Dare Valley Country Park

Nature expert Iolo Williams visits Dare Valley Country Park near Aberdare, right on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. It was the first country park in Wales, and the first in Britain to be built on reclaimedland. Up until the 1960s the valley had 19 coal mines and most of the landscape would have been toxic for wildlife. Today it has been completely transformed from an industrial landscape to managed wild parkland. Dippers, herons, cormorants and kingfishers frequent the Dare River and the newly constructed lakes. The thin soil over the old coal tips attracts scarce butterflies, like the dingy skipper, and the smaller insects and ants living amongst the grassy tussocks attract lizards.