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Old mill buildings in Cwmpengraig now make an attractive house

Cwmpengraig was another very important centre for the woollen industry, with several mills in the valley and most of the houses acting as domestic weaving workshops. One of the mills, Coedmor Mill, sited next to the chapel but now a ruin, was the first in the area to develop mechanised carding and spinning mules using water from the Nant Esgair to power the machines. The mill burnt down during the Depression, but was immediately rebuilt, only to burn down again in 1951. Fire was always a major problem in the mills and factories, with all but two of the mills suffering from fires over the years. The problem was that wool is full of lanolin, all the machines relied on heavy grease for lubrication and over time all the timbers in these wooded buildings became impregnated with a mixture of grease and lanolin. Add to this the wool and a highly volatile mixture is created.

Pass Soar Chapel on the left, cross the bridge over the Nant Esgair, which is the spawning ground of Sewin (Salmon Trout), walk up to the main road through the valley and bear right along the road to reach the national speed limit signs on the edge of the hamlet. Go left here, off the road, onto a narrow footpath that climbs steeply through woodland to reach a junction with a track and follow this to the left, passing between attractive buildings at Ty hen. Proceed through a gate directly ahead and along a hedge lined track between fields to reach a lane which is followed to the left before taking the first lane on the right which leads to the isolated Penboyr Church and the remaining mound of the Norman Tomen Llawddog Castle. To visit the church and mound, continue past Maesllan Farm for 250 metres. Go left through an iron kissing gate just before the farm, joining a grassy track through a pasture just left of farm buildings. Just before reaching the far hedge, bear right to a stile in the corner of the field which gives access to a broad, farm track and go left along this to eventually reach a stile on the left at the termination of the track.