{"id":5446,"date":"2019-01-06T01:35:07","date_gmt":"2019-01-06T00:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5446"},"modified":"2019-01-06T01:35:07","modified_gmt":"2019-01-06T00:35:07","slug":"clytha-park-and-river-usk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5446","title":{"rendered":"Clytha Park and River Usk."},"content":{"rendered":"

Clytha Park and River Usk. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The notice board at the National Trust car park in Clytha Park offers two walks 2.5 or 5.5 miles. Combining them created a walk of 7.75 miles with a 500ft climb.<\/p>\n

We set off on a late autumn morning; the weather was grey but dry. A path led us into farmland where two vehicles were ploughing the land, one turning it over the second producing tilth. Footpath signs were good and at one point giant arrows were painted on two trees where the path went between them. We crossed a couple of fields of mangel-wurzels and passed a white house with a veranda. The path followed an avenue of beech trees and an area of parkland with cows grazing.<\/p>\n

Southeast of the car park is Clytha castle with its circular corners and squat towers.<\/p>\n

We continued past a wood towards Clytha Hill with distant views of Sugar Loaf. The trees glowed with their glorious leaf colours.<\/p>\n

At Coed y Bwnydd secreted atop the hill is possibly the best preserved Iron Age hill fort in Monmouthshire with human activity stretching back 2000 years. The fort\u2019s defensive banks and ditches are clearly visible. They helped to protect the inhabitants from attack by other tribes and animals such as wolves and bears. Roundhouses have been excavated here. The main sounds today are birdsong but 2000 years ago you might have heard axes chopping, people chattering (there was some of that today as we passed through), sheep and hens and the clunk of metal being worked. Wild boar or deer might have been roasting on wood and charcoal fires, their aromas filling the air.<\/p>\n

We continued to the village of Bettws Newydd, finding a fascinating wall with large chunks of stone of different sizes in amongst horizontal flat stones. The church porch had a coffin stretcher on its rafters. A piece of wood had a poem written on it (by N.N. in 2009):<\/p>\n

\u2018The Bettws Yew <\/em><\/p>\n

The star which shone on Bethlehem shone on this noble tree <\/em><\/p>\n

It stood here still in Norman times when knights claimed their victory <\/em><\/p>\n

As King Charles lost his head this tree made growth anew <\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks be to God that we still have our Bettwys Yew.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We headed west towards the river Usk, passing through farmland where we saw calves, trees heavy with mistletoe (common in Monmouthshire) and an old tree which had grown around a piece of metal fencing entirely engulfing it. After passing Trostrey Lodge we came to the riverside and followed it back to the car park. Map OL13.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clytha Park and River Usk. The notice board at the National Trust car park in Clytha Park offers two walks 2.5 or 5.5 miles. Combining them created a walk of 7.75 miles with a 500ft climb. We set off on a late autumn morning; the weather was grey but dry. A path led us into farmland where two vehicles were […]<\/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":false,"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-1pQ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4656,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4656","url_meta":{"origin":5446,"position":0},"title":"Usk Walk","author":"Alan Williams","date":"26th May 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Parking in the main car park at Usk, site of the Rural Life museum, nine of us set off through the streets of Usk. We passed a small but delightful garden created by local Girl Guides. Soon we found ourselves turning left to climb a fairly steep slope. It\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":4439,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4439","url_meta":{"origin":5446,"position":1},"title":"Clytha","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th March 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Clytha - It was the middle of March and snow flurries persisted as we drove east, the hills to the north of the M4 soon had a dusting of white. We started at the National Trust car park at Clytha Park. Clytha is an18thC landscaped estate consisting of the park,\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":16272,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=16272","url_meta":{"origin":5446,"position":2},"title":"Talybont and Llanfeugan","author":"Alan Williams","date":"24th October 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Talybont and Llanfeugan Talybont and Llanfeugan Parking in Talybont, where toilets and showers were available for a small fee, we set off along a section of the canal. The walk was taking in parts of the Taff trail, Usk Valley walk, and the Brecon and Monmouthshire canal. Henry Vaughan \u2018the\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\/10\/Footsteps-4.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11946,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=11946","url_meta":{"origin":5446,"position":3},"title":"The Usk Valley Walk","author":"Alan Williams","date":"8th July 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"THE USK VALLEY WALK A couple of months ago Isobel and I were camping in Pencelli a lovely little village Southeast of Brecon. One day we walked down the canal to Talybont on Usk and we came across signs for the Usk Valley Walk (UVW). When we came back to\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\/2022\/07\/Picture23.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11262,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=11262","url_meta":{"origin":5446,"position":4},"title":"Clytha","author":"Alan Williams","date":"7th March 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0Clytha On a March Day in 2018 we visited Clytha and I opened my write-up of the walk with \u2018snow flurries and hills dusted with white\u2019. It was bitterly cold with icy winds which made us pull hats down to our eyebrows and on that day, we trudged through\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\/03\/footsteps-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":424,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=424","url_meta":{"origin":5446,"position":5},"title":"Bargoed","author":"Wenvoeadmin","date":"19th April 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We started the Bargoed walk in the Pengam area. Soon after starting, we came across a very tall sculpture in a small public garden. The 40ft statue, which is called the Lady of the Stream, was erected in 2009. It stands on a former ash-tip, which was reclaimed as a\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5446"}],"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=5446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5447,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5446\/revisions\/5447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}