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.