About.
About.
Welcome to Nant y Walch Barn built nearly five hundred years ago and powered by water from the Cambrian Mountains.
Whatever event or activity you are planning, whether it is for 12 people or 120, we can provide the perfect venue. From yoga or meditation classes to celebrations and larger events, you’ll be embraced within the old stone walls and basking in sunshine flooding through the large windows looking down the Irfon Valley.
We are located in the Irfon Valley three miles from Llanwrtyd Wells in Mid Wales. It’s a beautiful part of the world, tucked between the Brecon Beacons to the South, the Cambrian Mountains to the North, and Builth Wells and Llandovery to the East and West.
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Originally belonging to nearby Cwm Irfon Farm, we named the barn to reflect the intimate relationship it has with the stream flowing along its boundary, the Nant y Walch. This is probably a corruption of Nant y Gwalch which means ‘Stream of the Osprey’ the fish eating bird of prey which might have been a regular visitor many centuries ago. Another possible meaning is the ‘Brook and stream’, which seems odd until you realise how much its character changes at different times of the year. During spring and early summer it is a quiet babbling brook girded by wild flowers, bumbling bees and nodding ox eye daisies, its shallow clear water filled with tiny trout fry. During autumn and winter it turns into brown roaring monster, a wild mountain torrent carrying all before it.
“We named the barn to reflect the intimate relationship it has with the stream flowing along its boundary, the Nant y Walch.”
Our ethos.
Nant y Walch was not conceived by us as a purely commercial venture. Built as an agricultural barn in the 16th century and most likely a resting place for drovers taking their stock from West Wales to markets in England in the 15th Century, it has been serving the community for hundreds of years. Left tired and weathered It has now been given the care it deserves and resurrected, stands with a new purpose in the Irfon valley - to be a successful, welcoming and vibrant place which will serve the community for another five hundred years.
To do this we wish to provide good quality and satisfying local employment, excellent facilities in a beautiful environment, eclectic and out of the ordinary entertainment and experiences (as well as familiar favourites!) and as a high quality space for the Community.
Our vision is for Nant y Walch to be:
A quiet calm space for yoga groups, mindfulness, massage, reiki, reflexology and more.
An energising space for team meetings, away days, music song and drama.
A place of joy and laughter, where memories are made and love is celebrated.
A sustainable space which is fossil fuel free, with space for nature in wild flower meadows, a pond, stream and many newly planted native trees.
An affordable space for community groups, small charities, individuals & families.
History.
Nant y Walch Barn was built out of stone in the 16th Century. Its walls are two feet thick and its massive foundation stones are laid directly on to the old glacial flood plain of what is now the Irfon River. During survey work as part of the restoration it was found that despite the random welsh stone and the slope of the land, the 20 metre long building was built exactly level to within a few millimetres.
Originally it was probably a single storey long barn used to house cattle which grazed in the Irfon Valley and provided milk to the inhabitants of Llanwrtyd Wells.
As the farm became more prosperous a first storey was added to store the hay and straw for the cattle and a second and larger barn was built to be used as a milking parlour.
However, by the late 20th Century the barns had fallen into disrepair, the cattle (and a part of the roof) had vanished and part of one of the barns was in danger of falling into the Nant y Walch stream which flows behind it.
Nant y Walch Barns back in February, 2010.
“Despite the random welsh stone and the slope of the land the 20 metre long building was built exactly level to within a few millimetres. ”
Present.
The barns were bought in 2014 and we began work on them soon after. Working closely with architect, Kelwin Palmer MSc ARB, our priority was to provide the most ecologically sustainable building we could manage which meant high levels of insulation and, where possible, carbon free energy.
Our first step was to explore the possibility of generating electricity from our small stream and after a year of measuring the flow we
began the process of designing and building a micro hydro system. This involved running half a mile of 6 Inch pipe down the side of a waterfall and across our neighbours field.
This was both a logistic and bureaucratic challenge. Despite this after only (!) three years we had installed our hydro system and it was producing electricity!
“After a year of measuring the water flow we began the process of designing and building a micro hydro system. ”
Our heating is provided by a heat pump (powered by our own electricity) which extracts heat from the Nant y Walch and then pushes it through the underfloor heating system below the barn’s 200 Sq Metres of floor and the 400 tons of Welsh stone walls. Nant y Walch therefore uses no fossil fuels whatsoever. In fact, as a whole it generates more energy than it consumes.
“Nant y Walch uses no fossil fuels whatsoever. In fact, as a whole it generates more energy than it consumes.”
