Welsh Borders & Elan Valley Drive Pack | The Stable

The Elan Valley is Wales's best-kept secret — a chain of five Victorian reservoirs set in a landscape of wild moorland, ancient oak woodland, and red kite-filled skies. Built between 1893 and 1952 to supply water to Birmingham, the dams are masterpieces of engineering, and the roads that serve them are masterpieces of driving pleasure.

The B4518 runs through the heart of the valley, following the reservoirs from Caban Coch to Claerwen. The road is single-track in places, with grass growing in the centre line and sheep wandering freely. It is quiet, beautiful, and utterly absorbing — the kind of road where you find yourself driving slowly not because you have to, but because you want to savour every bend.

The surrounding Cambrian Mountains are among the least populated areas in England and Wales. The roads here — the B4574 over the "Devil's Staircase" to Cwmystwyth, the mountain road from Rhayader to Aberystwyth — are empty, well-surfaced, and endlessly varied. Red kites, reintroduced here in the 1990s, wheel overhead in extraordinary numbers.

This is not a route for speed. It is a route for the driver who appreciates solitude, landscape, and the simple pleasure of a well-made road through beautiful country. Pack a picnic, bring binoculars, and take your time.