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Lovely cycle ride from Tanyresgair through Cors Caron nature reserve

I had a break from road cycling this weekend, so my wife and I decided to do a casual ride, me on a traditional mountain bike and my wife on her eBike.

Cycle route

We left Tanyresgair and headed towards Tregaron via backroads. We soon met the Aeron river and followed it for a mile or two to Blaenpennal. These back roads are quiet and take one through rural and farming lands, true reflection of Mid-Wales. We joined the main road A485, turned right and followed it towards Tregaron. A mile before Tregaron the road crosses the Teifi river. We stopped to look for birds and startled a grey heron. Once in Tregaron we bought the Sunday newspaper. Tregaron is old market town with a Spar, Rhiannon Crafts and the excellent Talbot Hotel.

We left Tregaron and headed North East on the B4343 towards Pontyrhydfendigaid (Bont for short). Two miles later we reached Cors Caron, a nature reserve set in the Teifi valley.

Cors Caron

It’s here that we turned off the main road and joined the Ystwyth Cycle Trail – it’s a dirt track that runs north through the reserve. This track is dead straight as it was, until the 1960s, the railway line from Aberystwyth to Carmarthen. Talks about restoring the railway are currently in progress. The track is used by walkers, cyclists and birdwatchers passing a few dams and streams. Cors Caron has board walks extending into the wetland area of the Teifi with a couple of hides. Bird lovers can see a large variety of birds including ducks, waders, birds of prey and owls. Walkers and cyclists can enjoy the solitude and scenery.

Ystwyth trail

We stopped near the end of the track for a quick snack before turning left onto a single track which took us up the hill to Tynygraig. We hit a main road turned left and after a 100 yards turned left again on to a back road, leaving the Ystwyth Trail and taking us over the hills towards Lledrod. This is all farming country; plenty of sheep, cows and horses, and we saw lots buzzards and kites.

On entering Lledrod we turned left on yet another quiet road. After 2 miles there is a cross road where we turned right for Bronant. This is no sign, but should you cross a bridge you’ve gone too far. From Bronant it was another 2 miles back to Tanyresgair.

Road to Lledrod

It took us a leisurely 3 hours. This is great little route, 22 miles (36 kms) long and not too difficult.

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Mid Wales – why we love living here

We are from South Africa and have always enjoyed the wild African bush, the great outdoors, seeing and watching birds and animals. We are both active walkers and cyclists and it is with this background that we found Tanyresgair and settled here.

This is Mid Wales, right in the middle of sheep farming country. We live exactly 2 miles from Bronant, a village on the main road between Lampeter and Aberystwyth.

Coming home we leave the main road and head west up a narrow lane past a few smallholdings and fields full of sheep and or cows. The road then runs next to a forest and field full of gorse, bright yellow in the summer.

At 1.5 miles we turn off to the right, clearly marked Tanyresgair. Passing fields full of sheep, a shed, a small ruin of a cottage, the resident buzzard; no other signs of civilisation.

Rounding a corner we come across Tanyresgair, our home for nearly 10 years now. Set in an amphitheatre, (the name Tanyresgair means under the ridge) surrounded by trees and greenery, it appears as an oasis in the wilderness.

Beautifully quiet apart from sheep, the abundance of bird life and sound of many of the streams that flow through our land.

The tranquillity of Mid Wales is found right here in Tanyresgair. We have 14 acres of fields and grassland with beautiful views for nearly 360 degrees.

Looking South we see the hills on the other side of a wide valley through which the Aeron river flows. Llyn Eiddwen, a 30-minute walk from Tanyresgair, is the source of the Aeron and reaches the sea at the beautiful port of Aberaeron. To the East we see the Cambrian mountains, an area of scenic wonder that is asking to be explored, as we have done and continue to do so.

We love sitting outside in the evenings, wine at the wild life pond at the edge of our garden and no sign nor sound of other humanity. The night skies are fantastic, especially in winter as there is no light pollution.

The air is clean, it smells and feels fresh, our water comes from a spring on our property and tastes as good if not better than any commercially produced bottled water.

We frequently have visitors, delivery drivers, locals who, when coming to our place say; ‘Wow’, ‘what a view’, ‘beautifully quiet’!

Once when asked how long it took us to get used to the quiet, we both said,
’about 10 seconds’.

There is always something happening here. Just the other day we had a stray horse arrive on our doorstep. It transpired it had jumped the fence from a field nearby and found its way to us. A local farmer grazes his sheep on our fields and we often have to rescue lambs which get caught in the fence or just get separated from their mothers.

We have the odd walkers, horse riders and mountain bikers pass by, on their way to a common land area with a trig point providing the best views of Cardigan Bay, only half an hour’s walk from here.

We have an abundance of wildlife, birds and mammals. At the moment we have a resident pheasant with a few ‘wives’, a couple of mallards, a woodpecker family which has been here since we arrived and all the smaller garden birds, our bird count to date is 65. Buzzards and kites are resident here and frequent visitors include stoats, weasels, brown hares and foxes.

We are kept busy gardening, planting our own vegetables, trimming hedges, topping fields, fixing fences and machinery. All good fun, sure beats going to the office.

All this is why we love this place, we hope you will too.