Wednesday 6 March 2019

Sirhowy Valley - Overview

The Sirhowy Valley walk goes from the banks of the River Severn Estuary up to the Nye Bevan memorial stones between Tredegar and Ebbw Vale Town. It covers a very wide range of landscapes from the flatlands around the River Severn, to a hillfort and an old canal near Newport, to mountains and ridges with distant views and skylarks singing, to the sides of valleys lined with trees. Reminders of the now long lost coal and steel industry are now subtle as nature reclaims slag heaps and the towns filling the valleys feel more like commuter towns for the cities of Newport and Cardiff.

I walked the Sirhowy Valley Walk over two days, using trains to get me to and from the trail each day, details are given in the two posts below. The days were long, I covered 71 kms in all including two and from train stations, however it can easily be shortened by starting at Tredegar House or covered in three days.

Day one - Newport to Cross keys

Day two - Crosskeys to Ebbw Vale

Also included is a recent day hike around the Raven Walk which crosses the Sirhowy valley, at some 20 kilometres and a 1000 metres of ascent it is a good way to stretch ones legs among the hills and valleys of the area.

Raven Walk


Raven Walk, Cwmcarn

In addition or as an alternative to the Sirhowy valley way, you can also hike the circular Raven Walk. At 22 kilometres it can be covered in a day, although there is around a 1000 metres of ascent as it climbs up and down the Ebbw and Sirhowy valleys.

I started at the Cwmcarn Visitor centre. Up until 1968 there was a coal mine on the site, but now the centre lies in a tree lined valley, with walking paths, mountain bike trails, a cafe and shop, pay and display car parks and a camp site. Following one of the paths up the valley greeting people walking their dogs, I reached a lake with ducks and platforms for the local fishing club. Beyond the lake the trail heads uphill. Waymarking is poor, as is so often the case maintenance of older walks seems neglected in favour of marking new ones (or bike trails) so you need an Ordnance Survey Explorer map and/or a GPS trail. I put a GPS file of the route I walked on wikiloc.com and Viewranger as johnpon0040 for any who might wish to follow.

After a steep climb with a few sharp changes in direction I crossed a ridge and headed steeply downhill through felled trees, where the stumps had been burnt. The Caerphilly website says the path is closed due to felling operations but these seem to have taken place some time ago, and trees are now being harvested on the other side of the valley. Leaving the remaining trees at the bottom of the valley, I crossed a stretch of the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal no longer in use. After passing through Crosskeys, where you can also begin the walk from the railway station, I climbed on small paths through woods and then among bracken to the summit of Mynydd Machen. Despite the overcast day, there were fine views from here across the Bristol channel and Newport.

For a while the path follows the Sirhowy Valley Walk, passing an old slag heap, the waste from the coal mines slowly being recolonised by nature. I found a few steel cables strung across the path, mainly buried in the undergrowth, maybe once used to haul the slag up to the top of the hill from the mines in the valley below. Leaving an area popular with people on scrambling motor bikes I followed the route down on paths through trees to the village of Ynsddu, where I crossed the Sirhowy valley and climbed steeply up ridge on the other side. By a combination of farm tracks, single track roads, paths, marked and unmarked, I unexpectedly reached a disused reservoir. Crossing the dam I headed up to a road leading to the 11th century church of St Tudor's at Mynyddislwyn, locked as is usual for churches these days. The adjacent Church Inn was also closed until the evening.

Crossing the edge of one field I reached a wall enclosing a field of solar panels, not the most likely source of renewable power on an overcast day. Then the path took me downhill through pine trees back into the Ebbw Valley and the town of Cwmcarn. Like most of the urban areas of the valleys of South Wales it is strung out along the valley bottom in parallel with roads, the river and the railway. Walking passed terraced housing typical of the area, I returned to Cwmcarn visitor centre for a cup of coffee and a cake.

Have a look at the interesting collection of pamphlets by Ray Lawrence in the visitor centre shop documenting the industrial history of the area.

Raven Walk Waymark

Lake by Cwmcarn visitor centre

Section of Monmouthshire and Brecon canal, the Raven Walk cross the bridge in the picture

View from Raven walk towards Mynydd Machen

View from top of Mynydd Machen across the Bristol channel, the Flat and Steep Holm on the the right

St Tudor's Church, the urban area around Pengam and Hengoed in valley in the background, but the church rather isolated in farmland on the ridge

Path back down to the Ebbw valley