Category: Community Groups

 Bargoed

This walk took us to Bargoed Woodland Park, which was created on land formerly occupied by Bargoed, Britannia and Gilfach collieries. The country park has been created from barren waste ground left after the closure of the last mine in 1985. 90,000 new trees, 6500 bulbs and 8000 wildflowers have been planted. This was once part of the largest colliery tip in Europe and LS Lowry immortalised it in his 1965 painting ‘Bargoed’.

We started from the Pengam car park, south of Bargoed, where a wooden sign was carved with leaves of holly, hawthorn, oak, and sycamore each with its flower or fruit. As we got out of the cars, we all shivered and put on extra clothes, if we had them; although it was a sunny morning it was several degrees cooler here than it had been in Wenvoe.

We kept to the west of the river Rhymney following it and then the Nant Bargod Rymni upstream, towards Parc Cwm Darren. It was easy walking on a tarmac path and most of the morning we climbed steadily on a disused railway track.

As we passed Bargoed town we saw a couple of the sculptures installed as part of a Bargoed public art project. Funded by the European Union there are 4 sculptures totalling £200,000. At the northern entrance to Bargoed’s High St is ‘The Angel of Bargoed’ with open arms inspired by the statue’s proximity to Angel Way, the War Memorial and the church overlooking the site. As we by passed the town, we saw ‘The Daffodil’. There are three large painted steel daffodils, near Bargoed station, welcoming people to this valley. It is so tall that you can see it from distant hillsides.

It was lovely to walk in sunshine with the sound of running water; we were in a steep sided valley and water rushed down it. Many bricks had been used in impressive arched tunnels and steps funnelling the water and there was a huge brick wall reinforcing the hillside.

As we entered Parc Cwm Darren, we spotted a display of bright scarlet elf cap on rotting wood covered in bright green moss. We looked down at a wooden bridge and continued walking across a tarmacadamed bridge. A stone sign told us we were at ‘Caradoc’s Bridge’. Caradoc was a Silurian leader who fought against the Roman occupation in Wales but was eventually captured and taken to Rome. It is believed that this bridge near Deri has been called Caradoc’s Bridge in his memory.

Another memorial stone recorded more recent events ‘In memory of those whose lives were touched by the tragic events at the Darren Colliery, October 29 1909’. The 27 names of those who died are listed.

At the northern part of the walk, we turned back on ourselves climbing the steep hill side to reach the ridge. Just before the top we spotted a concrete bunker below the path and clambered on top of it, to rest and eat our lunch. Within moments we were treated to not one but two red kites soaring above us, so close we could clearly see their colouring. In no time they were out of sight as they flew off up the valley and we were left with the memory and magnificent views.

The day had warmed up and we enjoyed blue skies and open landscapes, our route often following tarmac paths. One field was covered in green mossy humps, none of us knew how they had occurred. In the hedge alongside a road, we spotted bird feeders. Someone had made them from toilet rolls, with the outside coated in fat and then rolled in bird seed (or was the seed melted in the fat before rolling the toilet rolls in it?), so simple but very effective.

Returning to Pengam towering over us was a statue placed over an old ash tip. This statue is 40ft and called the Lady of the Stream, it depicts a woman watching over children in the area, supposedly in reference to Pengam folklore of youngsters drowning in a stream.

Arriving back to the cars we saw poetry (having missed it when we drove in) cut into metal at the entrance to the carpark

‘When the children come here to plant primroses and violets

let us tell them about the old tree and the fact of its joy

let us teach them about change

let us show them a future…’

Our route had enticed us with a dipper in the river, tadpoles, coltsfoot, showing its yellow flowers before the leaves and of course those wonderful red kites and most of it had been on solid paths but no spring lambs yet. Afterwards we went to Caerphilly Garden Centre, where we sat outside in sunshine for drinks.

Walk 7.75 miles, 1300ft. Map OS 166

 Clytha

On a March Day in 2018 we visited Clytha and I opened my write-up of the walk with ‘snow flurries and hills dusted with white’. It was bitterly cold with icy winds which made us pull hats down to our eyebrows and on that day, we trudged through mud and flooded lanes. Four years on and a month earlier, the weather forecast was blustery with showers and heavy rain after 2pm but still relatively mild.

We travelled to the National Trust car park at Clytha Park. Our route, reverse direction to our previous visit, was described as a ‘snowdrop walk’ and we were eager to spot the gorgeous flowers which push up through the earth so early in the year and presage the advance of winter and the coming spring.

Our walk was based on a route from the National Trust website and took us on some permissive paths (allowed by a landowner) which are not shown on OS maps. We set off south, along the river Usk which was fairly full and came to a good strong footbridge, crossing a small stream, but it was tilted at about 10° – very strange. The river Usk is a designated SSSI, and a special Area of Conservation well known for salmon and trout. Otters, dippers, sand martins, kingfishers and bats live in or near this stretch of the river.

We were pleased to find our first snowdrops, a small clump on the bank of the river. Soon we found a mat of white snowdrops in the undergrowth and a spread of bright blue and pink flowers of lungwort (pulmonaria) glowing in the shade. Lungwort is named after the white splodges on some leaves which resemble diseased appearance of the lungs. It is used by herbalists to treat coughs and bronchitis and can also be used as an astringent. Nearby were tight clumps of pink flowers on bare branches of viburnum. All cheering us on a grey winter’s day, especially when we found a carpet of snowdrops under a hedge which covered about 20ft.

A long line of mole hills would suggest a good population of moles here but who knows as… ‘Mole activity is usually greatest in late winter and early spring and moles are very territorial and in many cases the mole hills seen in a garden are the activity of just one individual. ‘

Leaving the river, we followed the road to Bettws Newydd. A small village which boasts a Grade II listed, stone well ‘Erected by those who love him, to the memory of William Richard Stretton of Brynderwyn, who died 24th March 1868’. The 17th century, Black Bear Inn emanated enticing smells of bacon cooking – willpower and the threat of rain later kept us walking.

Pretty black faced sheep stood framed by the outlines of the Blorenge, Sugarloaf and Skirrid on the distant horizon, clear at the beginning of the walk but now wreathed in dark black clouds and probably heavy rain.

Coed y Bwnydd beckoned us in. It was presented to the NT by Captain Geoffrey Crawshay in memory of Sgt R.A. Owens, RAF who died aged 21 in World War II. Snowdrops carpeted the whole of the wood, breath-taking! Later in the year you can see bluebells and orchids. We climbed to a hillfort; where human involvement goes back over 2000 years and sat on a tree trunk to enjoy a well-earned lunch.

Now we were on the final stretch. We passed Clytha castle, an C18th folly, in the care of the Landmark trust and available to rent, and the Clytha Arms. It started to rain but we voted to complete the walk rather than dash for the cars which were close by. We skirted Chapel Farm with the remains of Capel Aeddan, a chapel dedicated to St Aythean, thought to be founded in C12th. All that survives is an L-shaped wall footing but we couldn’t spot it. The stone may have been used on Chapel Farm, where a substantial C17th house with stone-mullion windows was added to a C16th stone house with upper crucks.

We went down into woods where one of us was inspired to give us a short excerpt from Hamlet! Then a short walk along Clawdd Brook and we re-joined the river Usk espying a red kite soaring above us and a buzzard being mobbed by crows.

Trees had provided colour all day. Early, yellow, hazel catkins could be spotted hanging and blowing in the breeze. Birch skeletons stood with drooping branches covered in pink/ purple buds. And most notable, large clumps of Mistletoe had been a constant companion sitting high up in many of the trees. It grows in hawthorn, poplar, and lime as well as the apple trees with which most people associate it.

A lovely walk with excellent views and dry weather until after lunch with sunny spells, how lucky we are! Walk 8.7miles, 900ft. Map OL13