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Walking in the South Wales Valleys is a handy guidebook to 30 day walks and 2 weekend backpacking routes (the Coed Morgannwg Way and Glamorgan Ridgeway). This compact and easily-accessible area is full of varied walking opportunities in valleys, along ridges and along the beautiful Welsh coast. A turbulent geological history has created a corrugated landscape of ridges and valleys and an equally turbulent history of human settlement has left many historical monuments to explore. Walkers today can therefore follow in the footsteps of Roman soldiers, Celtic saints, Methodists lay preachers and ironminers, often using the ancient trackways, Roman roads and packhorse trails that they trod. It's a landscape of great open views but it's an intimate landscape too, shared with brown hares, foxes and birds of prey, and full of surprises, from hidden chapels to forgotten industrial heritage. This guidebook is illustrated with colour photographs and OS map extracts and packed with geological, historical and practical information.
- Overview map
- Introduction
- Geology and landscape
- Plants and wildlife
- The impact of man
- Industry and religion
- Greening the valleys
- The Welsh language
- Getting to and around South Wales
- What to take
- Maps and waymarking
- Using this guide
1 The Valleys
- Walk 1 Cwm Clydach and the Swansea Canal
- Walk 2 Along the Tawe Valley
- Walk 3 The Cwm Cregan Trail
- Walk 4 The Taff Trail
- Walk 5 Along the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal
- Walk 6 The Usk Valley Walk
2 The Western Ridges
- Walk 7 Mynydd Garn-Fach and the upper Lliw Valley
- Walk 8 The Gnoll, Melincourt Falls and the Neath Canal
- Walk 9 The Coed Morgannwg Way
- Walk 10 Between the Llynfi and Garw
- Walk 11 The Glamorgan Ridgeway
3 The Eastern Ridges
- Walk 12 Over the Bwlch
- Walk 13 The Rhymney Valley Ridgeway
- Walk 14 Above the upper Rhymney
- Walk 15 The Sirhowy Valley
- Walk 16 Mynydd Carn-y-Cefn and the Round Towers
- Walk 17 St Illtyd's and the Guardian of the Valleys
- Walk 18 The Raven Walk
- Walk 19 High Folly and packhorse trails
4 Coast and Vale
- Walk 20 The buried town of Kenfig
- Walk 21 Ewenny Priory and Merthyr Mawr Warren
- Walk 22 Castles around Cowbridge
- Walk 23 The Glamorgan Heritage Coast
- Walk 24 The Border Vale
- Walk 25 Deserted villages and folk museum
5 History and Heritage
- Walk 26 St Illtyd's Walk in upland Gower
- Walk 27 Sarn Helen
- Walk 28 The Trevithick Trail
- Walk 29 The Cistercian Way to the shrine at Penrhys
- Walk 30 Senghenydd Dyke
- Walk 31 Clydach Gorge south
- Walk 32 The Iron Mountain Trail
- Appendix A Route summary table
- Appendix B Useful contacts
Mike Dunn was born and bred in the English Midlands but has now lived in the Vale of Glamorgan for over 25 years. He has worked for the Welsh Assembly Government, specialising in environmental and conservation issues. Mike has written widely on landscape, walking, pubs and real ale. This is his first guidebook for Cicerone.
