Onllwyn

The Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) is a proposed train, railway infrastructure and technology testing facility, located in Onllwyn, Wales, where the site sits on the border between Neath Port Talbot and Powys. The centre is located on a site previously used for coal mining and a coal washery, with some 550 acres (220 ha) given over to the new testing centre, which will be unique in Europe due to having a track for testing rail vehicles at high speed, and another test track dedicated to railway infrastructure. Ownership of the site was transferred to the Welsh government in October 2022. Construction will take place in three phases, initial works focus on sidings, then the two electrified test tracks; more comprehensive facilities, including maintenance and research buildings, a business park, and hotel, are to be built in the third phase. The GCRE is expected to open sometime in 2024. In the long term, it is intended for the GCRE to be operated as a commercial entity and majority owned by the private sector; a competitive bidding process for investors to purchase a majority stake in the company has been launched with the aim of achieving this model. Partnerships and other agreements have been struck by the GCRE with various other organisations, including Talgo, Hitachi, and Thales’ Ground Transportation Systems, to make use of the site's facilities; a membership model has been envisioned by the GCRE's management. While considerable attention has been paid to garnering business domestically, the company also offers its services to international railway companies, particularly those on the European continent.

The A4221 is an A road which links Banwen with Abercraf in Wales.

Colbren Junction was a railway station on the Neath and Brecon Railway. The station, which was near Coelbren, was completed at the same time as the Swansea Vale and Neath and Brecon Joint Railway opened a seven-mile branch from here to Ynysygeinon in 1873. It was a key junction in the networks operated by the Midland, Neath and Brecon, and Great Western railway companies. Although the Welsh spelling of the nearby village is 'Coelbren', the anglicised version 'Colbren' was used for the station name and in railway literature.

Dyffryn Cellwen is a village in the County Borough of Neath Port Talbot, South Wales. It is situated in the upper Dulais Valley near the junction of the A4109 and A4221 roads, northwest of the smaller settlement of Banwen. It is part of the community of Onllwyn. The village stands close to the course of the Roman road from the fort at Nidum (Neath) to Y Gaer (Brecon), and there are traces of a Roman fort and camp nearby. (See Banwen for details of the Roman sites.) At one time, mining for iron, copper, and especially coal were important activities in the area.

Coelbren (Welsh: Y Coelbren) is a small rural village within the community of Tawe Uchaf in southernmost Powys, Wales. It lies on the very northern edge of the South Wales Coalfield some six miles north-east of Ystradgynlais and just outside the southern boundary of the Brecon Beacons National Park. It is known for Henrhyd Falls, a 27m high waterfall which serves as a National Trust-managed visitor attraction on the Nant Llech. To the east of the village flows the Afon Pyrddin which plunges over two more spectacular falls. As first edition Ordnance Survey maps of the area show, the name 'Coelbren' applied to a farmhouse and chapel before the modern village developed and is recorded in the name Tyre y Kolbren in 1503 where it signifies the sharing of land (modern Welsh 'tir') by means of drawing lots, a 'coelbren' being translated amongst other things as an 'inscribed piece of wood' or 'omen-stick'.

Pantyffordd Halt railway station served the area of Pant-y-ffordd, in the historical county of Glamorgan, Wales, from 1929 to 1962 on the Neath and Brecon Railway.

Banwen is a small village in Neath Port Talbot county borough (NPT) in Wales. Banwen is part of the community of Onllwyn along with the village of Onllwyn itself and the adjacent parish of Dyffryn Cellwen. Banwen is in the Upper Dulais Valley, with views over the southern slopes of the Brecon Beacons (Welsh: Bannau Brycheiniog). Banwen consists of a single street named Roman Road.

Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary is an animal sanctuary between Caehopkin and Abercraf in Powys, Wales. It became the Wales Ape & Monkey Sanctuary in December 2008, being previously known as Cefn-yr-Erw Primate Sanctuary. The sanctuary is owned and operated by husband and wife Graham and Jan Garen. Cefn-yr-Erw had been a traditional hill farm, when Jan inherited it from her father. Jan first acquired a Vietnamese Potbelly Pig and later some marmosets, goats, capybaras and several traditional farm animals. Jan married Graham Garen in 1994 and the sanctuary continued to develop. When Penscynor Wildlife Park closed in 1998, the sanctuary took seven unwanted chimpanzees from the park and were able to house them from 21 February 1999 within the sanctuary. They would have been shot without the intervention of the sanctuary. The sanctuary now rescues and provides a final home for many types of unwanted animals, in particular chimpanzees, baboons, spider monkeys, capuchins and marmosets. As the animals that they rescue are not able to survive in the wild, they try to make the rest of the animals' lives as enjoyable as possible. The sanctuary has a policy of not breeding any animals. The sanctuary receives no funding from the UK government, Welsh governments or local councils and therefore relies donations from the public and also from the entrance fee to its 30,000 visitors a year. It is a registered charity (Charity ID:1076645).

Henrhyd Falls (Welsh: Sgwd Henrhyd) in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales, is the tallest waterfall in southern Wales, with a drop of 90 feet (27 m). It lies on National Trust land, in the county of Powys. The nearest settlement is Coelbren, on the road between Glynneath and Abercraf. Though not in the core of the area, it is considered by many to constitute a part of Wales' celebrated Waterfall Country.

The Abercraf television relay station is sited on high ground to the east of the village of Abercraf in the upper Swansea Valley, though it is actually closer to Coelbren than to Abercraf itself. It was originally built in the 1980s as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue colour television covering the communities of Abercraf, Coelbren, Penycae and Ynyswen. It consists of a 45-metre (150 feet) self-supporting lattice mast standing on a hillside which is itself about 270 metres (890 feet) above sea level. The transmissions are beamed southwest and northwest. The Abercraf transmission station is owned and operated by Arqiva. Abercraf transmitter re-radiates the signal received off-air from Carmel about 12 miles (20 km) to the west. When it came, the digital switchover process for Abercraf duplicated the timing at Carmel with the first stage taking place on 26 August 2009 and with the second stage being completed on 23 September 2009. After the switchover process, analogue channels had ceased broadcasting permanently and the Freeview digital TV services were radiated at an ERP of 18 W each.

Hirfynydd is a 481-metre-high hill in Neath Port Talbot county borough in South Wales. A Roman road, Sarn Helen, runs along its entire northeast–southwest ridge-line, a route followed by a modern-day byway. To its west is Cwm Dulais and to its southeast is the Vale of Neath. The northern end of the ridge falls away to a broad upland vale containing the Afon Pyrddin and beyond which is the Brecon Beacons National Park. The larger part of the hill is afforested with conifers. In between the plantations are areas of past or present opencasting for coal.

Coed Hills Rural Artspace is a sustainable community close to the village of St Hilary in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately 8 miles (13 km) west of Cardiff. Set in 180 acres (0.73 km2) of woodland and pasture, the Artspace was established in 1997 and is designed following principles of low impact development, aiming to combine creativity with sustainability. There is an 8-acre market garden and a 2-acre forest garden, and the site is a venue for conferences, courses, weddings and events. The site is seasonally open to visitors and guided tours, and provides an educational resource via workshops that are run for schools, colleges and groups.