Brybla two

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 100.00% of reviewers

I loved this Slow Way through the Heads of the Valleys. This was, not so very long ago, a busy coal-mining area, but Blaenavon is now a UNESCO world heritage site for its industrial history. Just off the trail at the northern end of Blaenavon is the fantastic Pwll Mawr/Big Pit Welsh National Coal-mining Museum where you can descend into an old mine and get a bit of a feel for what the process was actually like from the Victorian era and on into the 20th century. It’s an evocative, thought-provoking experience.

But, back to the route itself….. I dithered a bit about giving it the full five stars because it could take a better way into/out of Brynmawr with a safe main road crossing on a bridge, and the way into/out of Blaeanavon could also might also be tweaked, but overall, it is a fine route. Be aware that is up high on the upland edge and might well be bleak and exposed on a winter day or in bad weather, but on a warm day in late August it was offering wonderful views, a huge sense of space and hillsides resplendent with flowering heather. Highly recommended in such conditions.

From Brynmawr it is a half mile out of town along a main street and then on up the hill via a quiet dead-end lane to cross the A467. The plot is not quite right at the crossing. You have to jink left a bit down the path rather than going straight ahead as it suggests. But it is a very minor issue and easy enough to see. Take care crossing the main road. Very soon you are on off-road paths. [A much better way out of town would be to use the cycle route 46, which goes from near the meeting point and crosses the main road over a footbridge, before heading up to join the plotted Slow Way at the bottom of the hill.

From here I found it hugely enjoyable. It’s a sometimes gently undulating, mostly well-signed shared path and cycle route on a mixture of surfaces: metalled lanes, paved paths, gravelled paths, green paths fortified with matting and a couple of short sections of plastic boardwalk. It meanders around upland-edge pastures and across some old spoil, with long views in places. Take care crossing the B4248, which has intermittent speedy traffic. If you are coming the other way, there is no obvious sign but just go straight across to the road ahead.

Near Whistle Halt the route crosses a lane where there is a pub, the Whistle Inn, and the Slow Way follows the cycle path around the south of Garn Lakes. This area is a leisure park and has plenty of benches. You can equally well go through it by heading straight across Whistle Lane and making your way round the north side of the lakes too.

At the far end of Garn Lakes the Slow Way takes a tiny but puzzling detour round three sides of a square, which is fine access-wise, but it is best to go straight on along the cycle path ahead. At the next road crossing (w3w messed.decanter.primed) you are close to the entrance to Big Pit, which lies just to the south. This has a tea and cake cafe.

The way down into Blaenavon is through quiet roads and mostly paved footpaths, with quite a lot of steps near the bottom. It would actually be more efficient to leave the cycle path a little further along at w3w mandolin.badge.sparkle and go straight down Upper Glantorvaen Terrace. This is less fiddly. Either way you cross the (apparently unused) railway line. The meeting point is confusingly not quite in town but is near the bus stops.

Both towns are on various bus routes.








A lot of it is all-terrain wheelable but there are quite a few bridleway gates.

Very usable route with a pleasant mix of scenery.

This route follows the metalled 492 national cycle route from the centre of Brynmawr for most of the way to Blaenavon, so it`s easy walking, although there are some undulations along the way. It follows the old railway line up to the point where it meets the Blaenavon Heritage Railway, which the path then runs parallel to as it nears Blaenavon. This is industrial heritage land, with evidence all around of the area`s history. The Garn-yr-Erw lakes adds a nice stretch of variety along the way. There are a couple of pubs in the middle section, but check the afternoon opening times if you`re planning a stop-off.

Photo 1 - Garn-yr-Erw lakes.

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