The Victorian pleasure grounds of Craig-y-Nos Castle are now a free country park run by the national park authority — forty acres of lakes, meadows and woodland along the young River Tawe, five minutes up the road.
It’s the gentlest walking in the valley: flat, mostly buggy-friendly paths past fish ponds Adelina Patti had dug for her guests, with the Changing Seasons tea room by the entrance for coffee and homemade cake.
Come back after dark: the park is a designated Dark Sky Discovery Site inside the Bannau Brycheiniog International Dark Sky Reserve — one of the officially recommended stargazing spots in the national park, close enough to reach in five minutes when the forecast clears.
Worth knowing
- Free to enter, open year round; pay-and-display car park (free for blue-badge holders).
- An official Dark Sky Discovery Site — on clear nights the Milky Way is visible to the naked eye.
- The concessionary path up Cribarth, the Sleeping Giant, starts from the park.
- The Changing Seasons tea room serves locally roasted coffee and homemade food daily.