About rural Merthyr Tydfil

Merthyr Tydfil, once the industrial heart of Wales, is better known for its ironworks and coalfields than for its countryside — but beyond the town’s boundaries lies a landscape of rugged hills, open moorland, and reclaimed green space that is increasingly rural in use and character.

To the north and west, the Brecon Beacons edge into the county, with sheep farming on the open commons and steep-sided valleys leading to isolated farmsteads. Grazing continues on reclaimed post-industrial land, where the soil has healed and biodiversity is beginning to return.

Community agriculture projects and small-scale producers are emerging across the region — growing vegetables, keeping poultry, and reviving rural traditions that once sat quietly alongside heavy industry.

Parks like Cyfarthfa and Gethin Woodland offer grazing, forest management, and wildlife habitat, while initiatives are underway to reintroduce rural skills to the area, including beekeeping, coppicing, and conservation grazing.

Though shaped by its industrial past, Merthyr Tydfil is reconnecting with its rural surroundings — creating a new kind of countryside on land that has endured dramatic change