Wild swimming at the Punchbowl on the Blorenge

It’s just five minutes walk from Middle Ninfa through our woods to the Punchbowl lake for good wild swimming in beautiful setting

The Punchbowl beech woodland, owned by the Woodland Trust has many ancient trees. It lies in an upland glacial hanging valley. Commander Clark created the lake in the 1960’s by damming the marshy bottom. The water is quite shallow, so warms and cools quite quickly. There is weed at one side and at the back but the water is clean. The lake is 1 km from the nearest road so more swimmers prefer to drive to Keepers Pond on the other side of the Blorenge where there is also good parking. A Blue Tits group of wild swimmers meets there regularly. There’s even a pop-up sauna there sometimes. Keepers Pond is 3 miles from Middle Ninfa. Much of the walk follows Hill’s tramroad which carried iron, limestone and other industrial materials to and from nearby quarries, Blaenavon Ironworks, Garnddyrus forge and the canal at Llanfoist. For more on the industrial heritage of our mountain see our website www.middleninfa.co.uk. There is a link to the mountain walk to Keeper’s Pond and Garnddyrus.