Along the trail from Strata Florida to Tregaron, and into the breathtaking Afon Groes Fawr valley, you pass the exposed summit of Castell Rhyfel hillfort. Surrounded by a stone bank, this hillfort dates from the Iron Age, 2,700-2,000 years ago. It is one of many hillforts in the Cambrian Mountains, and like the others, not much is known about its history.
Beneath the summit is a valley shaped by the action of ice during the last ice age and by the more recent flowing of the Afon Groes Fawr. Along the valley you can find many archaeological features dating back to the Bronze Age, about 4,000 years ago. Burial monuments and areas of levelled land for houses, called platforms, show that people lived and died here.
During the medieval period, the valley was used for grazing, leading to the building of shepherd huts and later, more permanent longhouses. In the 1700s and 1800s the population grew quickly, causing landless people to build simple houses called tai-unnos, Welsh for one-night houses, in more remote areas. In the mid-1800s, economic change, enclosure of common land, a decline in agriculture, rural poverty, and hunger caused people to abandon upland areas like this one. There are few signs of human life left here today, though tourism has given a new life to some abandoned buildings. In this beautiful landscape you will encounter a diverse range of flora and fauna, contributing to the region’s rich biodiversity.