Bryn-y-tail

Rising above the Llyn Clywedog in the Pumlumon uplands, this grassy Tump offers a quiet perspective on mid-Wales. Its slopes are defined by the industrial legacy of 19th-century lead mining. The summit provides a clear, earned view across the reservoir toward the rolling moorland of Pen y Gurnos.

• •The name is Welsh, where 'Bryn' means hill and 'tail' typically refers to manure or muck, likely a reference to the waste 'tailings' produced by the lead mines on its slopes.
• •At the hill's foot lie the Bryntail Lead Mine buildings, a Cadw-managed site that preserves the 19th-century crushing floors used to process ore before it was transported to nearby Llanidloes.
• •The summit serves as a grandstand for viewing the 72-metre high Clywedog Dam, which was the tallest concrete gravity dam in Britain when it was completed in 1967.
• •Beyond the reservoir to the west, the horizon is dominated by the broad, peat-covered massif of Pumlumon Fawr, the highest point in the Cambrian Mountains.
• •Despite the name's earthy literal translation, the actual summit is a clean, breezy spot that feels far removed from the 'muck' suggested by its etymology.