RSPB - giving nature a home
Search
Close
Skip to content
Shop | Community
Log in | Sign up
  • About the RSPB
      About us
    • Our History
    • Our mission
    • How the RSPB is run
    • RSPB Media Centre
    • RSPB job vacancies
    • At home & abroad
    • International
    • England
    • Northern Ireland
    • Scotland
    • Wales
    • Get in touch
    • Contact us
    • RSPB offices
    • Connect with us your way
      Our activities
    • Gardening for wildlife

      Gardening for wildlife

      See our ideas to keep you connected to nature during coronavirus

    • Connect with us your way

      Connect with us your way

      From our regular emails to your favourite social media, there’s more than one way to keep in touch with nature

    • Our History

      Our History

      Discover how a campaign against feathers in fashion sparked a global force to save nature with more than a million members

  • Our work
      Nature conservation
    • Conservation and sustainability
    • Projects
    • Landscape scale conservation
    • Centre for Conservation Science
    • Satellite tracking birds
    • RSPB News
    • RSPB News
    • 'Our work' blog
    • Policy and Insight
    • Policy and Insight: England and Westminster
    • Casework
      Featured news
    • Mindful mornings

      Mindful mornings

      If you can’t get outside, why not bring the outside in by downloading our bird song radio app?

    • How nature can help protect our homes

      How nature can help protect our homes

      Following the floods this winter, watch how one area is using nature as a natural protector.

    • Casework

      Casework

      Catch up with the RSPB’s own nature detectives on the case as they look to save some very special places.

  • Birds & wildlife
      Wildlife guides
    • Identify a bird
    • Bird A-Z
    • Other garden wildlife
    • Guide to birdwatching
    • What is the Red List for UK birds?
    • Nature's Calendar
    • Nature's Home magazine
    • About Nature's Home magazine
    • Birds and wildlife articles
    • RSPB Podcasts
    • Nature's Home blog
    • Birds & Wildlife Advice
    • How you can help birds
    • Gardening for wildlife
    • Ask an expert
    • Wildlife and the law
    • How to report crimes against wild birds
    • Bird songs
    • Which bird song is that?
    • Most popular bird guides this month
    • Bird migration

      Bird migration

      Migrating birds have travelled thousands of miles just to get here. Find out why.

    • Who to contact if you spot an injured or baby bird

      Who to contact if you spot an injured or baby bird

      Read more advice about what to do if you find a bird that needs help

    • In for a duck

      In for a duck

      It’s nesting season for our waterfowl too but what are the rules you need to follow for ducks, geese or swans?

  • Get Involved
      Activities
    • Big Garden Birdwatch
    • Nature on Your Doorstep
    • RSPB Competitions
    • Dolphinwatch
    • #MyClimateAction
    • Community & advice
    • Join our local groups
    • How green are you?
    • RSPB Community
    • Get involved blog
    • Volunteering & fundraising
    • Volunteer
    • Fundraise
    • Help nature thrive as a corporate partner
    • Our grant funders
    • Campaigning
    • Campaigning in Scotland
    • Campaigning in Wales
    • Campaigning in England
    • Campaigning in Northern Ireland
    • The nature and climate emergency
    • Protecting wildlife sites
    • Campaign with us
    • Top activities to do
    • Nature on Your Doorstep

      Nature on Your Doorstep

      Great ideas on how your garden, or even a small backyard or balcony, can become a mini nature reserve

    • How green are you?

      How green are you?

      See some of the ways you can get into green living.

    • Campaigning

      Campaigning

  • Reserves & events
      Reserves A-Z Events Find a reserve
      Top reserves this month
    • Marshside

      Marshside

      This fantastic wetland site is located north of Southport town centre and has some of the best wildlife in the region.

    • Lytchett Fields

      Lytchett Fields

      The reserve has seen more than thirty species of wading birds.

    • Arne

      Arne

      Heathland home to more than 2565 species.

  • Fun & Learning
      For teachers
    • Supporting resources
    • Wild Challenge
    • School outreach visits
    • Big Schools Birdwatch
    • Sign up for the newsletter
    • School trip ideas
    • For kids
    • Fun factoids for all the family
    • Games and activities
    • Kids stories
    • RSPB kids competitions
    • For families
    • Big Wild Sleepout
    • Wild Challenge
    • Nature reserves for families
    • Robin Robin
    • Cameron's Cottage
    • Your Support
    • About Cameron's cottage
    • Latest kids' activities
    • Wild Challenge

      Wild Challenge

      Nature is an adventure waiting to be had. Get out, get busy and get wild!

    • Fun factoids for all the family

      Fun factoids for all the family

      Find out more about the nature and wildlife outside your window.

    • Youth membership

      Youth membership

      As well as a free gift and magazines, you’ll get loads of ideas for activities to try at home.

  • Join & Donate
      Join us
    • Choose a membership
    • Family membership
    • Youth membership
    • Gift membership
    • Make a future richer in nature. Become a Life Fellow today.
    • Renew your membership
    • Donate
    • Philanthropy & Major Gifts
    • Our appeals
    • Make a one-off donation
    • Make a regular donation
    • In Memory Donations
    • Plant a celebration tree
    • In memoriam booklet download form
    • Leave a gift to nature in your Will
    • Why Include a Gift to Nature in Your Will
    • How to Include us in Your Will
    • Information for executors & solicitors
    • Download your free guide
    • Other ways to help
    • Gift Aid
    • Support us when you shop
    • RSPB Images
    • RSPB second-hand binocular scheme
    • Win with the RSPB
    • Payroll Giving
    • Stamp out albatross deaths
  • Login to your account Sign up for an RSPB account
  • Shop
  • Community
  • Home
  • Reserves & events
  • Reserves A-Z
  • Carngafallt

Carngafallt

gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
Address
Carngafallt Reserve, Glanrafon, Elan Valley, Rhayader LD6 5HW
Grid ref
SN936652
Covid-19 updates for RSPB nature reserves

 

If you're looking for ancient oak woodland with stunning veteran trees, wood pasture and moorland, then Carngafallt is the perfect place to visit. Lichens and bryophtyes cloak the woodland in shades of soothing green, woodland birds fill the air with a dawn chorus and red kites soar effortlessly above.

Plan your visit

Opening times

Car park and trails open.

Entrance charges

Free entrance to RSPB members
Yes
Adults
Free
Children
Free
Car park cost
  • There is a parking charge for Elan Valley Centre car park.
  • Please phone RSPB Ynys-hir on 01654 700222 or the Welsh Water Dŵr Cymru Elan Valley Centre on 01597 810880 for more information.

Facilities

  • Car park
  • Refreshments
  • Picnic area
  • Viewing point
  • Nature trails
  • Shop is closed

Accessibility

How to get here

By train

The nearest station is Llandrindod Wells (13 miles or 21 km away).

By bus

Rhayader (3 miles or 5 km away). Postbus/taxi to Elan Village via B4518 or walk/cycle via rural, metalled walking/cycling trail.

By bike

Sustrans route 6 runs adjacent to the reserve.

By road

The main access point is at the eastern end of Elan Village where the village road crosses a cattle grid and enters woodland. Once across the cattle grid you are in the reserve. Elan village is just off the B4518 approximately three miles (5 km) south-west of the town of Rhayader, which straddles the A470 and A44, in central Wales. There are no car parking facilities on the reserve, however parking is available at the Elan Valley Visitor Centre, for a small charge and is only a 5 to 10 minute walk away through the quiet road of Elan Village.

Sat nav POI file: If you have a satellite navigation system that can accept POI files, please see our POI page for a download link and instructions.

Other ways to get there

There is a very pleasant rural, metalled walk and cycle path that links Rhayader town and Elan Village (3 miles or 5 km) and continues on into the beautiful Elan Valley. Minor roads surrounding the reserve make good walking and cycling.

 

Get directions from Google Maps
RSPB reserves on Google Earth

Contact Carngafallt

  • Carngafallt Reserve, Glanrafon, Elan Valley, Rhayader LD6 5HW
  • carngafallt@rspb.org.uk
  • 01654 700222

What will you see?

Our star species

    Male pied flycatcher

    Pied flycatcher

    It is easy to see how this bird gets its name on a spring walk around the woodland at Carngafallt.

    Adult red kite

    Red kite

    Red kites are very nearly unmistakable - check the long, forked tail and graceful, lazy, gliding flight.

    Male redstart

    Redstart

    Watch out for them in spring and summer shivering their reddish tails.

    Male whinchat

    Whinchat

    Whinchats arrive on the moorland from Africa and are subtly pretty little birds with a warm orangey buff breast and fetching white eye stripe, often spotted perching on tall stems of bracken.

    Willow Warbler

    Willow warbler

    Listen for the song of the wood warbler coming from the oak canopy from late April into June.

Nature spectacles

Carpets of lichens cover the trunks and branches of all the trees. Look out for Witches Beard or Usnea florida, with its tangled tresses and ‘eyes’. 

Seasonal highlights

  • Spring
  • Summer
  • Autumn
  • Winter

A visit from Mid April through to early July in early morning is rewarded with the sounds of the dawn chorus and views of some of most iconic migrants such as pied flycatchers, redstarts, woodwarblers and spotted flycatchers.

The moorland is full of colour, the purple offset beautifully against a blue sky on a good day and with a chance of spotting birds of prey such as the red kite, hobby, hen harrier and peregrine, is worth the more difficult trek.

While our migrants have left us, the change of colour and the stark limbs of the veteran trees make a great contrast against the big skies, and ravens tumbling and 'kronking' overhead add to the atmosphere.

Migrants such as redwings and fieldfares can be found feasting on the winter berries, and a visit on a clear night is a great time for star gazing in a genuinely 'dark sky'.

About Carngafallt

Habitat

Ancient wood pasture with veteran trees and oak-dominated Celtic rainforest are globally significant for lichens especially. A walk through the woodland at any time of year brings different experiences from the dawn chorus in spring and early summer, to the wonderful colour change in autumn, to the sounds of ravens and red kites overhead in winter. The moorland is at it's best in late summer when the heather is in full flower and the views are stunning; it is a long hike up to the moorland, but worth the effort for the intrepid.

Conservation

The ancient wood pasture and Celtic rainforest is one of the rarest and most important habitat on site particularly for lichens, dead wood invertebrates as well as the classic woodland birds. Management here aims to restore and create the more open light conditions of wood pasture which is vital for much of this priority wildlife, especially the lichens. The veteran trees are an ecosystem in themselves, supporting a cornucopia of niches and a diversity of fungi, lichens, invertebrates and birds and therefore keeping the trees open grown and well lit is vital.

Management is focused on removing thickets of young saplings while planning the next generation of trees, reducing the extent and density of the bracken on site and managing grazing to create the right ground conditions.

We manage our upland heath and mire for the benefit of birds such as hen harriers and whinchats, as well as for the condition of the heath and its associated plants themselves. We aim to improve the heath’s structure by supporting mixed and selective grazing, carrying out heather cutting where appropriate to create a mix of age structures, controlling invasive species as necessary.

Our partnership with our farming tenants is an important one. We work with our tenants to manage our hay meadows and other grassland habitats for the benefit of their rich plantlife, invertebrates and birds. This involves beneficial farming practices such as the traditional making of hay and by carefully managing the use of grazing and fertilizers.

We are constantly learning more about the site which helps inform our future management. We have a five-year system of monitoring and surveys, targeting priority habitats and key species – such as the greater butterfly orchids.

Site information

Carngafallt is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) due to it's importance for wildlife.

Share this

  • Facebook Facebook Created with Sketch.
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

You might also be interested in

Gwenffrwd-Dinas RSPB reserve, Carmarthenshire, Wales, UK. Aerial view, August 2007.

Gwenffrwd-Dinas

Enjoy a walk through enchanting alder and oak woodland, past spectacular rivers. It is home to all manner of birdlife.
RSPB Giving Nature a Home Campaign

Homes for Nature Fund 2017

You can give nature the space it needs to survive and thrive...
RSPB Giving Nature a Home Campaign

Join us - legacy

Become an RSPB member by signing up here.

We spend 90% of net income on conservation, public education and advocacy

Quick links

  • Contact us
  • Online Community
  • Vacancies
  • Media centre

Information for

  • Teachers
  • Policy makers
  • Farmers & landowners
  • Scientists

Our work in

  • England
  • Scotland
  • Wales
  • Northern Ireland
  • International

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

Partnering with

BirdLife_logo

The RSPB is a member of BirdLife International. Find out more about the partnership

Fundraising Regulator logo OSCR logo

© The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no. SC037654

  • Terms & conditions
  • Cookie policy
  • Privacy policy
  • Charter and statutes
  • About our site
  • Modern Slavery Act

Cookie Preferences

Accepting all non-essential cookies helps us to personalise your experience

Edit settings
Accept all

Essential cookies are required

These cookies are required for basic web functions

Enable analytics cookies

Allow us to collect anonymised performance data

Enable marketing cookies

Allow us to personalise your experience

Save settings
Read our cookie policy