[1] This walk begins at the public car park in The Crescent, above the Rhymney River. Walk back up Forge Road then right into Commercial Street, the main road from Newport to Caerphilly. Cross over and take the first left, Lewis Street, then start climbing! A useful excuse to pause for breath is to peer over the parapet of the old railway bridge; the amount of development on the track-bed shows that this Newport to Caerphilly line has long been closed. Beyond the bridge, Lewis Street becomes Penrhiw Lane, carry on for about 350 metres to a sharp left-right bend. A few metres further the houses are replaced by meadows and distant hills come into view.
[2] Where the lane makes a sharp turn to the left opposite a metal field gate, take the stony track ahead, passing through a metal gate 200 metres further. As the gradient eases, you have fine views southwest across the valley to Caerphilly. Continue through a metal field gate whence the track runs between stone walls beneath a canopy of beech trees, losing height and soon meeting a broader track.
[3] Turn left and in 75 metres cross a cattle grid on a tarmac lane. A few paces further, leave the lane to take a track up to the left, crossing another cattle grid. You have easy walking now on a gently climbing route for 1400 metres with a lovely wood of oak and beech down to your right. This is an ancient, semi-natural woodland, which is being conserved to encourage the return of wildlife and to protect the trees. Ignore a number of paths joining the track from both sides until you eventually reach an obvious left turn immediately followed by a right, beyond which you cross a cattle grid
[4]. Continue ahead, aiming for the conifer plantation and the spoil tip to its left. Flocks of birds, mainly tits and goldcrests inhabit these woods whilst stonechats are frequently seen flitting between the gorse bushes that line the track at intervals.
As you reach the trees, the track climbs up to the left to a broad junction; turn right to walk between the spoil tip on the left and the conifers on the right. When the tip is left behind, there are open views ahead and to the left where the conical waste heaps of the old Llanbradach colliery can be seen over three kilometres distant across the Rhymney Valley. Continue ahead across open country with a fence and wall to your right, heading for a radio mast on the skyline. The sport of fly-tipping, which is popular across much of south-east Wales is practiced regularly around here, it never ceases to amaze how far people will drive to dump a mattress or even a car!
[5] As you come abreast of the mast keep to the wall where your track will soon be replaced by a metalled road joining from the left. .Follow it downhill and through a kissing gate by a parking area, ignoring a lane coming in from the right. After passing derelict quarry buildings on the left, the road bears gradually right; look out now for a farm drive on the right, just before the road starts to climb. This has an unmissable 'no entry ' road sign and is opposite a metal gate
[6] Take this driveway, the name ‘Pen-y-cwarel’ is just discernible on the gatepost, passing farm buildings on your right, to reach a wooden gate and a house beyond. To the right by the wall, is a smaller gate, pass through this and go ahead, keeping close to the right-hand wall and respecting the privacy of the owners of the garden through which you are now walking. (Note that there have been issues with aggressive dogs running free in the garden.) When you reach a gate in the wall, go through to leave the garden, then look half-left for a little-used grassy track; take this, descending as the track bears left below the boundary of the garden and passing a rocky outcrop to reach a stile. Cross over and descend to a path where you turn right.
[7] You are now on the Sirhowy Valley Walk, a 42 kilometre path from Newport to Tredegar. The path at this point can be indistinct for much of the year, but walk a more or less level route for a short distance to an open area with a low, wire fence a few metres to your right. (In high summer, bracken and purple loosestrife cover the area obscuring the aforementioned fence but allowing the path to be more obvious.) From here, the path runs half-left towards woodland, losing height with a fine view across the valley. Into the trees, you pass the concrete bases of an aerial ropeway that linked the mine in the valley with the spoil tips above. Now on a more definite path, you pass a ruined building on the right while here and there, remains of steel cables protrude from the ground, further relics from an industry that is now no more. Continue downhill, ignoring a path going steeply up to the right and eventually passing through a wooden barrier into a conifer plantation where footfalls are muffled by the blanket of pine needles.
[8] Go straight ahead at cross paths and a few metres further, down to the left, you will see a picnic area and small car park, both accessed along the trackbed of a dismantled railway, now a cycleway. Carry on ahead, crossing a small stream and keeping the trackbed on your left. Eventually, you will see a finger post by a green metal barrier on the left, join the walkway here and continue in the same direction past a house on the left. You now have easy, level walking for 1200 metres on route of the old railway.
Closed in 1970, this line has a history stretching back to the beginning of the 19th century when as a tram road, it brought iron and other goods down from Tredegar to Newport.
[9] You leave the walkway where a post with a black and yellow waymark directs you to steps leading up the bank to the right, signposted Ynys Hywel. (Similar waymarks appear at various stages along this section of the route, indicating it as the ‘Raven Walk’, a circular 19-kilometre trek beginning and ending at Cwmcarn, two valleys away.) Before beginning the climb, look through the trees to the Sirhowy River below to the left and across the valley to the village of Cwmfelinfach.
(A) The village was built over a ten-year period to house the workers in the Nine Mile Point colliery. Blue pennant stone was quarried locally to build the houses and brickworks were opened alongside the railway to produce the yellow bricks characteristically used around the doors and windows. An industrial estate now stands on the site of the colliery.
At the top of the steps, you come to the dramatic metal sculpture of a raven, one of four such posts along the route of the ‘Raven Walk’. As of Jan 2014, the sculpture is missing but the metal post that carried it is still there. Turn left here and follow a lovely path through the conifer woods, crossing streams by wooden footbridges and eventually climbing a stile into more open beech and oak woods; here, where sunlight filters through, bluebells carpet the ground in spring. Keep to the path until you reach a tarmac driveway, where you turn sharp right to reach the Activity Centre.
(B) Ynys Hywel was built in 1776 and is a typical Welsh longhouse which has been converted to a centre for conferences and countryside activities. Attached to it is a working farm which is run using traditional methods and livestock. There is also a small camping barn, the first to open in Wales.
[10] From the Centre, walk up the steps opposite the patio area and turn left to pass the camping barn on the right. Follow the path as it climbs to reach a broad forest road which you take, continuing in the same direction and ignoring a path to the right, to reach the farm. Pass through green metal barriers with a picnic site on the left and continue for a few metres to where the forest road crosses a tarmac lane. Here, turn right to climb the lane to the cattle grid you passed earlier.
[11]. Take the rough track up to the right, aiming for the high ground to the left of the green barrier. When in a few metres you pass your outward route, a track coming in from the right, keep left, and take the path which goes left of the barrier and becomes a steep stony track heading towards the high ground. When the path levels out catch your breath and look back towards the radio mast passed earlier, now almost 5 kilometres distant. Continue, passing on the right another spoil tip, now reverting to nature and cross more steel cables that pulled the tubs full of waste up here from Risca colliery in the valley bottom, when the tips there were full.
(C) The area sloping down to the valley floor on the left is known as the Black Vein. Long before the sinking of deep coal mines, there were many bell pits and small levels exploiting the rich Black Vein seam. Although the coal was in plentiful supply, so was the lethal quantity of methane gas; explosions in 1846 and 1860 at the Black Vein colliery killed over 180 miners while at nearby Risca colliery, 120 men died in an explosion in 1880.
Now continue on, and as the track bears right towards the masts look left to the two hills across the valley.
(D) The ‘bald’ summit on the right is Twmbarlwm, its Iron-Age hill fort is just visible to the right of the summit. There is also a medieval motte and bailey but little seems to be known about the history of these forts and by the 14th century, the castle site appears to have been abandoned.
On gaining the trig point at Mynydd Machen, you can take comfort that from here, it is all downhill!
At 364 metres above sea level, Mynydd Machen is the highest point of this walk. On a good day you can see across Cardiff Bay to the hills of Somerset, whilst to the north, the Brecon Beacons can be glimpsed in the distance. As well as the summit’s use for the telecommunications masts, its importance in prehistoric times is evident, as there is a Bronze-Age round barrow and cairn, the latter with a long history of use as a beacon.
[12] Your route from here lies ahead, initially down a grassy track aiming to the left of the quarry, the descent soon becoming steep and rough in places. As you reach level ground at the bottom, look for a wooden waymark post and here, take the narrow path to the right. (If you miss the waymark, you will come to a broad track running diagonally across your path and you’ll have to retrace your steps.)
The path leads you between gorse bushes, heading for a conifer plantation where access is gained via a kissing gate. Follow the delightful path downhill through the trees passing a stepped path up to the right, then a stone seat – sit and take in the view of the Rhymney River and the hills beyond.
[13] Continue through a gate and back into the trees, you have about 450 metres to walk before exiting the wood via a metal gate. Go ahead now downhill through an area of young woodland, ignoring paths left and right, and crossing a stream via a wooden footbridge. Cross the old Newport to Caerphilly railway line now in use up to this point as a quarry railway.
[14] Take the path ahead down steps with Machen church on your left and houses on the right. When you reach the road, turn left to pass the churchyard entrance and continue downhill to Commercial Street. Turn right, then left into Forge road and thence to The Crescent and your car, with a mixture of fatigue and (hopefully) elation.