About Sgwd Henrhyd
Sgwd Henrhyd (pronounced “SGOOD HEN-hrhud”; possibly meaning “Old Ford Cascade”) was said to be the tallest single-drop waterfall in South Wales at 90ft (27m), but we felt that wasn’t the main thing this waterfall had going for it. For when we showed up and witnessed this impressive yet graceful falls, we noticed that it was possible to walk around the plunge pool and into a large alcove behind the waterfall, making this one of the few waterfalls in the UK that we visited where it was possible to do that. We didn’t know this at the time, but apparently, that large alcove was said to have doubled as the Batcave along with the waterfall in the movie The Dark Knight Rises
From the unpaved car park area (which was next to some horse farm), we passed through a gate, then briefly past a farm before the trail entered a lightly forested area where the trail then descended quickly. Although the path was pretty wide, it was deceptively strenuous because the surface of the trail had a lot of loose gravel on the packed dirt, which made for surprisingly slippery footing, especially given how steep the slope was when we (especially Tahia) were descending it. So as we were carefully making our way down, we’d eventually get to a trail junction at the bottom where going left would lead to Sgwd Henrhyd while going right would continue downstream along the Nant Llech (Slate Stream?) leading to at least three other waterfalls on the way to Abercraf (at least according to a sign we read at the trailhead). In any case, we kept left to keep going towards the Sgwd Henrhyd.
Next, we crossed over a bridge traversing the Nant Llech, then we were on a fairly slippery dirt path that seemed to be on the muddy side even though we had been dealing with dry weather for the past few days. The damp and wet grounds here could be attributed to the fact that the forest we were in was considered to be in fact a rainforest. There were moss and ferns growing around the trail, and it was said that sun rarely would make it this deep into the ravine thanks to a combination of the narrowness of the gorge as well as the tallness of the trees both contributing to a high canopy that tended to keep the sun’s rays out. So given the lack of evaporative energy from the sun, that seemed to be consistent with what we were reading from the signs about this place claiming that this Celtic Forest harbored conditions similar to the Amazon rainforest. And thus, we were glad to have worn our hiking boots to ensure we wouldn’t have too many problems with the mud and slick terrain.
We’d eventually reach Sgwd Henrhyd after about 20 minutes or so from the trailhead, and after getting our fill of the frontal views of the falls (like what’s pictured at the top of this page), I then took it upon myself to follow the narrow trail leading to the alcove behind the falls. Like many other waterfalls with alcoves this deep, I’d imagine that this would be a pretty old waterfall or at least a waterfall in the advanced stages of its development, and I’m sure over time, parts of the lip of the falls will collapse and cause its brink to recede slightly upstream. Since the falls had relatively low flow compared to what we had seen in the literature, Sgwd Henrhyd tended to have a graceful appearance. And when we had our fill of this popular waterfall (as more families and other parties started showing up), we then made our way back uphill to the car park. Overall, we had spent just less than an hour away from the car.
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