Sirhowy Valley Walk - Crosskeys to Ebbw Vale Town

Today I continued my walk along the Sirhowy Valley trail starting at Crosskeys railway station and finishing at the new Ebbw Vale Town railway station.

As I walked out of Crosskeys I again noticed the greeny browny grey sandstone used in buildings in South Wales, not as beautiful as the honey coloured stone of the Cotswolds or Bath but characteristic of Victorian and Edwardian building in the area. Also typical are the well tended municipal parks in each town with facilities for sporting activities, such as the park I walked through now. They show some thought was given to the happiness and welfare of those that at one time worked down the coal mines and in other industry in the Welsh valleys.

I followed a combination of a small road, bridlepaths and footpaths up the steep side of the valley. The transition from town to countryside is very sudden. Soon I reached the ridge where I left off the previous day beside an old slag heap (consisting of the unwanted rock dug out with the coal from the mines) now grassed over in the many years since mining ended in the valleys. After heading west along the ridge the path drops through woodland. I am not quite sure I followed the correct route around the Ynys-Hywel activity centre (a place with rubber tyres and things for people to climb over), the waymarking rather lapses in places, however, it was an enjoyable route all the same with little bridges made out of railway sleepers across little streams.

After following the west side of the valley for a while I reached the Candle Workshop and water mill at Gelligroes, the former with some very strange looking candles. On previous trips I have joined the Sirhowy Valley walk at this point, following National Cycle route 47 from Hengoed railway station, a route that takes you over the impressive Hengoed viaduct.

The trail then passes various industrial units, through a car sales area and past houses, but as I was getting hungry I diverted to Blackwood Town Centre, a place more pleasant than it sounds, and had a coffee and blueberry cake in a second hand (or pre-loved as they say these days) furniture and charity(?) shop with a defective till. On rejoining the trail beside the gurgling river among the trees and yellow celandines, it was difficult to believe that a busy high street and retail park was only a few hundred metres away.

Eventually the trail starts climbing up the east side of the valley. While daydreaming I missed a turning but after following a section of abandoned and overgrown railway line through trees I was easily able to rejoin the Sirhowy Valley walk, aided by a man with a collie pointing out where I should be going for a lovely path. The path then heads uphill along a road and then across fields skirting the village of Manmoel. After Manmoel there are two options, an east and west route that rejoin a few kilometres later. I chose the easterly route which soon climbed onto Manmoel common. The old slag heap here is now difficult to detect below the grass, only in places where bikes have worn away the grass is the grey black waste rock visible. The views from the common are extensive, reaching the Brecon Beacons to North West. At this time of year, the trees are without leaves, so their silhouettes were showing the intricate pattern of branches against the yellow grassland. Skylarks were singing overhead as I continued to the aerial at the end of the ridge.

From the aerial it was downhill and onto a small road through trees until I reached the Aneurin Bevan Memorial stones, Nye Bevan was a local MP who as Health Minster after the Second World War founded the National Health Service, although this is surprisingly not referred to at the memorial, which is perhaps more suited to an archaeologist than a progressive politician. There is also a small stone dedicated to local people who fought in the Spanish Civil War against the Franco.

I then headed for Ebbw Vale town via a path, very muddy in places. The railway station has only recently opened, or rather reopened, the previous station was closed in 1962 with the Beeching cuts, but the Ebbw Vale line reopened for passenger traffic in 2008. More recently it was extended to the town of Ebbw Vale. Unfortunately they have yet to erect any signposts telling you how to get to it and none of the roads go directly from the town to the station. The road layout is confusing to say the least. After a few false starts I eventually reached the station and looking back I realised there was a funicular, beside a modern college building, which took you from the bottom of the valley to the town and vice versa making the trip from town centre to the station very short indeed. I wandered around the town while waiting for the train and admired the stainless steel dragon on the high street. The man sitting beneath was not so impressed and pointed out it was a Chinese dragon and not a Welsh dragon. Ebbw Vale was once a steel producer and as the the remaining Welsh steel producers are being driven out of business by cheap Chinese steel it seemed fitting that a Chinese dragon was raising its head in Ebbw Vale High Street.

The route I took was 35 kilometres long, with a cumulative ascent of 857 metres. As this is quite long it can be conveniently shortened by starting at Hengoed Train station and following Cycle route 47 to the trail. A gpx file of my trip can be found on wikiloc.com. A version of the route can be downloaded onto a phone from ViewRanger.

Sirhowy Valley Walk - Newport to Crosskeys

The Sirhowy river flows from the town of Tredegar at the head of the Sirhowy Valley in South Wales. It joins the Ebbw river at Crosskeys which ultimately flows into the River Usk a short distance before it reaches the mouth of the River Severn and the sea. The Sirhowy Valley walk follows the length of this river system. I am planning to travel up the path starting from Newport, starting and finishing each day at a railway station.

Having reached Newport station on the main line from Cardiff to London Paddington, I walked uphill to Newport's St Woolos Cathedral, then down into Belle Vue Park. The Victorians who developed towns such as Cardiff and Newport to transport coal by sea, recognised the value of public spaces and Belle Vue is a good example of the formal gardens created complete with bandstand (and more recently a coffee shop). After a section of road I reached the Sirhowy Valley walk and followed it to where I thought it started at Tredegar House. Tredegar House dates from the 17th century and with its associated park and cafe is worth a visit. However the waymarking indicated that the Sirhowy Valley walk no longer started from the house, as indicated by my Ordnance Survey map and other publications, so after using the toilets I followed the signposts south.

The signs took me through housing and joined the Wales Coast path before crossing the railway line on a temporary bridge. In order to electrify the main line, the existing bridge is having to be raised in height. Then the path crosses the Gwent levels; a large area of flat land separated from the River Severn by a bank of earth that stretches along the length of the river to protect the area from flooding. It is an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest). Various birds use the flat fields and drainage channels, plus the mudflats the other side of the sea defences. I saw swans and geese in the fields and a heron in a drainage ditch. I could see back to the historic Newport Transporter bridge, the docks and the power stations on the opposite side of the River Usk, with its muddy banks. Signs indicated that the landscape would soon be changed by the new section of the M4 that would go south of Newport. This will greatly help those currently having to wait in queues on the existing M4 at certain times of day, but it will dramatically change the landscape in this area. The path follows the bank separating fields from mud flats to the West Usk Lighthose, built 1821, and now a somewhat unusual Bed & Breakfast. Waymarking continued at least as far as the Lighthouse Inn, which I decided was far enough.

After a coffee at the Shipwreck cafe, I headed back the same way until I reached the housing estate by Tredegar house. It attracted my attention due to the unusual octagonal arrangement of the terraced housing, which allowed access by cars to one side of the housing, while the other side opened onto grass or was car-free. Sadly the grassy area in the middle of the development, with its stand of pine trees, was blighted by litter rather spoiling the beauty of the architect's vision.

I continued along the Sirhowy Valley walk through housing to a hill, now a rusty colour with dead bracken, but with yellow celandines in patches. This was the site of a hill fort, with the banks and ditches still discernible.

After crossing a road and more housing the rain started and another park followed, leading up another ridge to the northern suburbs of Newport. From here the path dropped through very muddy fields to the Monmouth and Brecon canal (now disused). After walking through the tunnel under the M4 motorway I counted my way up the 14 locks to the 14 lock visitor centre for coffee and a lovely slice of Angel cake (its a different type of cake each time I visit) giving the rain time to stop.

The Sirhowy Valley walk leaves the canal a kilometre or so after the visitor centre and crosses the Ebbw valley through housing and a "Welfare" park, then climbs the side of the valley opposite, initially on roads and then through trees and fields, climbing steadily up the ridge. Eventually you reach the bracken covered mountain of Mynydd Machen. An excellent viewpoint to look back at Newport or forward to the old slag heap further along the ridge. The slag heap was left by the now defunct coal mining, destroyed in the 1980s, and now considered an old and polluting source of energy. In the distance you can see a solar farm, with the sun providing a new source of energy from the fields of South Wales.

Just short of the slag heap it was time for me to head for home, so I headed downhill along what my Ordnance survey map showed as footpath through Gelli-Finiog farm to the roundabout on the A467. I should have been suspicious at the lack of footpath signs through the farm, and beyond the aerial below no path seemed to be heading through the trees in the right direction (i.e. down a rather steep slope). This lead to me taking a rather lengthy route into the Sirhowy Valley Country park and into the town of Crosskeys. However, at the station I had the good fortune to arrive only a few minutes before the train; five minutes later and I would have had to wait an hour for the next one.

I will continue the trail in my next blog, but based on today's experience in future I will start following the Sirhowy Valley walk from Tredegar house. The banks of the Severn and the Gwent Levels make an interesting walk, but are best and most conveniently explored by following the Wales Coast path from Newport to Cardiff (or vice versa), especially if using the train.

The gpx file of the route I followed is available on wikiloc.com, and on ViewRanger, from where you can download it onto your mobile phone.