Carno combines the setting of an old village on the Afon Carno with a local history that spans an early church site and the textile company Laura Ashley. The village and church stand on the river’s south side, on a raised gravel terrace above the valley floor. Two perspectives are therefore central to planning a trip: the Highland valley landscape and the historic traces in the village.
Highland Valley, Forests and Paths
Carno lies in the Carno Valley Landscape Character Area, a Highland valley of the River Carno. The area is within the Cambrian Mountains National Landscape Character Area. The first designation describes the local valley, while the second places it in its wider landscape context.
Most of the woodland in Carno Forest lies in a landscape of predominantly unimproved grassland on the hilltops and native woodland along the valley floors. Carno Forest also includes 17 hectares of plantations on sites of ancient woodland or ancient semi-natural woodland. Together, these details describe a mix of open hillsides and wooded valley floors.
Public rights of way in Carno mainly lead west from the settlement. If you are walking, check path conditions before setting out. There is also access to the banks of the Cwm-Llwyd River in Carno. The village’s location on the A470 is another useful point of reference when planning your trip.
Church Site, Monument and Local History
Historical records attest to a church at the site of St John the Baptist from 1100 AD. Inside the church, on the south interior wall, is a locally discovered stele, or standing stone, dating from the 7th or 8th century. This brings an early-dated archaeological find and a church site documented in later written records together at the same location.
Caer Noddfa is a rectilinear enclosure defined by banks and ditches on the banks of the River Carno. It adjoins the settlement’s southwestern development boundary and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The enclosure is thought to date from the medieval period; a hospital of the Knights Hospitaller at Caer Noddfa is documented in 1253. The enclosure’s tentative dating and the specific date of the hospital are distinct historical details.
The building history of Peniel Methodist Chapel also spans several clearly dated phases. It was built in 1811, altered in 1842 and 1861, and demolished in 1903; the present chapel replaced it. Peniel Methodist Chapel is Grade II listed and has not been used as a place of worship since 2002.
Carno was the original Welsh site of the Laura Ashley company. The company’s founders, Bernard and Laura Ashley, moved to Carno from Kent in 1961. The factory opened in 1967 and closed in 2005. This sequence adds the village’s more recent industrial history to its church and monument history, distinguishing the founders’ move from the later dates of the factory’s operation.
Discover more destinations: Llanafanfawr, Ystradfellte, Cwmdu, Aberhosan, Abercrave, Llanwrtyd Wells, Llanrhaeadr-Ym-Mochnant, Builth Wells
For the wider travel guide: Powys.
