After cutting through the steep, wooded hillsides from the much higher ground beyond, the Afon Cletwr winds inconspicuously through the village of Tre’r-ddôl. Over time, the path of this narrow river has been channelled and constrained between stone-edged banks, making it so well hidden that it is often heard before it can be seen.
Passing a scattering of houses, which seem to have grown directly from the rock outcrops on which they stand, the channel broadens and empties over a stony ford towards the Afon Dyfi. Here the river loses any pretence at having a natural path, as it is caught between two wide, arrow-straight, earth banks first built in the early 1800s - part of a scheme to garner agricultural benefits from reclaiming the “wasteland” of the Cors Fochno peat bog.
