Our History

Mountain Ash Rugby Football Club play their home matches at Parc Dyffryn Pennar, Dyffryn Road in Caegarw, Mountain Ash. As it's name implies ,the ground is situated on the site of the famous Deep Dyffryn Colliery which was sunk in 1850 before it's closure in 1981. Records show that in 1918, the Dyffryn employed 2,684 men and in 1935 - 1,400 , although near it's closure that figure was halved, it still remained the towns main employer.The end of the colliery hit Mountain Ash hard and the eventual demise of the South Wales coalfield in the 1980's decimated the coal mining communities of the South Wales valley's.But from the dereliction, Parc Dyffryn Pennar emerged and thanks to the forward thinking of the Old Firm officials and the local authorities the ground was opened in 1994.

Set in stunning surroundings with spectacular views of the town and steep sided slopes of the Cynon Valley, the derelict land was transformed into an outstanding sports complex which also incorporates an international standard bowls arena.Tondu RFC were the first visitors to play at PDP in a Heineken League fixture with Cardiff RFC officially opening a state of the art floodlight system.Since then , the club have hosted many important fixtures including Wales Youth and Schoolboy internationals and was chosen by the WRU as one of the venues when the FIRA World Cup came to Wales. County, District, Cup finals and other representative matches have all taken place and the famous Welsh Academicals who were formed in Mountain Ash in 1927, have adopted Parc Dyffryn Pennar as their 'home ground'.

A 450 seater grandstand which houses 6 dressing rooms, officials room, medical room and kitchen and toilet facilites dominates the ground offering supporters a dry and comfortable environment from which to watch the match with elevated standing areas around the field for the more hardy spectators.An excellent playing surface completes this impressive rugby arena of which MARFC are justifiably proud not just because of it's fine facilities but it's location where the actual winding wheel of the Deep Dyffryn Colliery proudly stands on the monument erected in the ground's car park, forever linking the the towns strong and proud coal mining heritage upon which Mountain Ash and the Old Firm were built.