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.