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At the time of my review I found the woodland north of Trinant difficult as it was very overgrown and the path was far from clear. It is possible. However an option might be to take the B road through Cwm Nant Gwynt to avoid the woodland. Alternatively take a pair of secateurs.

Direction: Abertillery to Newbridge... An excellent walk over varied terrain, although the signage was not so good in parts. It needed a couple of detours to avoid access issues.

Leaving Abertillery along Castle Street, the path soon leads on to the old railway line cycle / foot path. This is a nice steady walk, gradually downhill all the way to Aberbeeg, with the river Ebbw Fach on the right and the "old" road up above on the left beyond the trees. Easy walking ! It`s worthwhile taking a little detour to see "The Guardian" at Six Bells, a 20 m tall statue of a miner overlooking Parc Arael Griffin, the landscaped former Six Bells Colliery site, which can easily be seen through the trees from the path. The site has some information on the industrial history of the area. At Aberbeeg, the path goes under the railway bridge then immediately over the Ebbw River (just downstream from the confluence of the Ebbw Fach and the Ebbw Fawr) before passing under the main A467 road. The it`s a bit of a slog uphill on Pant Ddu Road, before turning left just before the road bends around to Aberbeeg church. The path then leads down a farm track and at the bottom of the hill next to the bridge over the main road, turns right into a semi-wooded field. This part is not well signed and I lost the path here, coming out in the village of Cwm Nant Gwyn, so I followed the lanes around to meet up with the original path at the top of Pentwyn village. There are some excellent views here across the valley to Brynithel and Llanhilleth.

Following Pentwyn Terrace / Road all the way down through Pentwyn and Trinant, the road eventually starts to climb uphill again. There was no sign of a footpath to the left going up this hill, so I carried on around the corner and used another footpath 200 metres past Horeb Congregational Church, which met up with the planned route. However, after a couple of hundred metres, this path was blocked at the first style by thick brambles, no one could have walked this way for a year or two, and there was no other way through. Back I trotted up to the road and carried on towards Newbridge. After around 1 km, I turned left down Load Of Hay Road, which narrows into a footpath after a while, to meet up with the original footpath at Crumlin. Then it was just a matter of walking along Park Road into Newbridge and down through the park to the station. An excellent walk, despite the signage / access problems.

Photo 1 - The Guardian at Six Bells
Photo 2 - Across the Ebbw Valley to Llanhilleth from Cwm Nant Gwyn
Photo 3 - Load Of Hay Road living up to its name.
Photo 4 - View from the top of the Park in Newbridge.

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