Taff Trail and Morlais
Mud glorious mud! In my last article I commented that we had been lucky in January and had frosty clear days for our Saturday walks despite rain during the week. It couldn’t last and twice we walked on Sunday for better weather.
This was an exciting walk and a favourite. Parking outside a carpark, we went up the road (a hill) passing a property which was built as a sanatorium, an ideal location with lots of fresh air.
Having warmed our muscles and circulation, we turned onto a track taking us to Morlais quarry, a rocky expanse with craggy trees some of which were heavily laden with lichen. Although it was still January yellow hazel catkins were dripping from trees. Below we could see the Pontsarn Viaduct and the ‘Spanish House’ which was built by a Cardiff businessman. As we moved on, looking back, a line of structures could be seen above the quarry, they were chimneys belonging to a row of houses.
Even in winter nature has its treasures, and we were treated to trees dripping with beard like lichen, hawthorns festooned in red berries and raindrops catching the sun, red berries glistening against silvery green lichen, bright yellow gorse bushes shining out against grey trees and glowing green moss covering any bare surface.
The winter rainfall also treated us to gushing streams pouring downhill into gutters and spouting down to the Taff Fechan River. A stone bearing the inscription ‘It was time for tea’ made us think of lunch but it was too early.
Morlais tunnel was open from June 1879 until 1958. It is called ‘the Miler’ only half a mile long but, with the stretch of railway to Dowlais, a mile. The tunnel ran underneath the limestone quarries for Dowlais Ironworks. Workers drilled through 200yards of millstone grit and limestone at a rate of 25feet a week. Its arched structure is lined with 2,500,000 bricks and the project was completed in under two years. It ‘connected Merthyr with the Midlands and Monmouthshire hill towns.’ Incredibly a tree is growing on the outside arch of the tunnel, its roots following the line of the arch down towards the ground. As usual a few of us couldn’t resist looking inside the tunnel and were rewarded with ice cold drips of water down our necks.
We could hear the river below and soon were crossing the Pontsarn Viaduct, another engineering masterpiece, it is over 90ft high and 448ft long with seven stone arches and built in 1866 to transport coal and lime. Nearby an old building is encased in scaffolding, and at a window opening with no glass, several storeys up, is a chair – none of us could imagine being comfortable sitting there with the huge drop.
We were now following the Taff trail down the Taff Fechan River. At the remains of Pontsarn railway platform we stopped at a picnic table, to enjoy lunch in sunshine. Continuing, we met a local who said that a man had died 18 months ago at the blue pool (luckily not on our route) so ‘be careful’. Recently BBC news advocated more safety measures in waterfall country as three people had died in the last 18 months. At a path junction a horse and cart trotted past us. We were closer to the river than we had been throughout the walk and started to appreciate its dangerous beauty. We crossed a footbridge and turned north for the final stretch of the walk.
At this point we were walking upriver, nearer to it, and the volume of water was enormous. Churning water roared between the rocky banks and the noise put paid to most conversation. Towering rocks rose above us and tree roots crawled along rocks finding purchase. The path is quite wide, and we were safe, but we did watch our feet at times. A stream crossed the path, and the footbridge was underwater. There was a railing and it was fine to cross but most of us headed slightly upstream to cross on the rocks.
Before long we reached a stile which led to the beginning of the walk. A sodden sheet of A4 paper hanging from the stile declared ‘this footpath closed from December 2025 for up to 6 months’, no wonder the carpark was closed.
This was a lovely walk on a dry day, and the river was a spectacle, but proper walking gear had been important. A brief drive down the road took us to a local hostelry, for much appreciated refreshment.
Walk 6. 25m 830ft. Map OL12.
