Afon Tawe - Abercraf to Ystradgynlais

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Last Updated on Monday, 14 February 2011 07:53
Written by Dillon Hughes, also Gareth Bryant.

GUIDE TO THE AFON TAWE

(Abercraf to Ystradgynlais)

NAME OF RIVER: Tawe.

WHERE IS IT?: South Wales, flowing off the Brecon Beacons near the A4067 Swansea Brecon road.

PUT-INS/ TAKE-OUTS: Put in at the small recreation ground reached via a path that slopes down to the river adjacent to the Abercraf weir.

Get out is on River right before the town bridge in Ystradgynlais.

APPROX LENGTH: 2-3 miles.

TIME NEEDED: 1 - 2 hours.

ACCESS HASSLES:

WATER LEVEL INDICATORS: Needs some rain to be worthwhile.

GRADING: Grade 2; in high water it rises to 3.

MAJOR HAZARDS/ FALLS: Local anglers although some of the landowners were sympathetic.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: The first gorge is the best part of the trip. I used to do the river regularly in the late 70s and early 80s with local youth groups. It is possible to continue on past Ystalfera and shoot the large sloping weir (or it was). Care is needed as there was exposed metal work.

OTHER NOTES: Upstream are classic whitewater stretches. There is more of the river downstream...have you done it?

CONTRIBUTED BY: Dillon Hughes, also Gareth Bryant.

 

 

Community Forum Comments on this Article
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Re: Afon Tawe - Abercraf to Ystradgynlais -- morsey
Sunday, 18 November 2012 23:43
The weir in Ystradgynlais, at the bridge next to the Ynyscedwyn Arms Hotel, is in hideously dangerous condition. It has several collapsed, car size, concrete slabs at angles and is syphoning in places in the middle and right hand side, the middle/right hand side also has a section where the concrete is so badly broken that given the wrong conditions you could get a boat/person to pin and or go under the slab! Whilst the left hand side appears to have several jaggy rock/probably metal protruding! With medium water and higher you'll probably not be able to see the issues with this weir! And there is no easy way to view it from the river! Exit from the river at this point is very tricky. Just upstream of the bridge you can 'climb' out river right, glad we stopped our group above the bridge to check the weir. Upstream further of this road bridge, not long after the Giedd tributary feeds in from the right, and before the footbridge there appeared a couple of places to exit up to the road, river right. I'll be using those exit points in future until the the weir is fixed. You can inspect from the road via the decking area in the Hotel garden.