Elan Valley
The Elan Valley in mid-Wales is a dramatic series of Victorian reservoirs and dams constructed in the Cambrian Mountains of Powys between 1893 and 1952 to supply drinking water to Birmingham, a landscape of considerable visual power whose combination of the great stone dams, the reservoir lakes stretching into the upland valleys and the surrounding moorland and woodland creates one of the most distinctive and most atmospheric reservoir landscapes in Britain. The Elan Valley Visitor Centre provides the interpretation of the engineering heritage and the natural history of the surrounding protected landscape.
The six dams of the Elan and Claerwen valleys represent a major feat of Victorian civil engineering, the Craig Goch, Pen y Garreg, Garreg Ddu and Caban Coch dams of the original scheme and the later Claerwen dam being all built from dressed local stone in a design that sought to integrate the massive engineering structures into the landscape rather than simply imposing them upon it. The architecture of the dam faces, with their Gothic and Romanesque details, reflects the Victorian belief that engineering could and should aspire to aesthetic quality.
The Elan Valley is one of the finest habitats for red kites in Wales, the upland estate providing the combination of open moorland, improved pasture and woodland that supports a substantial kite population. The walking and cycling on the estate roads and the dramatic scenery of the reservoir landscape make the Elan Valley one of the most rewarding destinations in mid-Wales.