Wales: Talybont
24 April 2000

Location

Talybont, OS Outdoor Leisure map 12 (central)

This day didn't turn out at all the way I wanted. I had planned to go to Llanfrynach and do the Fan y Big horseshoe. I got as far as 350 meters over sea level before it started thundering. As I didn't want to be caught up on a bare hill in thunder, I turned back and went to Brecon where I sulked for a bit. Later in the afternoon it cleared up and I drove up to Talybont, Pentwyn and Pontsticill reservoirs.

 
Weather

 

See above.

Click on the images to see larger versions.


Aqueduct

Not a bridge but an aqueduct. It forms part of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal. The picturesque view can be had from the road between Brecon and Llanfrynach, the B4558.

I took this picture on my third trip across the bridge opposite.

 

On the map this mountain is nameless but the picture is taken on the B4558 near Glanusk Farm looking more or less to the west. In fact the tree belongs to the farm, I think. This is the kind of picture that I had been hoping to take on this day. Unfortunately the weather Gods wanted something different.

Nameless Welsh mountain

 

Talybont

At the northern end of Talybont this dam building juts out into the water. According to a plaque the construction of Talybont was inaugurated in 1932 by His Worship the Mayor Councilor Griffith J. Jones. J.P. No doubt a very important person at the time.

The picture looks very peaceful but only hundred meters away there is an ice cream van with blaring music and many parked cars.

 
Another mountain, this time with a name. It's Cefn Tarenni Cochion. The picture is taken in the bend just after Abercynafon. Cefn Tarenni Cochion
 

Blaen y glyn

The area between Talybont and Pentwyn reservoirs is rich in waterfalls. This is one of them. Too bad that photos don't come with sound. The constant trickling, babbling, rushing sounds are as much part of the scenery as the visuals.

 

This interesting piece of dam machinery was on the Pentwyn side of the bridge between Pentwyn and Pontsticill reservoirs. I wonder if it still fills its function.

 

In the other direction, looking out over Pontsticill reservoir the view has a Scandinavian feel to it with all the conifers.

 

Crossing the bridge, I happened on this abandoned building. I liked the smooth, muscular trees juxtaposed against the slowly sagging stonework.
 

This is at the southern end of Pontsticill. It's ironic that such a utilitarian building would masquerade as nothing more than a folly on the water. Still, this industrial romanticism speaks to me.

 

 


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Copyright Mjausson 2000