[1] From Catherine Drive, go back to Mill Road and turn right, away from the village. In a short distance, you’ll reach the entrance to Castell Coch on the left. Go though the gateway and up the drive that bears left, noticing the splendid beech trees on the right as you pass the car park. Beyond the top car park the drive forks, go right into the coach park and take the clearly defined footpath on the right signposted ‘Taff Trail’ and Fforest-fawr circular walk, with an information board by the start of the path leading into the trees. The path climbs the wooded slopes of Fforest-fawr (great forest), and you come to a path junction where you turn sharp left onto a broad track.
(A) Little is known of the original Castell Coch or Red Castle, except that is was destroyed sometime in the 15th century. In the 1870’s the ivy-covered ruin with its crumbling, red sandstone walls formed the base of a fairy-tale creation when the Marquess of Bute commissioned an architect to rebuild the castle in 13th century style. Apart from the conical turrets, a flight of fantasy by the architect William Burges, the castle has the look of a serious fortress with a dry moat, portcullis and drawbridge, while the surprisingly small interior is lavishly decorated in Victorian Gothic style. It is interesting to note that Cardiff Castle, another home of the Bute family, was also remodelled by William Burges. The land on which the castle stands is owned by Forest Enterprise; it contains the remains of lime pits and old iron workings and the northern part of the forest was used during the First War as a training ground for tank drivers.
[2] The track goes slightly uphill before going gently downhill for a kilometre to reach a disused railway whose route you will be following for the next 1200 metres. Don’t cross the bridge over the trackbed, but go right, passing through the barrier and dropping down to the old line.
(B) You are now on the trackbed of the Barry Railway’s branch line to Rhymney. This line opened in 1901, cashing in on the wealth of coal being mined in the Rhymney Valley. At its peak, between 80 and 90 coal trains passed this spot each day so few passenger trains ran, although for 50 years until 1964, summer excursions from the Rhymney Valley to Barry Island proved popular. However, with the withdrawal of regular freight services in 1963, the line’s fate was sealed though coal traffic lasted until December 1967.
(C) Below you is the village of Ty Rhiw whose old terraced houses were built for the miners who worked the collieries of Nantgarw and Rockwood. The latter was a drift mine whose horizontal shaft entrance has lain abandoned on the hillside to your right since the early 1960s. Beyond Ty Rhiw lies Taff’s Well, a small but popular spa town in the 19th century, its waters having the same properties as those in the more famous Bath, although its pea-green waters were cooler and the surface was in constant motion from bubbles of nitrogen and carbonic acid.
Walk for about 900 metres with views left over Taff’s Well to Garth Hill and ahead to the ridge of Craig yr Allt, passing under a bridge. After another 250 metres, look out for wooden kissing gates on the right, go through and follow the path as it climbs left, then doubles back right, still climbing through oak woods. The gradient eases as you emerge from the woodland to continue on a narrow path, invaded by bracken in summer.
[3] When you reach a junction of paths, take the one to the left and climb the hillside with good views over the River Taff on your left. With the radio mast ahead of you, the path swings round to the right, and becomes broader. At a further waymark, take the narrow path climbing up left to reach the ridge. There are fine views from here with Cardiff Bay away to the south and Nantgarw to the north.
(D) Older Ordnance Survey maps show a colliery at Nantgarw. Completed in 1910, the shafts reached a depth of almost 265 metres. The mine was worked until 1927 then remained idle until 1946 when it gained a new lease of life and was productive until its final closure in 1986. The town also had a pottery here, producing porcelain until 1822. Reopened ten years later, it stayed in business until 1920 producing clay tobacco pipes.
(E) The old Rhymney Railway is also shown on the older maps; this opened in 1858 carrying passengers and freight between Rhymney and Cardiff. Competition with other railway companies (there were six in the area) forced the Rhymney Railway to look for another route to Cardiff – a tunnel beneath Caerphilly Common which opened in 1871. The original route was still used for coal traffic into the 1980s but closed with the decline in the Welsh coal industry.
You have easy walking now to a fork in the path where you take a broad, grassy path to the left to reach the summit ridge. Continue along the ridge past the hardly noticeable high-point at 273 metres, then when you start to lose height, follow the path down from the ridge to the clearly visible electricity poles. Immediately after the electricity poles the main track goes right ignore this and take the path straight in front of you. At the end of this path you come across a broad track, turn left here and follow the track to a metal with a kissing gate on the right hand side.
[4] Turn left along the lane, and continue for about 400 metres to a junction where you turn sharp right. Walk along this lane for 200 metres, passing the entrance to Blackbrook House on the left, then ‘Uplands’ on the right.
Directly opposite this grand entrance, is a footpath on the left take this and go over the stile in the fence, drop down to cross the brook, then climb to the meadow on the far side. Walk ahead up the centre of the field, passing by the electricity pole on your right and then aim for a kissing gate in the hedge towards the right corner of the field. Take care as both the entrance and exit to this grassland can be surprisingly wet! In the following field, walk ahead with trees to your right, towards a stile by stables. Pass through and turn right down the driveway to reach the road.
[5] At the road, take the waymarked path running back up to the left with the backs of properties to your left. The stony path takes you beneath power lines and when you reach the pylon, you double back right, still gaining height. As the path levels out, you reach a junction. Here, follow the waymarks right, walking parallel with the road down to your left. At the next waymark, drop down left to cross the road with care diagonally right to a signpost marked Taff Ely Ridgeway Walk, continue along the road for about 10 metres and then turn left at the waymarker to see in front of you a sign for Caerphilly Common.
Almost immediately, this path forks and you take the left hand fork, ignoring the path to the right. Your route soon climbs steeply to Caerphilly Common to reach the summit trig-point. Take note of your route off the hill; this is to the right, down a gravel path with a radio mast on a hilltop 2 kilometres distant.
(F) From this 271 metre summit, there are good views north to Caerphilly and its 13th century castle, the largest medieval fortress in Wales. and famous for its leaning tower.
[6] Leaving the summit, take the aforementioned path down to a waymark post, then left for 250 metres to reach another road with a snack bar opposite. Walk right, along the verge to the road junction. Cross this main road with care and take the roughly surfaced track opposite, soon climbing up to the right.
[7] When you reach a house with white gates go left along the front of the property, then go right with the path still keeping the property to your right. Climb towards an electricity pylon which is passed to your left, then continue beneath the wires to a waymark post. The waymarks offer a route down to the right, but you ignore this option and take the narrow path to the left which in a short distance brings you to a gate and stile which you cross.
[8] In the field, go half-left, crossing some boggy ground to reach a stand of beech trees on the ridge, then continue in the same direction downhill towards a redundant stile. From here, go more to the left crossing another boggy patch between clumps of rushes to an obvious stile in the fence. In the field beyond, follow the fence on your left as you climb to reach a row of hawthorn trees that once marked a field boundary. Here, climb the stile on the left, then drop downhill with the fence now to your right. At the bottom of the field ahead of you is a farm gate and stile. Go right, over the stile and walk along the track past derelict farm buildings.
[9] Immediately beyond the building on the left, turn left. The path descends to a further ruin on the right where you climb a stile, then follow the (frequently overgrown) path to the right, with the building on your right, to gain access to a field, and go thru the gate on your right. Go diagonally downhill aiming for the electricity pylon a few fields away and when you reach the fence by the trees, follow it to the right to locate a stile. Cross over and take an indistinct and heavily overgrown path down to a stile in the valley bottom.
[10] Climb this and continue onward, crossing a tiny stream. This narrow path, which may be wet in places, leads you through dense woodland to arrive at the foot of an electricity pylon, after about 25mtrs turn left heading towards the power lines, reaching a stile on your right in a few metres. Climb the adjoining stile and walk ahead parallel with the power lines overhead, to a further gate and stile which you cross to a broad track. Go right, again with the power lines and follow this track, a veritable motorway after the last stretch of path, passing a field gate and stile on the left. Continue for about 600 metres to reach the road.
[11] Turn left and walk with care for 100 metres to double farm gates on the right by a telegraph pole where you enter a field. Follow the hedge on the left for about 150 metres, at which point you should be able to see your exit, a stile by a gate in centre of the far hedge, below the quarry on the skyline; bear right to reach it. Continue straight down the centre of the next field, picking up the hedge on the left after 100 metres which you follow towards a gate in the bottom corner. On the left just before the gate is a stile which you cross, then continue in your original direction and then thru a gate, now with the hedge on the right, to pass through a field gate. Carry on with the hedge still on the right, through a further gate then down a track to a U-shaped junction.
[12] Take the lower track down to the right through woodland to a equestrian complex, usually to be greeted by barking dogs.Take the left hand waymarked path bypassing the equestrian complex and at the top of the path keep to the right hand hedge and over the stile, follow the footpath down and thru two small gates to reach some steps down to a lane. Here turn right and then left and walk down the lane behind the houses to Catherine Drive and your starting point.