A military training area located between Trecastle and Sennybridge pre-dating nearby Mynydd Epynt (NPRN 401496). The former rifle range lies on enclosed land at the edge of Fforest Fach, on the south side of the Usk Valley. It first appears on the Ordnance Survey second-edition 25-inch plan of 1906 (surveyed 1903).
The range is aligned with the target area (at given NGR) on high ground to the south-east and with shooting positions at 100 yard intervals to the north-west as far as 600 yards (at SN 90502846). The target area lies on ground rising steeply towards the open moorland of Fforest Fach. At the given location is a rough sloping platform measuring 5m (east-north-east by west-south-west) created by cutting back into the slope to a depth of about 1.5m. This may have been formed from an old quarry scrape of which there are many around the edges of Fforest Fach. The surrounding area is disturbed, not least by badgers. The map portrays what appears to be a target frame upon the platform with two additional ones set a short distance above it. Below the platform is another, less clearly defined, which measures about 3.5m across, embanked on its west side. Steeply rising ground will have acted as the stop-butt.
None of the shooting positions were identified as structures. Shown as simple dot locations on the map, the 100-400 yard positions are all bracken grown, though the 300 yard position coincides with a disused, but still visible, field bank which may have acted as a shooting platform or gun rest. The 500 yard and 600 yard positions lie in an adjacent pasture field but are featureless.
The Ordnance Survey six-inch plan of 1953 portrays the target area but not the firing positions and is not annotated.
Source:
Ordnance Survey County Series 25-inch map, sheet: Brecknockshire XXVI.15.

David Leighton, 14 May 2015