Month: July 2023

FOOTSTEPS

Clydach Vale
Clydach Vale is a village adjoining Tonypandy in the
Rhondda valley. It is named after Nant Clydach, a
tributary of the river Rhondda.
It was a warm day and we were planning to walk in
the woodland surrounding the Clydach Vale Country
Park, which has been created in the old mining area.
There are low level footpaths and two lakes to
explore, on Saturday morning it was very popular.
We parked and set off along the
shore of a lake which had a good
number of waterfowl swimming
around and one chunky bodied
one with a red wattled face, but I
have no idea what it was. As we
moved along the shore, we could
see a cafe with outside seats
perched on the edge of the lake
and started planning our
refreshments after the walk.

At the end of the lake, we
moved onto a footpath leading
into the woods, leaving the bustle of the lake area
behind. And yes, as planned we had the shade of the
trees, with occasional breaks in the shrubbery
allowing us to see the village spread out below us.
Yellow gorse bushes shone across the area and even
one yellow rhododendron. It was not long before we
found that the footpaths we expected were gone and
replaced by wide gravel paths. These had been
created as wind turbines have been put at the top of
the hill and we were now walking the access roads.
Trees had been felled in the process so we no longer
had shade but one advantage was that we had
extensive views across the valley.
Arriving at a trig point we found a huge cairn, about
6ft high, next to it. At first, we thought it might have
been built as an animal shelter but there were no
obvious openings. We stood here a while and looked
at the vast number of turbines
and were very pleased to note
that they were turning even if
it was with reduced output due
to the light wind speed! We
were walking along Mynydd
William Meyrick, a hill
straddling the boundary
between Bridgend and
Rhondda Fawr. To the west
was open moorland whilst the
area we were walking was
mostly woodland but with
views.

Behind us we spotted Tylorstown tip in the distance,
a wedge of a hill which is easily identified. In
February 2020, after several other winter storms,
Storm Dennis precipitated a landslip on the
Llanwonno side of the tip. This blocked the river
valley, broke a foul sewer, covered a strategic water
main in several metres of debris, and covered a
footpath and cycle path. The area was closed to members of the public to ensure safety
immediately. The hillside has been
reinforced and new footpaths and cycle
paths created, and new receptor sites created to
reduce the impact should further storms hit
Tylorstown.
We headed into the shade of fir trees for a lunch
break and were soon surrounded by insects, so most
of us retreated to the edge of the path. When we
resumed we were walking past
tall firs with bare trunks for
most of their height. The lower
branches obviously dropped
when they were surrounded by
other trees but the creation of
the roadway for the wind
turbines had taken out the
protecting trees on the edge of
the wood.
We turned back down the valley,
losing height quite quickly and
as we dropped lower the
temperature rose. We spotted a rose and a
chaenomeles (Japanese flowering quince) but the
skies had been very quiet all day, apart from one
buzzard the only birds we had seen were at the lake.
Now approaching Clydach Vale again we could see
below us a sports field. Someone said that this was
where handball was invented. A little research has
revealed that the native games developed in Wales
share a Celtic heritage with sports in Cornwall,
Scotland and Ireland. A number of sports are
recorded, including variations of ‘village football’,
‘bat and ball’, and ‘hand ball’ games. The most
prominent native sports to survive into modern
Welsh history are Cnapan, Bando and Pel-Llaw.
Welsh handball, more commonly known as ‘Pel-
Llaw’, is related to Irish handball, Fives, Basque
pelota and later American
handball and has been
continually played since the
Middle Ages. The sport’s
popularity offered ordinary
people opportunities through
prize- money, bookkeeping
and even player
professionalism. Pel-Llaw
has been described as ‘Wales
first national sport’.
At the end of the walk we
went to the cafe on the lake
for tea/ beer/ ice cream and
enjoyed a well earned rest. There is a large display
board with a map of Rhondda showing all the
mining tunnels underground, a fascinating picture
which makes you realise that the Rhondda is like a
huge sieve and there is a tunnel below you almost
wherever you go.Walk 7m 1100ft Map OS166
[Footsteps walk routes and map are available by
contacting the editors]