Cwm Gwaun is a village and community in northern Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....

. Located just to the west of Pontfaen (which is part of the community), it lies 4.3 miles east of Fishguard

Fishguard

Fishguard is a coastal town in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales, with a population of 3,300 . The community of Fishguard and Goodwick had a population of 5043 at the 2001 census....

.

Geography

In 2008 the community was reported to have an area of 3870 hectares and have a population of 266 inhabitants. The Companion Guide to Wales describes Cwm Gwaun as "one of the most important meltwater channels from the last ice age to be found in the British Isles." The Gwaun River rises in the Preseli hills

Preseli Hills

The Preseli Hills or Preseli Mountains are a range of hills in north Pembrokeshire, West Wales...

 near the village and its tributaries have carved heavily-wooded steep, narrow side-valleys. To the northwest are hills such as Mynydd Dinas and Mynydd Melyn and the valley forms a notable wetland. Trees found in the valley include sessile oak

Sessile Oak

Quercus petraea , the Sessile Oak, also known as the Durmast Oak, is a species of oak native to most of Europe, and into Anatolia.-Description:...

, beech

Beech

Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...

, alder

Alder

Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...

, rowan

Rowan

The rowans or mountain-ashes are shrubs or small trees in genus Sorbus of family Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the mountains of western China and the Himalaya, where numerous apomictic microspecies...

, ash

Ash

- Products of fire, incineration or combustion :The solid remains of fires, such as:* Ash , the compounds that remain after a scientific sample is burned; commonly reported as a percentage on pet food labels...

 and willow

Willow

Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...

. The highest point of the Preseli hills is Foel Cwmcerwyn

Foel Cwmcerwyn

Foel Cwmcerwyn is the highest point of the Preseli Hills and of Pembrokeshire. It lies within the borders of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park although it is 10 km from the sea. A path leads to the summit from the village of Rosebush in the south-west...

 at 535 metres. The area is a notable 5.2 mile (8.32km) nature walk area of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

Pembrokeshire Coast National Park is a national park along the Pembrokeshire coast in West Wales.It was established as a National Park in 1952, and is the only one in the United Kingdom to have been designated primarily because of its spectacular coastline...

. The Rough Guide to Wales says of the community, "Cwm Gwaun and the inland hills Cwm Gwaun, the valley of the burbling River Gwaun is one of the great surprises of Pembrokeshire – a bucolic vale of impossibly narrow lanes, surrounded by the bleak shoulders of bare mountains."

Notable landmarks

The community (Pontfaen) contains a primary school and a pub of considerable local renown named the Dyffryn Arms, known locally as Bessie's and run by Bessie Davies's family since 1840.
The locals continue to follow the tradition of the pre-1752 calendar and celebrate New Year on the 13th of January. The Gwaun Valley also contains a brewery at the Kilkiffeth Farm.