All walks › Llanidloes & the Cambrians
Llanidloes & the CambriansSource of the Severn
Follow the Severn upstream from a forest car park to the patch of peat bog on Pumlumon where Britain’s longest river begins as a trickle.
- Distance
- 6.8 mi / 11 km
- Time
- 3 hr 30
- Ascent
- 320 m
- Difficulty
- Demanding
- Shape
- There and back
Where it is
The circle shows the general area, not the exact start. Use the directions link below to get to the car park itself. Contours and paths shown are OpenTopoMap, drawn from OpenStreetMap data.
The route
Waymarked trails leave the car park; the longest follows the Severn up through the forest, past Blaen Hafren falls, then out onto open bog with boardwalk sections to the source post. Shorter loops return earlier.
Worth knowing
- Shorter waymarked circuits from the same car park if the full route is too much. They are well signed.
- The open bog beyond the treeline is wet whatever the season. Waterproof boots.
- The source is marked by a post and is, honestly, an anticlimax. The walk there is the reward.
What you’ll see
Blaen Hafren falls, conifer forest, and open blanket bog with the Wye rising a few hundred metres away.
Background
The Severn runs 220 miles to the Bristol Channel from this spot. The Wye rises on the same hill and takes an entirely different route to meet it near Chepstow.