Historic SitePowysCadw4.6
Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.
The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.
Cadw lists a car park without details and publishes no charge or free statement, so the status is recorded as unknown; reviewers describe a tiny free car park for six or seven cars that larger vehicles can use. From it a ten-minute sloped path under the trees, slippery at times, crosses a bridge to the works; keep inside the fenced areas, which protect visitors from the river and dam. Benches and picnic tables stand among the ruins according to visitors; the cafe at the top of the dam is a separate walk or drive and reportedly opens Friday to Sunday.
Driving pin: the Bryntail Lead Mine car park, 114 m south of Cadw's marker. Cadw publishes no postcode; SY18 6NU is Visit Wales's and Google's and centres on the car park. By road: at the foot of the Clywedog dam, off the B4518, 3 miles north-west of Llanidloes. National Cycle Network route 81 passes 5.7 km away.
Bryn-tail Leadworks, Gwaith Plwm Bryn-tail, sits in the shadow of the dam at the southern end of Llyn Clywedog reservoir. In the 19th century it was a noisy, smoky place where lead ore and barytes were extracted and processed before being carted to Llanidloes and shipped down the River Severn; the mine closed in 1884 as the local mining boom ended. The remains stand on terraces up the valley side: crushing houses, ore bins, roasting ovens, the smithy and the mine manager's office, wheelpits for the winding and crushing machinery, the stone slab tanks of the barytes mill and a circular explosives magazine. Reviewers enjoy exploring the labelled buildings and the towering dam behind, reached by a wooded path from a small car park of six or seven cars. Dogs on short leads may explore the site, and Glyndwr's Way National Trail passes the mine on its way from Llanidloes to the dam.
Open all year during reasonable daylight hours; no admission charge. Cadw may close monuments at short notice in extreme weather.
Terrain level 3, moderate: the sloped wooded path and bridge from the car park, then a diverse site of industrial sections at different levels linked by slopes, small stone slab bridges and steps with handrails; exposed drops above the wheelpits and tanks, so keep to the designated route, and a small brook on the far left where children need close supervision. No toilets or facilities. Drones are not permitted.
Dogs: Dogs on short leads are welcome on the ground level of the works, within the fenced areas.
Photo: The stone ruins of Bryntail lead mine on the valley side below the concrete face of the Clywedog dam. Fabian Musto, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bryntail_lead_mine_and_Clywedog_dam_-_geograph.org.uk_-_7008077.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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Dog access not confirmed
14.5 miles (23.5 km) from a bridge over the Severn at Llanidloes through woodland and pasture to the Bryntail mine and the Clywedog dam, then high above the reservoir onto the old Roman road to Dylife; some sections rough and remote; on foot from Llanidloes or the Bryntail car park. Free.
