Start: Main village car park at Meifod in Powys.
Finish: Main village car park at Meifod.
Distance : Shorter route - approx. 2 hours; Longer route - approx. 4.5f hours.
Notes: This is a walk along lanes, tracks and footpaths around the Meifod area. It is suitable for the moderately fit and sure-footed, and sensible shoes are a must. |
Directions
Start at the main village car park, near the Community Hall. Leave the village following the Guilsfield road as far as Broniarth Bridge over the River Vyrnwy. On the far (east) side take the sign-posted path to the right which runs about half a mile along the river.
Go through the gate and follow the path which continues straight on rising on to a pasture field. Follow a well-defined track over the next two fields to a lane reached by crossing a stile and a low bridge.
The route follows the lane to the right for a short distance then enters a feild. Head uphill across the feild on to a gap in the hedge adjacent to a prominent oak tree.
After the gap, turn left to follow the hedge to a stile. You should cross this and follow the track through Foel Wood to another stile at the far end. Aim straight ahead to the far end of the next field, which then leads into the next wood.
The path through the wood is quite well defined, then it climbs for a few hundred yards until you meet a forestry road. A short distance to the right is the principal feature of this walk, the old healing spring Ffynnon y Clawdd Llesg. To reach this, follow the forestry road to the right to a sign-posted narrow path leading off to the left.
From the Healing Well, go back down to the forest track and turn left. Continue along this track, going through two gates to the road. Turn right and continue down the road to the turning on the right just after Lower Hall Farm.
At this point, both routes separate. You can choose either the shorter route or the longer route, which is recommended for energetic walkers.
Click here if you want to follow the longer route. To follow the shorter route, turn right and follow this lane to where you briefly walked along it on the way to the Well. Turn left over the bridge and stile and retrace your route to the riverbank and thence to the car park.
Walk provided by Antur Dwy Afon, a community regeneration scheme in the Meifod area.
your comments
Richard Dean from Newtown
My wife and I did the walk on 3/8/06. The directions were okay, a bit of detective work required. We found that the route through the second wood was overgrown and impassable. Not to be defeated, we skirted around and found the forestry road required to access the healing well. Thanks to Janet Bord's comment, we found the correct signed path, but alas, that was overgrown also! We still enjoyed the surrounding countryside and views despite the setbacks.
Fri Aug 4 09:05:27 2006
Janet Bord from Denbighshire
I did this walk yesterday with 2 friends and 2 dogs and we enjoyed it very much. The directions and waymarking were almost perfect, only leading us astray once, just before we reached the well. The directions say that to reach the well, 'follow the forestry road to the right to a signposted narrow path leading off to the left'. In fact the first signed path to the left, immediately after joining the forestry road, is another footpath altogether, and the signed path to the well is the second on the left.
Having two dogs with us, we found that some of the stiles are definitely not dog-friendly: there is no way a large dog can get through some of them! And a final problem is the electric fence which runs alongside the path where it follows the river. There should definitely be a warning sign about this electric fence as soon as one joins the path at the Broniarth Bridge, because a child could easily receive a shock from it. One of our dogs did brush against it and received a shock.
Thu Jun 9 17:27:02 2005
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A walk through woodland and along a riverbank to the Healing Well at Meifod - home of the 2003 National Eisteddfod. You can choose the short route or the more challenging longer route. 
