The famous Nos Galan Races commemorate the Welsh runner Guto Nyth Bran and his legendary athletic prowess. Stories of Guto include how he could catch a bird in flight, and how on one occasion he ran to Pontypridd and back, some seven miles, before the kettle boiled.

St. Lleurwg's church, Hirwaun, was first erected in 1858 as a chapel of ease to Aberdare and was restored in 1884. The ecclesiastical parish of Hirwaun was created in 1886 from the civil parishes of Aberdare in Glamorgan and Penderyn in the county of Brecon.