Tylcau Hill (Floss Brand)

Tylcau Hill

RWT

Tylcau Hill (Floss Brand) Nature Reserve

Silvia Cojocaru

A natural hillside of flower-rich farmland with traditional rhôs pasture and dingle woodlands.

Location

Off the B4356 Llanbister to Llangunllo road
Llanbister
Powys
LD1 6UN

OS Map Reference

SO 134 765
A static map of Tylcau Hill (Floss Brand)

Know before you go

Size
39 hectares
P

Parking information

Car park at entrance

Grazing animals

Sheep and cattle (cows and their calves and bull) from May to October.

Walking trails

There is a 1¼ mile circular way-marked trail taking you around the reserve with a steep incline.

There is also a 5½ mile circular walk on the hills around Tylcau, taking in the reserve, ancient remains of a medieval longhouse, and burial mounds.

Access

From the A483 (T) at Llanbister, take the B4356 Llanbister to Llangunllo road.  Drive over the common and after approx 2 miles take a sharp left turn signposted Llanbadarn Fynydd.

Continue for just over a mile, turn right at red telephone box, going round cattle grid and driving to the end of the tarmac lane.  You will see the car-park for the reserve on the right.

Dogs

No dogs permitted

When to visit

Opening times

All year round

Best time to visit

May to September

About the reserve

Mountain pansies bloom in the higher slopes with purple moor-grass, rushes and sedges thriving in the wet grassland known as rhôs pasture.

Patches of adder's-tongue fern are a welcome sight as these are considered a good indicator species of ancient meadows and are found alongside the gentle shivering quaking grass and devil's bit scabious.

The small pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly loves the wetter fields, swooping close to the ground, while in late spring the green hairstreak butterfly perches with its wings closed on the hawthorn twigs.  If you want to hear the cuckoo, then a visit in spring is a must! The undualting call of the curlew can also be heard.  Old hedgerows, ditches and patches of old scrub provide important breeding habitats for the yellowhammer, pied flycatcher, meadow and tree pipit, redstart and linnet.

The little Camddŵr brook seems very clean with lots of invertebrate activity. Bullheads loiter under stones and otter spraints have been seen on several occasions. Common lizards, frogs and toads all make their home here.  On the south-west facing fields known as "ffridd" there's a lovely mix of hawthorn, rowan and crab apple trees. 

Contact us

Radnorshire Wildlife Trust
Contact number: 01597 823298
Contact email: info@rwtwales.org