Middle Usk Valley: Brecon and Llangorse

The section of the Usk valley identified here lies to the east and west of Brecon in southern Powys; an area confined on the south by eastern flanks of the Brecon Beacons range and on the north by the southern foothills of Mynydd Epynt. To the east, the western end of the Black Mountains scarp overlooks the shallow basin containing Llangorse Lake.

Summary

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Reference number: HLW (P) 7

OS map: Landranger 160, 161

Unitary authority: Powys

The Usk valley forms a distinctive and easily accessible corridor across the area. On either side of the valley, the slopes rise to a gently rolling and dissected landscape of low hills, ridges and shallow valleys.

The visual impression of the whole area is dominated by small hedged fields enclosing the rich agricultural land of the valley bottom, and it is in many ways a typical Mid Wales vista. This rich pattern of land use is a product of its complex farming and settlement history, from early Neolithic farmers, through Roman and Norman ‘invaders’, via the Celtic saints, to the remains of medieval and later agriculture and commerce.

Each period of land use has moulded the landscape and each in turn has been overlain and partly obscured by its successors. Almost in contradiction to this continuity, the Middle Usk Valley is also a classic example of a Welsh landscape of domination, conquest and political change, and many of the archaeological and historic elements visible today result from man’s imposition of his control on the landscape, not only in the Roman and medieval and later periods, but also in the prehistoric period.

A full published description for this landscape area is available as a pdf download within the Related Articles section below.

Principal area designations:

The area is almost entirely within the Brecon Beacons National Park. It includes: Llyn Syfaddan (Llangorse Lake) and part of the River Usk (Upper Usk) Sites of Special Scientific Interest; The Gaer, Brecon, Guardianship Site; crannog in Llangorse Lake Scheduled Ancient Monument; Brecon Conservation Area.

Criteria: 3, 5

Contents and significance:

The section of the Middle Usk Valley lying east and west of Brecon, including Llangorse Lake, in southern Powys, is a classic example of a Welsh landscape of domination and conquest, for which there is an important and significant range of diverse and well-preserved evidence spanning the prehistoric, Roman, medieval and later periods.

The area includes:

a Neolithic chambered tomb; Bronze Age ritual and funerary monuments; Iron Age hillforts and enclosures; a well-preserved Roman auxiliary fort; an early medieval lake dwelling or crannog — the only one in Wales; Early Christian and medieval ecclesiastical and monastic sites; a range of medieval defended sites and settlements, including Brecon town with its later, distinctive and largely unspoilt Victorian townscape; significant sections of the Brecon and Monmouthshire Canal; important historic literary and mythological associations.