{"id":10324,"date":"2021-09-19T11:42:23","date_gmt":"2021-09-19T10:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=10324"},"modified":"2021-09-19T11:45:18","modified_gmt":"2021-09-19T10:45:18","slug":"10324","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=10324","title":{"rendered":"Parc Cwm Darran"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Parc Cwm Darran<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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On a fine day at the end of June we travelled to Parc Cwm Darran, north of Bargoed. Even the drive here was interesting as we found ourselves driving across an area which none of us had ever visited before \u2013 a vast coal reclamation site. We are so lucky that the industrial sites of our valleys have been redeveloped into wonderful Nature Parks. Parc Cwm Darran was created on the land abandoned when the Ogilvie mine closed in 1975. It now takes some imagination to picture the landscape covered in gantries and pitheads with millions of tonnes of coal waste in huge black mounds. Trees and grass would have struggled to grow in the wasteland created by the coal industry.<\/p>\n

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Since 1975 most of the coal buildings have been demolished, debris buried, and mineshafts capped. The mounds of waste have been reshaped to blend into the hilltops, the colliery feeder pond is now a reed fringed lake, a pond has been created and trees and grasses have been planted to provide habitats for wildlife. The result looks like a natural landscape and walking through the area makes you realise just how much can be achieved with what industry left behind.<\/p>\n

Most importantly for us it has a network of footpaths and parking at the visitor centre we were able to use their facilities before starting our walk. There are several trails recommended from a stroll around the lake(1Km) for those with health challenges, a couple of slightly longer routes (up to 3Km) and cycle trails. For younger visitors there is even an Ogilvie Olympics obstacle course.<\/p>\n

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Luckily, we had a booklet with a recommended route that would take us up onto the hills for a longer walk. After a short walk along the lake in morning sunshine, we headed into the wooded hills. We had only just started out when we spotted some results of the regeneration, large furry caterpillars, and swathes of orchids in the grass.<\/p>\n

We found a large stone entitled \u2018Marquis of Bute Stone\u2019 with an engraving \u2018The Romans first introduced boundary and road marker posts. Until this time ditches had traditionally been used. The Roman marker stones, such as along the Apian Way leading to Rome, showed the name of the emperor only. The Marquis of Bute boundary stones demarcating land under their control, continued this tradition so that the letters MB are shown.\u2019. In two places, once on the edge of moorland and again at the edge of the country park,\u00a0we spotted these marker stones which rather grandly showed a B beneath a stylised crown.<\/p>\n

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Out in the open, a kite soared overhead, a sight which is always thrilling even though it is becoming more common. The land around us was lush and dotted with groups of trees. We entered an atmospheric stretch of oak woodland where all the tree trunks and branches were gnarled, bent and twisted. Maybe they struggled to grow during the industrial period this land experienced.<\/p>\n

We emerged onto extensive moorland where we could see the outline of Pen y Fan and its accompanying hills in the far distance. We decided to break for lunch while we had sunshine and such good views.<\/p>\n

Continuing, we spotted some strange structures at the top of the ridge, which looked like a 1970\u2019s idea of a spaceship. According to a passer-by (one of the few people we saw all day) they are listening stations. Now we had a wide track to walk along and were surrounded by hundreds of sheep. The farmer drove towards us on his tractor, we stepped off the track and he had soon disappeared in a cloud of dust. Some sheep grazed next to a pond, and we noted the murky waters.<\/p>\n

We skirted the Fochriw forest with its tall bare trunked fir trees and tumbledown stone walls and came back towards the country park. A long wooden sign at Cwmllwydrew Meadows Nature Reserve depicted a goods train with a tree branch covered with leaves as an engine.<\/p>\n

Returning to the lake we saw plenty of waterfowl and yellow water lilies.<\/p>\n

In medieval France, the yellow water lily was described as \u2018the destroyer of pleasure and the poison of love\u2019, the opposite to an aphrodisiac. Stonemasons carved flowers of the water lily into the roof bosses of Westminster Abbey to encourage celibacy.<\/p>\n

Arriving back at the visitor centre we quickly changed out of our boots and sat in the shade enjoying tea and ice-creams whilst cooling down. By the time we left it was school chuck out time and the roads through the valleys were chock-a-block with parents trying to collect children. Avoiding the industrial route, we came by and the narrow valley roads with cars parked both sides some of us enjoyed a picturesque drive along a narrow mountain top road to pick up the main road to Cardiff, which rounded off the day nicely. Walk 7 miles, 800ft. Map 166<\/p>\n

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Parc Cwm Darran On a fine day at the end of June we travelled to Parc Cwm Darran, north of Bargoed. Even the drive here was interesting as we found ourselves driving across an area which none of us had ever visited before \u2013 a vast coal reclamation site. We are so lucky that the industrial sites of our valleys […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6cWjO-10324","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5692,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5692","url_meta":{"origin":10324,"position":0},"title":"Parc Cwm Darran","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st April 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Parc Cwm Darran. Parc Cwm Darran lies at the site of the Ogilvie colliery where coal was mined from 1923 until 1975. We started by walking along the Ogilvie lake. There are a few sculptures to the side of the path and numerous pieces of outdoor gym equipment (the Ogilvie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Picture3-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5534,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5534","url_meta":{"origin":10324,"position":1},"title":"Cwm Clydach and The Swansea Canal","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st January 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"On a sunny morning in late October, we parked in Clydach and we walked east along the Swansea canal, with reflections of trees in its still waters. The canal was built to serve collieries, iron works and copper works in the Tawe valley. 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The word \u2018aber\u2019 means \u2018the confluence of two waters\u2019 and because so many places containing this word are situated on the coast, it is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Readers Articles of Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Readers Articles of Interest","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=228"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3354,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=3354","url_meta":{"origin":10324,"position":3},"title":"Wentwood Forest & Tretower","author":"Alan Williams","date":"27th May 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Parc Seymour and Wentwood Forest Today our walk took us from Parc Seymour to Wentwood northeast of Newport. There was a cold wind and it felt like winter again. But there\u2019s only one word to describe this walk \u2018Bluebells\u2018! We headed southeast and on the road passed a neat woodland,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11418,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=11418","url_meta":{"origin":10324,"position":4},"title":"Bargoed","author":"Alan Williams","date":"16th April 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0Bargoed 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Picture8.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15142,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15142","url_meta":{"origin":10324,"position":5},"title":"Cwm Gynfig and St Athan","author":"Alan Williams","date":"7th February 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Cwm Gynfig near Margam Park January produced some icy weather, causing anxiety about the forecast of snow flurries or freezing rain after 4pm. We parked on a road south of the route to avoid driving on icy\/narrow country lanes. Although cold (layers were the order of the day) it was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Picture11.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10324"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10324"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10328,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10324\/revisions\/10328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}