Caerphilly to Cardiff on Rhymney Valley Riverside Walk

Today I walked the second part of the 32 mile Rhymney Valley Riverside Walk, starting at Caerphilly Railway Station and finishing at Cardiff Gate bus stop. A mixed walk with some enjoyable sections along a disused railway line and a diversion to an early iron bridge, but also some unrewarding farmland, where little consideration was given to walkers.

I started at from the railway station in Caerphilly, home to a dramatic castle, and birth place of Tommy Cooper and Caerphilly cheese. No Caerphilly cheese is now made in the area, and Tommy Cooper moved out of the area when he was three to avoid the pollution. Such pollution has now long since gone with the demise of the coal mines.

Concrete wheel of Caerphilly Cheese

After walking down one of the busy, main streets I reached the Rhymney River and followed the path east along the river, leaving the traffic behind and joining morning dog walkers. A few asked me "how are you?", I am never quite sure how to answer: a discussion of how I don't feel as fit as I feel I should and/or a query after the other persons health? I usually just give a non-committal, polite greeting and walk on although this does not answer their question, if answer was needed. The tarmac path followed the grassy banks of the river with light industrial units opposite. On the far mountain the remains of the tips left by the nearby coal mine could be discerned, although now covered with grass. This section of walk is along the southern boundary of the South Wales Coalfield, and there are a few instructive signs describing the history.

Walking along the banks of the Rhymney river near Caerphilly

Entrance to path that takes you to Waterloo

The path eventually joined the road, but the point at which you then leave the road on the right is hard to spot. If you find it, the path leads you into the village of Waterloo, from which another path, also easy to miss, takes you along the route of an old abandoned railway line (with a diversion through a fields). This is part of the Machen Forge Trail with some interesting descriptions of lives gone by wrapped around posts. Leaving the old railway just before a stoutly built, stone viaduct, the route takes you into Machen (with some new houses being built on the site of the old coal mine, I wondered if they had obtained a survey from the Coal Authority).

After Machen the path goes through fields on the north side of the river. This was not always easy as some of the fields the path crossed had been ploughed over and the route of the path is difficult to locate. I briefly diverted off the Riverside Walk route to visit the Iron Bridge, built in 1829 and recently restored.

The Iron Bridge

The route continued through more fields with views of the river. Surprisingly, the river did not seemed to have grown much over the past 15 miles or so. After Michaelstone bridge things became difficult. The footpath, marked with a yellow arrow, went across a field of what might have been young cabbages. Crossing the field would have resulted in crop damage. Maybe I was entitled to damage the farmer's crop but this goes against the "Countryside Code" and good manners, so I walked along the road to rejoin the route at the next field. Although the map showed this crossed by more than one footpath, it had been ploughed, tilled and looked like it had been recently seeded.

Route of footpath

Eventually I reached the Moody Sow farm park and shop, judging by the number of cars and prams this was very popular with parents and young children. After crossing the road I was again faced with a problem. The leaflet and my map indicated a path across a field. There were no signs or styles, but a choice of gates. I was unsure where exactly the path was meant to go, so took a slightly longer route through the gates of Cefn Mably Private Estate (signs emphasised the word private, but a footpath sign gave me confidence to walk through the gates). Crossing more fields I reached the M4 motorway. The footpath takes you underneath, and then a short walk brings you to Llanederyn. This little village has a church of Norman foundation and a 15th century pub. A new housing development means the pub should have some additional customers shortly. This marks the end of the Rhymney Valley Riverside Walk, to catch a bus back into the centre of Cardiff you cross the busy roundabout to the Pontprennau bus stop just before the Cardiff Gate Retail development, where I rewarded myself with a Costa Coffee and muffin for completing the walk (the muffin slightly spoilt by some gooey stiff they put inside).

In all today's walk was 22.2 km long. A gpx file of the route can be downloaded from wikiloc at this link. For those using smartphones and tablets it is on Viewranger, short code johnpon0012. The Rhymney Valley Riverside Walk crossed several other walks today, the Machen Forge Trail, the Iron Bridge walk, the Michaelstone-y-Fedw Circular, the Rhymney Riverside Circular Walk and the Craig Diamond Jubilee path. I thought perhaps it may be better to have fewer walks, but waymark them properly and ensure they are maintained open.

To reach the estuary of the Rhymney valley I subsequently continued my walk along the Rhymney Trail through Cardiff, described here. Cardiff's Rhymney trail can also be reached by by following the path (rather muddy when I walked it in November) south along the river just before the last underpass that takes you to Llanederyn church.

Rhymney to Caerphilly on Rhymney Valley Riverside Walk

In my earlier posts I walked along the Rhymney Valley Ridgeway Walk ending up near the town of Rhymney itself. I was thinking of coming back down the bottom of the valley and thought I would have to make up the route itself.  However, although not marked on my Ordnance Survey map, I discovered that Caerphilly County Council, with support the EU's European Regional Development Fund, had created leaflets on a route called the Rhymney Valley Riverside Walk, which may be downloaded from the Internet.  This 32 mile route extends from Bute town, above Rhymney, to the outskirts of Cardiff. This post records my first day walking along the route from Rhymney to Caerphilly: a mixture of roads, disused railway tracks, farmland and reclaimed industrial areas, through urban areas of terraced housing and old chapels characteristic of the area and wooded parks and farmland.

I had already covered the walk from Bute town to Rhymney in my last post (during which I saw no signs indicating I was on the Rhymney Valley Riverside path) so I started at Rhymney railway station catching one of the hourly trains from Cardiff to what is the end of the line. As it was not marked on my Ordnance Explorer map (and I could find no "gpx" files on the Internet to download to my gps) I was relying on Caerphilly Council's leaflets to show me where I was meant to walk. This initially lead me onto a railway line, long since abandoned, that made a pleasant walk as the trees, starting to turn yellow with autumn arriving, hid the view of a busy road and some old industrial area. Then after a short stretch of road into Pontlottyn, the path went through playing fields, past a school, some ground with reptile proof fencing (to keep the newts in?) and then some farmer's fields. The route through the fields was not clear and an Explorer Ordnance Survey map is needed to make sure you keep to the footpath. On the other hand, a map does not always help as the Riverside Walk often takes paths that are not marked as rights of way on the map or on the ground (as in the route directly after Pontlottyn Railway station).

To keep newts from straying?

After some muddy fields I joined a tarmaced path that lead through what I took to be reclaimed sites of coal mines, now beautifully landscaped with young trees and used by local people walking their dogs. The River Rhymney gurgled beside the path, which lead into a street of terraced houses marking the start of New Tredegar.

Path through reclaimed industrial land on approach to New Tredegar

River Rhymney

After passing a few shops and an old chapel, like many in the area no longer used for worship, I reached the Winding House. There is no longer any coal mining in the area but the Winding House is a small museum complete with cafe and gift shop. The museum included remains from the Roman fort at Gelligaer that I visited on my previous post but my main interest was the history of the coal mine,  which closed in 1967. By far the biggest exhibit was the winding machine housed in the old winding house. This enormous steam powered winch, dating from the 19th century, lifted miners and coal to the surface. Maintained  by volunteers, it is still run on occasions although now powered by an electric motor. The coffee and fruit cake was also pretty good and the books on the miners' sufferings (including the 1984 strike) were worth a browse.

After New Tredegar I joined another disused railway line. These railways were built by different mine or dock owners to take the coal from the mines to the coast, such that there was often more than one railway up the same valley. Those no longer required for passenger traffic have been turned into excellent walks and bike paths, and being old railway lines do not have steep gradients.

Pedestrian bridge to Winding House built to look like a pithead, now no longer seen with the demise of coal mining in South Wales

The path continued through Bargoed Woodland park, another area reclaimed from the coal mining industry, now planted with young trees and with tarmaced paths and another interesting pedestrian bridge. I saw my first sign of any kind for the Rhymney Valley Riverside Walk on reaching Pengam, one of only two I came across on my day's walk. Typically it was defaced by graffiti. It is sad when the Council, Welsh government, EU and others put so much effort into making the Valleys beautiful that some people choose to despoil the environment. With the number of drinks cans I passed discarded by the path you could have restarted the metal industry.

Sign for Rhymney Valley Riverside Walk

After Pengam, navigation became more complicated, as the route skirted housing developments with paths not on my Ordnance Survey map, with sections along roads between. Finding the right road or path to follow was difficult, but I eventually reached the glorious Hengoed Viaduct which the path crosses. After a section of road walking at Ystrad Mynach the path crosses the river. The Council's leaflet implies that you then immediately walk along the riverside, however, short of abseiling down over the side of the bridge, this is not possible. Instead I reached the river by entering the industrial estate and then turning down the first road on the right. The river path is at the end of this road.

Following the complicated path between roads and riverside fields become increasingly difficult as it started to rain, gently at first and then heavily. I had printed out relevant maps of the route from the leaflets on the internet, and the rain threatened to turn them into a inky pulp. Nevertheless I believe I followed the correct path until I reached the outskirts of Caerphilly. Now rather wet it was time to navigate via the quickest route to Caerphilly railway station, where as luck would have it a train was just pulling in.

From Train Station to Train Station (and excluding wrong turns as I tried to work out where I was meant to go) the day's walk was 30.1 km. It was generally flat and overall you are loosing height as you go down the valley. You pass close by a number of railway stations (at Hengoed, Pontlottyn etc.) so it is easy to make the walk longer or shorter as required. A gpx file of the route can be downloaded from the wikiloc site. The route is also on ViewRanger short code johnpon0010.

Hengoed to Rhymney on Rhymney Valley Ridgeway Walk

My Ordnance Survey Explorer maps show that the Rhynmey Valley Ridgeway Walk has a section from near Hengoed to Rhymney. I followed the route marked on the map, from railway station to railway station, but apart from one waymark, I found no signs on the ground indicating where the Ridgeway walk was intended to go. Based on the map it goes north following the ridges on the west side of the Rhymney valley, and is a mixture of pastoral farmland and open moors with some interesting historic remains.

I started at Hengoed railway station and initially followed the same route through Penallta Country park that I followed in my "Hengoed to Cefn Onn" post, passing men enjoying their Saturday morning fishing in the small lakes in the park, with the surrounding silver birch leaves gradually turning yellow. Difficult to imagine that it is actually an old coal tip. After the park I turned north by the bridge across the railway line. The map showed the footpath heading over marshy fields, although I could see little or no sign of a path in the fields. After these fields the route briefly goes through part of Penallta park before more fields. The typical yellow arrows showing where a footpath goes were missing, damaged or else destroyed. One might imagine that the farmer disliked a footpath crossing his fields however, the lack of direction indicators just means that people like me wander around their land searching for the correct route, a job made more difficult as some of the field boundaries shown on the map are no longer there, and new fences have been added.

Damaged direction indicators including one of the only Rhymney Ridgeway signs on this section

Carefully trying to follow the map around the back of some houses I reached Gelligaer, where I rewarded myself with a very nice pork pie from one of the shops (trying to convince myself that my walking would burn up the excess calories). On another occasion I would probably take a different route, either that given for this path in the Cicerone book "Walking in the South Wales Valleys", or there must be some way up through Penallta Country Park.

The path goes through the graveyard beside Gelligaer church (from where I heard the sounds of organ music) and then follows the waymarked "Roman Walk" which takes you past what are reported as extensive Roman remains. Sadly only some uneven ground and humps are now visible of the fort, bathhouse, granaries and other archaeology, which were excavated back in 1900.

After crossing further fields you reach Gelligaer common, where (after passing two dead sheep) I went from track to track keeping on the right hand side of the stream as shown on the map until I reached the next road section. The map shows more Roman remains but they are difficult to spot, and I missed the Celtic cross marking the site of Capel Gwladys that I visited on a previous occasion.

After this section of moor, a good path takes you down into a pretty, steep-sided, wooded valley and up to some houses with a community area, with benches and a hut, tucked in behind. Climbing up out of the valley there are more fields as you cross into a new valley. If you look carefully you can see a grassed over slag heap on the other side of the valley, more remains of the old coal mining industry. Eventually you cross another stream and reach a gravel road along the ridge. This brings you to the atmospheric Capel Birthdir. There is a graveyard, recording the lives of the long deceased, the remains of the chapel and a replica of the Celtic cross that was found here. Shortly after is another replica, of Tegernacus' stone (he was son of Martius') which commemorates his death. The original, which dates from the seventh century or earlier, is held elsewhere for safe keeping.

Capel Birthdir replica Celtic cross

The road continues along the ridge across open moors, rough ground with rushes, populated with sheep and cows, which have an empty beauty. There are distant views to far off mountains and the occasional peaceful looking village. Sadly there are those who seek to destroy this beauty, dumping fridges, old toys, plasterboard and empty beer cans beside the track, too lazy or stupid to dispose of their rubbish in its rightful place. Beside the track is a strange, metal structure which is the Brecon DVOR. This is a beacon that emits VHF signals that aeroplanes can use to work out where they should be going. More information here.

I continued along the ridge, the ground dropping into the Rhymney valley with its ribbon development of houses to the east. It seems a good spot for paragliders, with several circling around miraculously gaining height as the soared over the slope. At first I though they must have motors, but no, it was just the wind and the thermals.

Paragliders above Rhymney

The last section of the Rhymney ridgeway walk after the houses at Fochriw is across moorland with no particular path evident. At first you just have to struggle across rushes and muddy patches following occasional tracks and sheep paths in a NNW direction. However after crossing a stream the presence of fences makes it difficult to determine where best to go. This is my second time of trying to follow the route marked on the map and again I had to divert and drop down to the road by an industrial estate to avoid the risk of being forced to climb over barbed wire. This meant the remaining few kilometres to Bute town were along a road, fortunately with a pavement. On another occasion I might be tempted to miss out this section, unmarked by any arrows or signs, and head down to Pontlottyn railway station from Fochriw.

Bute town is an interesting "model village" built by the manager of the ironworks that used to be in Rhymney in the early 19th centuary. From Bute town there is a pleasant walk by a small river that takes you down to Rhymney railway station.

Bute town

Walk back to Rhymney

My walk was 25 kilometres long, with a total ascent of 447 metres. A gpx file of the trail can be found on wikilocs and also on Viewranger, code johnpon0009.