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WALK 3

Drefach Felindre and the Woollen Trail

Start/Finish	Woollen Mill Museum, Drefach Felindre (SN 355 390)
Distance	10km (6 miles)
Ascent	300m (980ft)
Time	3–4hrs
Maps	Explorer 185
Refreshments	Café at Woollen Mill; pubs in Drefach Felindre
Public transport	Bus 460 between Carmarthen and Cardigan. Frequent services Mon–Sat, none on Sun.

This most interesting walk sets off from the National Wool Museum of Wales in Drefach to follow a series of footpaths and trails through this delightful corner of Carmarthenshire, which became the centre of the Welsh woollen industry during the late 1800s and early 1900s. We visit three rivers, all of which flow into the River Teifi just to the north, but which were key to the development of the woollen industry in this area, both as a source of power to drive the machinery and to scour and wash raw wool and finished fabrics. Although not a particularly long walk, it is fairly arduous, with a number of ascents and descents into and out of the river valleys.

The National Wool Museum is a working museum housed in the former Cambrian Mills and is well worth a visit: it tells the whole story of how sheep have clothed the workers of Wales and the rest of the world. From the museum, take the footpath that runs parallel to the entrance, crossing a bridge over a stream, but where the track swings rightward towards a house, continue directly ahead through the middle one of three gates and onto a hedge-lined footpath that soon joins a lane. Turn right and follow the lane as it climbs gently for 100 metres, then go sharp left onto a rising footpath through woodland to reach a pedestrian gate in front of a house and here turn left along a track to reach the road on the outskirts of Waungilwen.

Cross onto a track on the opposite side of the road and where this forks by Dandinas Farm, keep right, passing low outbuildings and on through quiet woodland with Nant Brân for company to the left. The track passes the ruins of Pant-y-barcud on the left.

Pant-y-barcud is a typical example of what happened to almost all of the 50 or so mills that operated in this area at the end of the Second World War. As the need for clothes and blankets by the troops dried up, so did the orders from the War Office. The mills closed, the machinery was stripped out and sold for scrap and the buildings began to fall into decay.

Immediately in front of the access gate to an isolated house, go right on a footpath that runs to the rear of the property, keeping left where the path forks to cross three footbridges, eventually joining the access track to a cottage. Go left at the T-junction and follow the track out to a road, which is followed to the right, keeping right at a junction in 350 metres into the hamlet of Cwmhiraeth, a former mill village.

Immediately before the bridge over the Nant Brân, bear left along a track, passing a property known as Glanrhyd and immediately in front of the house called Troed-Y-rhiw, bear left onto a footpath running to the rear of the property before climbing steadily through woodland to a junction with a track. Bear right along the track, continuing ahead when it joins a surfaced lane and proceeding directly ahead again after 80 metres, on a continuation track with fine views to the southwest over Moelfre. At a junction with a lane go left and descend quite steeply into the attractive hamlet of Cwmpengraig, nestling in the Esgair Valley.

Old mill buildings in Cwmpengraig now make an attractive house

Cwmpengraig was another very important centre for the woollen industry, with several mills in the valley and most of the houses acting as domestic weaving workshops. One of the mills, Coedmor Mill, sited next to the chapel but now a ruin, was the first in the area to develop mechanised carding and spinning mules using water from the Nant Esgair to power the machines. The mill burnt down during the Depression, but was immediately rebuilt, only to burn down again in 1951. Fire was always a major problem in the mills and factories, with all but two of the mills suffering from fires over the years. The problem was that wool is full of lanolin, all the machines relied on heavy grease for lubrication and over time all the timbers in these wooded buildings became impregnated with a mixture of grease and lanolin. Add to this the wool and a highly volatile mixture is created.

Pass Soar Chapel on the left, cross the bridge over the Nant Esgair, which is the spawning ground of Sewin (Salmon Trout), walk up to the main road through the valley and bear right along the road to reach the national speed limit signs on the edge of the hamlet. Go left here, off the road, onto a narrow footpath that climbs steeply through woodland to reach a junction with a track and follow this to the left, passing between attractive buildings at Ty hen. Proceed through a gate directly ahead and along a hedge lined track between fields to reach a lane which is followed to the left before taking the first lane on the right which leads to the isolated Penboyr Church and the remaining mound of the Norman Tomen Llawddog Castle. To visit the church and mound, continue past Maesllan Farm for 250 metres. Go left through an iron kissing gate just before the farm, joining a grassy track through a pasture just left of farm buildings. Just before reaching the far hedge, bear right to a stile in the corner of the field which gives access to a broad, farm track and go left along this to eventually reach a stile on the left at the termination of the track.

Once over, join a footpath running through woodland above the Bargod Valley that was known locally as ‘The Coffin Trail’.

This footpath passes the site of the Swigod Arms (Blue Tit Arms), a hostelry that was a frequent refreshment stop for bearers and mourners as they passed along here on the way to and from funerals at Penboyr Church. Sadly, the pub poured its last drink over 100 years ago!

The path eventually reaches a stile on the left and once over walk round the right edge of a field before descending through more woodland to another stile, giving access to a pasture, which is crossed, to a stile beside a gate on the opposite side. Once over, ford a small stream then swing away rightwards on a grassy track, keeping left where it forks, but where it swings sharp left, back on itself, go right along the top of a steep bank with views to the right over farms and houses on the outskirts of Drefelin. The path soon begins to descend towards the valley, but at a waymarker sign bear left and descend through woodland, going left at the bottom, along a track which zigzags down to the right, then left, before reaching a pedestrian gate leading onto a footpath between fences, soon joining the road through Drefelin.

As the name suggests Drefelin (Milltown) was once a bustling village with several mills powered by the Nant Bargod and was known as the Huddersfield of Wales due to its high levels of flannel production; more than any other in Wales. Today, few of the mills remain, but many of the weavers’ cottages that lined the road still stand.

Bear right along the road, but immediately after crossing the Nant Bargod, go sharp left along a track, going left through an iron kissing gate just beyond the first property on the right and walk along the right edge of two fields with the remnants of an old leet (a manmade mill stream) to the right. Pass through another iron kissing gate and join a lane that runs past the old Dolwion fulling mill, built by the Adams family of Massachusetts. At a T-junction in Drefach, alongside the cemetery, turn left down to the main road through the village, then go right along this back to the National Wool Museum.

Drefelin