RSPB Sites and Reserves

RSPB Reserves in Mid Wales

Mid Wales is red kite country. The bird that was once reduced to just a handful of breeding pairs in the Cambrian Mountains has recovered here, and you can now see them overhead across most of Powys and Ceredigion. The RSPB has played a central role in that recovery.

Ynys-hir near Machynlleth is the RSPB's flagship reserve in Mid Wales. It sits on the south shore of the Dyfi estuary and covers saltmarsh, wet grassland, peat bog and ancient oak woodland. The reserve is good for wading birds, wildfowl, pied flycatchers and, in spring, ospreys that nest at the nearby Dyfi Osprey Project.

Lake Vyrnwy in north Powys is jointly managed with Severn Trent Water. The reserve surrounds the reservoir and includes moorland, forest and wetland habitats. RSPB hides overlook the water and you can walk or cycle the twelve-mile circuit around the lake.

Carngafallt above the Elan Valley is a smaller reserve of upland oak woodland. It is not easy to reach but the birdlife is excellent, with redstarts, wood warblers and tree pipits in summer.

For wildlife watching more broadly, Mid Wales reserves offer the chance to see species that have become rare elsewhere in Britain, in landscapes that feel genuinely remote.