\n\t![\"jan-wm3-2s\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/JAN-WM3-2s.jpg?resize=514%2C653\" "\\"\\"")
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\n\tW<\/span><\/span>e<\/span> started at St Brides Major and walked north-west across Beacons Down on a bright Sunday morning. As we approached the river <\/span>Ogmore we could see a long line of runners coming <\/span><\/span>towards us and then sharing our route. In places it was pretty muddy underfoot following Saturday’s rain and we didn’t envy them having to run through it.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tThey were participating in the Merthyr Mawr Christmas Pudding race, which is a challenging multi-terrain six mile race. The pudding race was started in 1990 by Bridgend AC who organised the race for 10 years, handing over to the Brackla Harriers club in 2000. The original race took in the stepping stones by Ogmore castle, a route abandoned after heavy rain submerged the stones in year 2!<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tM<\/span><\/span>any runners were in festive costumes and we left them to enjoy mince pies and mulled wine at their half way point as we turned south along the river. They crossed the river back towards Merthyr Mawr and their second ascent of the highest dune in Europe, known as ‘The Big Dipper‘. The sun sparkled on birds in the river and looking east we could see walkers and horse riders with the runners behind them. From here we followed the coast towards Southerndown before heading inland through some woodland and arriving at the Heritage centre. Now we took a slight diversion down to the coast to enjoy our very welcome lunch, with the luxury of picnic tables. Then north-east towards Pitcot, where opposite Pitcot pool we were surprised to find the Farmers Arms closed. From here it was a short walk along the road to where we had parked in St Brides Major. A walk of 7 miles and 500ft.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\tMerthyr Mawr, Newton and Candleston <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em>\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\tT<\/span><\/span>he car park at Candleston, Merthyr Mawr was the starting point for our walk and we headed west across the dunes towards the beach at Newton. Initially we climbed a steep dune and then undulated through the sandy paths admiring the seed heads of the many wild flowers standing tall around us.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tM<\/span><\/span>erthyr<\/span><\/span> Mawr is the highest dune system in Wales. Sand has settled on top of an ancient limestone cliff creating a special habitat for insects, fungi and plants. Springs arise from the bottom of the cliff giving rise to pools and temporary streams. Flints from the Stone Age, burial mounds and pottery from the Bronze Age, hearths from the Iron Age and Roman tiles discovered here have resulted in much of the Warren being scheduled as an Ancient Monument.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tI<\/span><\/span>t was a misty morning and we could just make out the banks of the river Ogmore and the sea in the distance, where we had walked last weekend. As the dunes led us to the sea, the last stretch of our walk west was on the beach where there were quite a few people, mostly walking their dogs. Unfortunately it was too early for lunch so before reaching the road at Newton we headed inland and then generally east following a path through woodland. We passed the scout camp at Wigfach and an interesting building near it, built in art deco style. Many different fungi were spotted on the ground and rotting wood, including a timely outcrop of turkey tail. Finding a clearing in the wood we ate our lunch and then made our way along Cwm y Befos, emerging onto farmland and more normal terrain. Passing Candleston farm, we headed north alongside a wood and then south-east. A friendly horse and donkey came close and followed us across their field before we arrived at the pretty Merthyr Mawr village near the church. Now we walked along the road finishing at Candleston castle. The castle is a 14thC fortified manor house, in ruins since the 19thC. The castle is believed to be named after the Norman family of Cantilupe, thought to be its first feudal tenants. In the 21stC, the castle is an ‘ivy covered ruin’: wildfowl, butterflies, moths, autumn gentian, violets and orchids are seen in its area. We had walked 8 miles and climbed 600ft.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" St Brides Major We started at St Brides Major and walked north-west across Beacons Down on a bright Sunday morning. As we approached the river Ogmore we could see a long line of runners coming towards us and then sharing our route. In places it was pretty muddy underfoot following Saturday’s rain and we didn’t envy them having […]<\/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\/p6cWjO-zp","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11698,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=11698","url_meta":{"origin":2195,"position":0},"title":"Preparing For The Platinum Jubliee","author":"Alan Williams","date":"4th June 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"VILLAGE ENVIRONMENT GROUP THE TEAM PREPARE FOR THE PLATINUM JUBLIEE The memorial soldier overseeing the planting up of flower beds in red, white and blue for the Jubilee. Greenmoor Nursery in St Brides, Wentloog, gave us a huge discount and some free plants when he realised the work the team\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Environment Group"","block_context":{"text":"Environment Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=47"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Picture1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14251,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14251","url_meta":{"origin":2195,"position":1},"title":"Penhow","author":"Alan Williams","date":"15th May 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Penhow \u00a0 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,\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\/2024\/05\/Picture11.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9019,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9019","url_meta":{"origin":2195,"position":2},"title":"Ogmore by Sea Walk","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st January 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Ogmore We walked in the Ogmore area several times last year, using the Vale Trails leaflet no.1 \u2018Ogmore by Sea Walk\u2019 as a basis for our routes and starting from St Brides Major. From here we walked past St Bridget\u2019s Church and were soon on footpaths leading onto Ogmore Down.\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\/2021\/01\/Picture2a.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10221,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=10221","url_meta":{"origin":2195,"position":3},"title":"Lessons From The Past And A Gathering Storm","author":"Alan Williams","date":"16th September 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"LESSONS FROM THE PAST AND A GATHERING STORM Extreme weather events seem to be on the increase as July brought us a mini heat wave followed by storms and heavy rain. On one recent occasion, 23 December 2020, the Vale experienced on average 33mm of rainfall over an 11 hour\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/1607.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3422,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=3422","url_meta":{"origin":2195,"position":4},"title":"June Community Library News","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd July 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"June Community Library News We have acquired a range of Lego sets and these are available for children of any age to get constructive. This has proved surprisingly popular in other library branches, and isn't confined to the Under 5's! Initially, the best time would be after school on a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Community Hub"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Community Hub","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12644,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=12644","url_meta":{"origin":2195,"position":5},"title":"Place-Names Derivation – Fawr \/ Llantwit Major","author":"Alan Williams","date":"9th December 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"THE DERIVATION AND MEANING OF PLACE-NAMES LLANILLTUD FAWR \/ LLANTWIT MAJOR The name Llanilltud is made up of two elements - \u2018llan\u2019 and \u2018Illtud\u2019 (\u2018Illtyd\u2019). The first element is an old Celtic word, which I will discuss in detail at a later date. Suffice to say at this stage that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195"}],"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=2195"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2203,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195\/revisions\/2203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"bootprintline\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/bootPrintLine.jpg?resize=600%2C29\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"jan-wa1-2s\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/JAN-WA1-2s.jpg?resize=588%2C412\" "\\"\\"")
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