Scouting for Autumn | Gilfach Nature Reserve

After surprising myself and managing to make through both the filming and editing of my first vlog, I set myself a little bit of a challenge (on top of trying to find some decent photos) for the filming of my second vlog, check it out to see how it goes….

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Location Information: Gilfach Nature Reserve

This information is not intended to be a complete guide to visiting Gilfach Nature Reserve but is aimed at providing a little bit more information about the location to accompany the vlog and to tempt you into visiting it for yourselves.

After all, your time will always be better spent being outdoors, exploring and photographing these beautiful landscapes for yourself, not reading about them on a screen.

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Information:

This was my first visit to Gilfach Nature Reserve although I must have driven past the entrance hundreds of times over the years. It’s located just outside Rhayder, clearly signposted off the A470 Rhayader to Llangurig road and I think that its proximity to the popular and incredibly beautiful Elan Valley is perhaps the main reason I haven’t visited before. However, for this Vlog, being only my second, I was hoping to find somewhere new and a little quieter than the Elan Valley to explore in preparation for some Autumn photography. Luckily, a week or so beforehand I’d watched a documentary on BBC One Wales called “The Last Wilderness of Wales” and although it was mainly focused on the wildlife in the Cambrian Mountains of Wales it did include a lot of beautiful drone footage of the area too, and that’s when the Marteg Valley caught my attention.

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Gilfach Nature Reserve covers an area of around 166 hectares of the Marteg Valley, deep within rural Mid Wales. For centuries it was a working hill farm, now it is a beautiful nature reserve with a wide variety of habitats from high moorland to meadow oak woodland and an abundance of wildlife including the potential of spotting a few leaping Salmon as they make their way up the River Marteg in the Autumn.

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There are several way marked paths and they’re all clear and easy to follow as well as a number of buildings with information about the reserve and a visitors centre, although this was closed at the time of my visit.

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From my first visit to Gilfach I think there is quite a bit of potential for landscape photography from this location not to mention bird and wildlife photography. Hopefully I’ll head back there soon to see what else I can capture!

Find more information about Gilfach Nature Reserve here

Images captured during this video:

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