[3] The village is on the Heads of the Valleys Road and at the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

Writing in 1887, Thomas Morgan stated that the correct name is Hirwaun Gwrgant, meaning Gwrgan's "gwaun".

Morgan further states that in olden times the gwaun extended from Blaengwrach (near Rhydgroes) to Mountain Ash, a length of nearly ten miles.

The Crawshay family were powerful, almost all-powerful in the production of steel, and the Hirwaun Ironworks had produced cannons used on HMS Victory.

The family owned a large portion of Hirwaun and even used their own currency, the "Hirwaun Guinea", to pay employees, a form of truck system which stopped employees travelling to Cardiff or spending their money outside the controlled economy of the village.

The ironworks' blast furnaces required coke, which spurred an increase in local coal mining.

The first Roman Catholic Church was established in the Mission Room overlooking the Iron Works (built 1880 demolished in 1969).

[9] Unlike most South Wales Coalfield villages, Hirwaun has an array of different architectural housing styles, often cheek-by-jowl in small blocks.

Their demise marked the end of a major landmark in the Cynon Valley and was symptomatic of a broader failure in the design of British public housing.

South of the station were the goods yard and sidings which served the various industries in the area, including Hirwaun Ironworks, Tower Colliery, two brickworks, and Penderyn quarry tramway.

With the Beeching Axe in 1963, the lines south to Neath and north to Merthyr and the former Aberdare Railway were all closed.

After the second closure of Tower in early 2008, in November 2009 the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) asked Network Rail to conduct a feasibility study on reopening the line to Hirwaun for passenger services.