HIRWAUN

locality, Rhondda Cynon Taff county borough, historic county of Glamorgan (Morgannwg), Wales, at the northwestern end of the Cynon valley. The Brecon Beacons mountain range rises to the north of Hirwaun, and to the west rise the uplands of Hirwaun Common and Craig-y-Llyn peak, with an elevation of 1,969 feet (600 metres). Many Iron Age tools and weapons, as well as 6th-century-BCE tools and ornaments fashioned from bronze, were found in the area when a small natural lake on the slopes of Craig-y-Llyn was drained to form a reservoir in 1911. Some of the earliest ironworks in Wales were located in Hirwaun until their closure in the early 1800s. The community now has a modern industrial park and brick manufacture, and it is the site of one of the last operating coal mines in South Wales.