heads of the Valleys Road (A465), which we continued on for about 10 miles to the exit at Glynneath.
After the off-ramp, we followed the road to an intersection at High Street.
Turning right onto High Street, we then followed it for 0.2 miles towards Pontneathvaughan Road, which we then turned left to go on.
The Pontneathvaughan Road sharply climbed above the town and continued another 1.3 miles before we kept left to go onto the Abermellte Court Road (roughly 0.1 miles east of the Waterfall Centre).
We then followed this road another 2.3 miles high up into the farmlands and woodlands of the Fforest Fawr (Great Forest) towards the obscure car park on the right side of the road.
At the time of our visit, there were signs for a “Bunkhouse” as well as a smaller sign pointing the way to the Sgwd Clun-Gwyn (15 minutes walk away).
This was the start of my walk, and the overalll drive to get here from Cardiff Bay was roughly 90 minutes though the last 30 minutes was probably spent trying to figure out whether I was in the right car park or not.
To get to the other car parks (Gwaun Hepste as well as Cwm Porth), they recommended leaving the A465 onto the A4059 road at Hiraun instead of Glynneath.
This turnoff was about 3.5 miles or so east of Glynneath.
Then, going on the A4059 for about 3.4 miles to the town of Penderyn, we would turn left onto a pretty scary narrow single-lane road for about 2 miles towards Ystradfellte (veering left at the turns).
The Gwaun Hepste car park would be the first one encountered going this way.
Then, going left at the next fork, we’d continue another 0.4 miles to the Cwm Porth car park.
This would be the car park closest to the cave where the Afon Mellte would disappear into and reappear from.
Finally, to give you some context, our base of Cardiff Bay was 192 miles (4 hours drive) south of Conwy, 57 miles (over an hour drive) west of Bath, England, and 151 miles (3 hours drive) west of London.
Find A Place To Stay
Surveying the view of the falls (the first of four that I encountered) from the Four Falls Trail while also noticing signage discouraging me from continuing on the loop directly downstream
Downstream to upstream sweep against the morning sun of the impressive Waterfall of the Snow (the furthermost of the four waterfalls on the trail)
Right to left sweep of the waterfall and plunge pool
Bottom up sweep of the lowermost of the cascades comprising the last of the Four Falls Trail waterfalls I encountered.
The upper two tiers of the impressive Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn Waterfall, which was the last of the Four Falls Trail Waterfalls that I encountered. Getting to this vantage point was not easy.
Related Trip Reports
Related Top 10 Lists
Related Itineraries
Trip Planning Resources
Nearby Accommodations
Featured Images and Nearby Attractions
Visitor Comments:
Got something you'd like to share or say to keep the conversation going? Feel free to leave a comment below...
Welsh Translations October 28, 2015 9:26 pm - Just to say that Sgwd Clun-gwyn means the "fall of the white meadow" in Welsh and is pronounced "skood-klin-g-win" whilst Sgwd y Pannwr is the "fall of the fuller" (a fuller being a wool-washer -see wikipedia entry on 'fulling') thanks ...Read MoreVisitor Reviews of this Waterfall:
If you have a waterfall story or write-up that you'd like to share, feel free to click the button below and fill out the form...
Sgwd Clun Gwyn (Wales UK) May 25, 2014 2:45 pm - Located in the Brecon Beacons National Park in South Wales the waterfall Sgwd Clun Gwyn (Fall of the White Meadow) can be found on the challenging 5.5mile Four Falls Trail. The River Mellte crashes about 40ft over two ledges. At times of high water this fall can extened all the way across the ledge and… ...Read MoreNearest Waterfalls
