Category: Community Groups

Penhow

Penhow – As you read this the weather will be sunny and warmer (I hope), but we undertook this walk towards the end of all that winter rain. We parked on the A48 near Penhow, taking a footpath to Penhow castle. Our route took in Penhow Castle farm, passing Magor services on M4, Pencoed castle and back to Penhow via Llandevaud.

The manor of Penhow was held by Caradog ap Gruffydd, Prince of Gwent before the Norman invasion. The estate was seized, and a Norman knight built Penhow castle in the 12th century. By the mid twentieth century the castle was deteriorating and was restored by film director, Stephen Weeks. It is a Grade II listed building, private home and some claim the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Wales. Walking through the farmyard we admired the agricultural buildings and castle and visited the small church complete with bell tower and bellringers’ ropes.

We walked along the road as the fields were waterlogged and a stream beside the road, St Brides brook, was overflowing. Indeed, we paddled along the road and kept to its centre to avoid puddles. Some, who will remain nameless, really enjoyed splashing through the water and generally playing as they walked! It was another matter whenever a car came along as we had to find refuge to avoid being drenched.

We arrived at St Brides Netherwent (circa 1290), an isolated church with snowdrops in the churchyard and a claim for the oldest inscribed bell in Wales. The inscription is ‘Ave Maria Gracia Plena, one like a pot and the other like a pan’ with other embellishments. The bell is still rung to call people to worship 700 years after it was made. There was a very smart steel doored toilet in the corner of the churchyard which was available for use.

Continuing along the flooded road, we arrived at the back of Magor services which was a bit smelly as their bins were lined up near our track. Now we were going slightly uphill and soon moved onto a footpath heading towards Pencoed castle.

There are extensive renovations taking place at the Grade II listed, Pencoed castle and it looked markedly different from the last time we passed it. We hunkered down near one of its boundary walls to eat our lunch and enjoy the castle and its surroundings.

According to Wales Online, the castle was sold for £1.1m in 2020 and there are extensive plans for its development. It is estimated that the castle was built between 1500 and 1560 and for generations belonged to the Morgan family from Tredegar, who built a large mansion on the medieval site. More recently a coal owner and politician, D. A. Thomas, restored the mansion for his adored daughter and her husband. The coal owner died before the work was complete and soon after his daughter divorced. In 2016, a farmer turned property developer, Peter Morgan, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his girlfriend, Georgina Symonds, a dancer and personal escort at the castle. An unfortunate building?

A dovecote in the grounds is fascinating, probably medieval and Grade II listed, all four stone walls are still standing and there is only a small opening at the top for birds to enter and leave. The doorway has a wooden lintel and stone arch above it and it has hundreds of roosting perches inside.

We continued to Llandevaud, crossed the common and then walked across fields back to Pencoed farm. We rounded off the walk with tea at St Mellons Garden centre. Walk 6.7m 500ft Map OL14

Llwyn Onn Reservoir and Taibach

Llwyn Onn Reservoir

Driving to the start of this walk, at the beginning of March, the weather was changeable, rain, sleet and hail and we could see snow on the tops of some hills. On arrival at the Garwnant Visitor centre at Llwyn Onn Reservoir, we were welcomed by a light snow shower, the first snow some of us had seen this year.

Our route was north from Llwyn Onn to Cantref reservoir, along the Taff trail and then back along a forest track. It was wet and muddy underfoot, but firm as the footpath was stoney. Quite heavy cold rain had replaced the snow. Where the Taff trail bordered farmland, a new fence had been erected with barbed wire on the top leaving a narrow path between it and the undergrowth to our left which some people found quite difficult to negotiate, especially when low tree branches extended across the path.

Looking across the valley the whole of the hillside was covered in snow and we could see a few tiny figures crossing it. There was also snow lying on the ground around us. The reservoirs were full to overflowing and as we reached Cantref reservoir we stood watching the overflow race along a release stream. This reservoir is one of three forming the Taff Fawr System, it is about 1000ft above sea level and was built in 1892.

Now we returned via the forest track and were surprised to find lots of cabins which were occupied. There were no leaves on the surrounding trees, so we had good views of the snow-clad hills. Passing the cabins, we found a picnic table covered in ice where some of us ate our lunch while others perched on stones or on the ground.

We spotted frog spawn in a puddle and feared that most of it was dead as it had turned white.

A couple of people took a shortcut to the visitor centre while we continued to Llwyn Onn reservoir to come back along its shoreline. Towards the end of the day the sun came out and the snow sparkled, a magical sight after the gloom of our wet Welsh winter. At the visitor centre, which has good facilities, including a sculpture trail, and an incongruous large plastic dog, we rejoined our friends for a welcome cup of tea.

Walk 5.8m. Map OL12

Taibach

It was another cold morning with rain forecast as we prepared to walk Cwm Dyffryn, near Taibach. The beginning of the walk was level and a river gurgled beside us, surprisingly a large patch of vinca was in full flower.

We crossed a stream, entering more open countryside, and saw a large solar farm on the opposite hill. We were looking out across Swansea Bay and could see the distinctive buildings of the city and the Gower peninsula in the distance.

At lunchtime, we found a hollow, sitting on rocks strewn about the area, and sheltered from the cold wind. Before we finished eating the sun came out.

In a wet patch of footpath, were our first tadpoles of the year; we trod carefully to avoid killing them. Many trees had been felled since we were last here and we gained our first view of Port Talbot steel works and of ‘the blue pool’.

The blue pool is a reservoir which is affected by algae; hence the water is turquoise in summer. It was for sale at £30K and we all joked about buying it. Within the week it had been bought for the princely sum of £15K.

Progress being good, we added an easy trip around the Blue Pool, but it did involve jumping or paddling across a couple of streams. There were lots of tree limbs submerged in the pool and you could easily see how stories of monsters could arise.

We continued our descent through woodland, spotting some coltsfoot coming into flower. A row of trees stood tall even though their roots seemed to be completely exposed on one side, because of erosion.

We reached a grassy path which ran parallel to the M4 and the steel works. From this vantage the steel works looked huge. A farm lay in the narrow strip between us and the motorway, where ewes with tiny lambs rested. A deer was spotted on the hillside, and after some debating about whether it was a rock or tree, everyone saw its head move and four more appeared. They dashed over the crest of the hill on spying us. Escapees from Margam park, we wondered? Soon after, a lone sheep on the hillside was identified as a goat (its beard gave it away) and two others one black and the other brown were spotted.

Before long we were doing the final stretch back to the cars. We retired to Pyle garden centre for refreshment, very happy with our day’s walking.

Walk 7.2m, 1000ft. Map OS 165

River Taff

January and the start of February have made life difficult for walkers with lots of rain and boggy countryside. This walk was mostly firm underfoot taking in the Taff trail and an old railway. We parked Northwest of Merthyr Tydfil in Cwm Taf Fechan.

The beginning of the walk was along the Taff trail heading north and we were immediately impressed by the amount of water in the river as it powered along beside us. The area is quite rocky up here and the water tumbled and roared as it negotiated its path. Even streams coming down the hillside were in strong flow and created decent waterfalls. Dippers were spotted flying onto the rocks of the river. We all watched our step, as anyone going into that river would come a cropper. It was dramatic though and reminded me of a saying from the Chinese Tao Te Ching ‘Nothing under heaven is softer or more yielding than water; but when it attacks things hard and resistant there is not one of them that can prevail.

A dead tree in an open area was covered in moss, lichen, ferns and fungi. Was it the amount of water in the atmosphere that sustained them? It was obvious that a lot of maintenance had been done on the steep banks at the side of the river, so we were more aware of the plants and even mineral deposits.

A footbridge took us over the river and almost straight away we were faced with a steep climb up from the river via an apparently unending flight of wooden steps. At the top we gained views of the surrounding area and the extent of a huge landslip.

Morlais castle came into view at the top of a nearby hill and there was an option to climb to the castle ruins. It was built around 1288 by Gilbert de Claire, Lord of Glamorgan who had already built Caerphilly castle. Humphrey de Bohun, Lord of Brecknock disputed de Claire’s claim to the land and the battle of Maesvaynor ensued which Bohun won. In the 13thcentury it was briefly used as a stronghold by rebels in the fight for Welsh independence. Edward I destroyed parts of the castle to prevent it being used as a stronghold ever again. Today only the crypt and moat are recognisable. Surprisingly, no-one opted to do the climb but most of us had visited it in the past and probably didn’t fancy tackling the muddy slopes up to it.

We were walking along an old railway and came to the platform at Pontsarn station. Pontsarn roughly means ‘the bridge over the long road’, the long road being the Roman road from Gloucester to West Wales. Once a busy place on the Brecon & Merthyr railway with its own Station Master and Porter, today nature has reclaimed it, and it is quiet. From here we could see the spectacular Pontsarn viaduct, supported by seven stone arches it is 455ft long and 92ft high and built entirely of local limestone.

The viaduct is an historic listed structure and is within the Taf Fechan Nature reserve which has SSSI status for its ancient broadleaved woodlands. In the past the railway brought many people from the iron and coal industries of the South Wales valleys to enjoy this beautiful location. They were able to visit the Pavilion tea rooms and head down to the river under the arches of the viaduct to play games. Today when we arrived, we could observe the men toiling away to secure the hillside after the recent landslip and look over the sides at the river and land far below us.

Continuing we reached Morlais tunnel. In 1873, Dowlais was the western terminus of the London and Northwestern Railway’s Abergavenny branch. The next objective was Merthyr Tydfil and the tunnel, 1037yards long and 80ft at its deepest, was created. Heavy engineering penetrated the hill, driving through limestone and millstone grit, with three shafts sunk to expedite progress. In 1876, Rees Jones – one of the sinkers working on the shafts – was found guilty of stealing two waistcoats off a washing line and sentenced to 21 days imprisonment with hard labour. The tunnel closed in 1958. Walls have been built across both entrances with access doors and ventilation holes. Half-a-dozen cars – now burnt out – were driven into the tunnel before it was secured.

We found an opening but due to the heavy rain of this winter it was flooded with several inches of water and, as we peered in, cold wet drips went down the back of our necks. Enough of a deterrent to put us off trying to enter.

The landscape altered now, and we walked alongside a rocky escarpment where we were dwarfed by the cliffs of Morlais quarry. We could see the viaduct below shrunk to the size of a normal bridge by the vast landscape around it. Now all we needed to do was follow a track downhill and across fields passing Welsh mountain cattle, back to the cars.

A brief journey took us to Cyfartha castle where we enjoyed refreshments.

Walk 6.2miles 500ft. Map OL12