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July 2022. Direction Treharris to Rhymney

This Slow Ways walk is full of great scenery, but it just needs a couple of tweaks to the routing to make it a 5-star route. It passes through 3 parks, all of which are on reclaimed mining sites.

After crossing the suspension bridge coming out of Treharris, the path goes a couple of miles through the Taff Bargoed Park, which is full of varied scenery, such as ponds, wetlands, reedbeds and woodlands, culminating in the renowned climbing centre. Crossing the road at the end of the park takes you on to the loops and links path into Bedlinog, where there are some interesting info panels on its history, notably the industrial riots in the 1930`s. There are some steep slopes going up through the village !

On leaving Bedlinog, you are straight into the beautiful Nant Llwynog Park, following the stream of the same name. I couldn`t find the planned path leading over the stream here, probably due to fallen trees or maybe it was just overgrown, so I followed the alternative path up the right hand side of the stream up to the lane. The path from the lane to go up the mountain (Pen Garnbugail) was very clear, but the path down the other side was not. The planned path was blocked by tied farm gates, so I took an alternative path southwards following the wall and then down through the fields, but after the initial pair of gates, there was no obvious path to follow and I ended up going through a soggy marshland (even after a prolonged dry spell with record high temperatures) and tumbling out at the bottom on the road at the entry to Cwm Darren Park.

The path now takes you across Cwm Darren Park and after crossing the river, it leads up through the forestry. There are lots of paths here, so care is needed to pick the right one. After the forestry section there are good views across the upper reaches of the two valleys (Nant Bargoed Rhymney and the main Rhymney Valleys). To finish off, there`s a fairly steep descent down into Pontlottyn and then an unremarkable walk along the path parallel with the main road into Rhymney.

Photo 1 - Footpath / Cycle path leaving Treharris (with local coal seam commemorations)
Photo 2 - Pond, Taff Bargoed Park
Photo 3 - Reedbeds, Taff Bargoed Park
Photo 4 - Bedlinog from the Loops & Links path
Photo 5 - Looking down the Taff Bargoed valley
Photo 6 - The path through Nant Llwynog Park near Bedlinog
Photo 7 - View back down the Taff Bargoed valley from Pen Garnbugail mountain.
Photo 8 - Fochriw from the mountain path.

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