It was noted as a township in the parish of Ystradyfodwg in several historical references and people moved to this rural area to work in local industries.

Today the village is a quiet place to live with views of the Brecon Beacons National Park to the north and is within walking distance of Waterfall Country.

[4] Certain parts of the local landscape surrounding Rhigos have been designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest[5] including the wooded gorges of Waterfall Country, Cwm Cadlan and nearby Blaencynon SAC.

The Rhigos Mountain since Mid-August 2022 has been closed until further notice, due to a significant mountain fire, which caused the metal wiring that secures the boulders down, to melt away, posing a significant threat to the A4061 Rhigos Road, which plays a big part in connecting communities such as Treherbert & Hirwaun.

Specialist access rope contractors are currently on site investigating the mountainside, and a date for reopening the road has not, and will not be announced for some time as of yet.

[7] According to the National Museum of Wales, the Llyn Fawr hoard is extremely important because it illustrates the cross over between the Bronze and Iron Ages.

[11] Francis Crawshay famously built a folly on nearby land and was apparently the only member of the family to speak Welsh.

This mine is noted to have been discontinued, but there are records that 420 men were employed by The Marquess of Bute to extract coal from Tower Colliery around the 1890s.

[15] The Tower Colliery and was famously the subject of a worker's buy-out closed in 2008 and its closure saw the last of the deep mines in Wales come to an end.

[16] Indeed, in 2019 RCT Council announced that planning had been unanimously granted for Zipline Cymru to construct of a new line at the Tower site which will be the focus for the development of tourism in the area.

The Rhigos WCKA Kickboxing Club meet in the hall each week and is part of the Welsh Contact Karate Association.

The route up the mountain forms part of competitions and meets for clubs from all over the UK, such as the Junior Tour of Wales and is considered to be a scenic but particularly challenging climb.

Rhigos Halt consisted of two platforms and was sited at the north end of the 520 yard long Pencaedrain Tunnel.

[26] 'The Parrish Road' was another access to the village which was closed when Celtic Energy opened a controversial opencast mine between Rhigos and Cwmgwrach in 1997.

The promise was made to reinstate the road after the mine closed, and talks have been held between residents, Celtic Energy and Neath Port Talbot County Council during 2020.

Rhigos Primary School, originally built in the Victorian style in 1876 and located on Heol y Graig, closed on 2024.

Prior to the building of Rhigos Primary School, classes were held in rooms provided by R Crawshay Esq, first mentioned in the journals of William Roberts (Nefydd) in 1856.

[29] He states how the school was funded by the colliers and miners of Rhigos, who each contributed 1d of each pound of their wages to support a master, whose salary was £40.