Sennybridge Training Area (SENTA), located upon Mynydd Epynt, is the largest of three military training areas in Wales. Requisitioned for military use in 1939, the land covers around 31,000 acres.

Now host to 'sophisticated live firing and dry training activities for light forces including artillery', Epynt was once home to 54 farms with 219 inhabitants. Given just three months to pack up and find somewhere else to live, the 'Epynt clearance' has not been forgotten.

So our rural retreats in the woods are sometimes puctuated by the sounds of explosions or helecopters buzzing overhead - it's quite a contrast to the usual peace of the area, and something of a contraction too, for peace lovers like us.

There's is plenty of less obvious training that the military does up on 'the range', and some farmers still keep sheep there, which don't seem too unhappy about it all.

The guide to walks around the SENTA appears to have been officially 'withdrawn', but public access is still permitted at times; even on a drive across the range, a view of the purpose-built 'German village' is a peculiar and out-of-place delight.