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Llangattock, Powys

Difficulty Moderate

Walking time 4 hours

Length 11.6km / 7.2mi

Route developer: Fiona Barltrop

Route checker: Robin Segulem

Start location The church in Llangattock, Powys
Route Summary A 7-mile circular walk from Llangattock via the Craig y Cilau National Nature Reserve.
*move mouse over graph to see points on route
Getting there

Mainline trains to Abergavenny, from where the X43 bus travels to Brecon via Llangattock (? 0871 200 2233, www.traveline-cymru.info). 

Description
[1] Exit the car park (SO210178) through a gap in the wall opposite the church (worth a look) and turn left, keeping left at the fork up the road to the canal. Turn left and follow the towpath. 
 
[2] At bridge 112 (Pont y Parc), cross the canal and head across two fields to the road. Looking back you can see the flat-topped Table Mountain. Bear left along the road for a short distance then right up the drive to Ty Mawr, going left through a gate along a grassy track. The track leads steadily up, becoming stony and passing a building used as a bat roosting site. Near the top you bear right past the house at Laswern Fawr and follow the drive that leads to the road. 
 
[3] Turn left for a short distance until you reach the entrance drive to a car park on your right. Follow this up and, as it swings round left into the car park, keep ahead along a grassy track past a barrier. At a fork before a ruined kiln (ahead L), keep right and continue along the track below the old spoil heaps (ignoring a path that descends R). There are glorious views north across the Usk Valley. When the wide grassy track disappears and you reach a bouldery area, follow a small stony path down on your right, which leads to a wider path. Turn left, soon entering the Craig y Cilau National Nature Reserve (information board). The track follows the line of the old tramway below the cliff. 
 
[4] Look out for a yellow waymark and follow the path down, keeping right at the next fork down to the bottom, where there’s a junction of paths near a holly tree. Bear left along the Reserve boundary, then across an area of open common and up past another Reserve information board. On reaching a track, go left to the road. 
 
[5] Cross the road and continue down the footpath, which leads through some woodland and then along the field edge by the trees. Before descending to the valley bottom, swing right and head east along the edge of fields, skirting round Cilau Farm. Turn left when you reach the road which leads back down to Llangattock.
POI information
The dramatic limestone cliffs of Craig y Cilau National Nature Reserve form part of the Llangattock escarpment on the northern edge of Mynydd Llangatwg, overlooking the Usk Valley. Large-scale quarrying of limestone took place here, so sections of the cliff are dug out while others remain in their natural state. The nature reserve includes woodland, scrub and moorland. It is renowned for its plants, including several species of rare whitebeam growing on the cliffs. And some 50 species of bird can be seen here. The limestone is peppered with caves, and one of them, Agen Allwedd, is home to a colony of lesser horseshoe bats. This walk begins with a stretch of the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal and takes you along the former route of the high-level tramway.
 
Notes No details available.
Acknowledgements

Route devised by Fiona Barltrop for Walk Magazine.

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