Hidden in a deep, mossy National Trust gorge ten minutes up the valley, Henrhyd Falls drops a full 27 metres — the tallest waterfall in South Wales — in a single slender curtain off the edge of the Coal Measures.
It earned worldwide fame as the entrance to the Batcave in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, and the pool below is every bit as cinematic in real life, framed by ancient oak and ash woodland that drips with ferns and moss.
You can reach it two ways from The Old Exchange: drive a few minutes to the National Trust car park near Coelbren, or make a proper morning of it and walk the Nant Llech valley path from the village — a lovely wooded riverside route that passes a series of smaller cascades and an old watermill.
Worth knowing
- At 27 metres (90 ft), it’s the tallest waterfall in South Wales — best seen thundering after rain.
- The falls pour over the “Farewell Rock” — so named by miners because striking it meant farewell to any hope of coal below.
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt walks through this exact curtain of water in the closing scenes of The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
- In 1833 the geologist William Logan found fossil trees just downstream — they now stand in Swansea Museum.
- You can carefully pick your way behind the curtain — unofficial, slippery and entirely at your own risk.