From Valleys to Mountains 2013
A collection of visits to several sites in South Wales, spanning about half a year.
Looking over Taff Vale from Cefn Eglwysilan. On the left is Pontypridd, in the middle is Ynysybwl, and on the right is Abercynon, with the snow-capped Brecon Beacons behind it. The ridges range from about 300 metres on the left, to 500 metres on the right.
The flanks of Cefn Eglwysilan (382 metres), looking into the Taff Vale.
Approaching heavy rain. This would hit us and remain for the rest of the walk, requiring a second visit to get several of the pictures. Try to work out which is which.
View over the lowlands that interrupt the middle of the South Wales Valleys. The left-most valley is the Cynon, followed by the Taff. To the right of those are the towns of Nelson, Treharris and Trelewis, at the mouth of the shallow Cwm Bargoed (or Cwm Bargod), the valley carrying the river Bargoed Taf (or Bargog Taf). On the right are the towns in the Blackwood area. At the right edge of the picture is the top of Mynydd Eglwysilan (355 metres).
Distant view of the Brecon Beacons. On the left is the Black Mountain range. Behind the closer ridge are the mountains of the Fforest Fawr range. on the right are the main Brecon Beacons range.
Rain pouring onto Craig-yr-efail (346 metres).
Blackening the hillsides around the Taff Vale.
The hillsides surrounding Senghenydd. On the right are Cefn Eglwysilan and Mynydd Meio (322 metres). In the distance to their left are Craig yr Allt (273 metres) and the rumbling Caerphilly Common (271 metres). After those is the 344 metre Waun Deiliaid ridge of Mynydd Eglwysilan, with the obvious Llambradach Tip on its left. After that are the cluster of Mynydd y Grug (370 metres), Mynydd Machen (362 metres), Mynydd y Lan (381 metres) and Twmbarlwm (419 metres).
Someone had been trying and failing to dig new tracks here. The sudden difference in depth would be enough to drown most offroad vehicles. Maybe it is intended to function like a tank trap.
Approaching the tips, with the characteristic three cones (three pyramids?) on the right.
Large enough to be hills in their own right.
Tipped tip fence.
We had grown up beneath tips, they had been our playground for many years. I don't recommend walking up them though. The tops are covered in tracks from motocross bikes.
Llambradach Tip. Even when seen this way, it is hard to get a sense of scale. These tips are immense, running for 670 metres across the hillside, some 40 metres or more high. Imagine the cavities that must have been created underground to allow for all this spoil, and don't forget that this is just the stuff they threw away, not the stuff they were actually mining.
Hengoed Viaduct at Ystrad Mynach near Blackwood, with the Wheel o Drams (circle of tram trucks) sculpture at one end.
Industrial remains at Senghenydd. It's customary to mention that Senghenydd suffered a coal mining disaster in 1913, where an explosion in the mine killed 439 colliers, about half of the total number in the mine, making it the worst in British history.
Just upstream along the Taff Vale is the Pont y Gwaith nature reserve. The Taff Trail runs along here, using one of the most monumental dismantled railway lines. These sleeper stones once carried the World's first steam railway locomotive, created by Richard Trevithick in 1804.
Little more than a few stones with holes in, just like the ones used by the gravity powered trams that took quarry trucks up and down the hillsides. But these ones changed the World, marking the first use of steam trains, and revolutionising global transport.
Sleeper stones.
A points junction in the sleeper stones.
Pont-y-gwaith, a ridiculously hump-backed bridge to nowhere, built in 1811 to provide access to the old ironworks that used to be here.
The immense ruin of the Cyfarthfa Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil.
Chimney at one of the old furnace sites.
Passageway to a furnace base.
Passageways between the furnaces.
Alabaster-covered passageway carrying groundwater through the ironworks.
Water-filled hole to catch out the unwary explorers.
Tall passageway behind the furnaces.
Pont y Cafnau, the World's oldest surviving iron railway bridge, dating from 1793. Beneath the railway line is a metal trough that carried water supplied by a leat running from a weir some distance up the river; an aquaduct as well as a viaduct.
The rails, held in rail fasteners by wooden blocks. The rails carried narrow-gauge trams with simple, flat wheels, and the rails therefore have a large lip to keep the wheels in place.
A short distance away is the Brecon Mountain Railway, which is neither in Brecon, nor does it approach any mountains. Despite being a steam engine, the Graf Schwerin-Löwitz is not a coal fired engine; it burns oil. As a result, it smells too clean, and not at all like a proper steam engine. It may as well just power the wheels in the same way as a regular diesel engine. But it looks the part.
Heading along the Taf Fechan valley, towards Corn Du (873 metres), Pen y Fan (886 metres), Cribyn (795 metres), Fan y Bîg (719 metres), Gwaun Cerrig Llwydion (754 metres) and Waun Rydd (769 metres).
Cribyn. Always worth a second picture.
Arriving at Pontsticill Station. Although the train goes past here, there are no further stations. At some point they hope to continue up to the mountain pass at Torpantau, but the Torpantau tunnel (once the highest railway tunnel on Britain's standard guage railway) is unlikely to make it back into the route.
Remains of a steam powered traction engine, the precursor to tractors.
View of the Brecon Beacons over Pontsticill Reservoir.
Reservoir outflow.
Sgwd Henrhyd, the tallest single drop waterfall in South Wales at 27 metres, located in the village of Coelbren. It is also the tallest single drop waterfall in Wales that you can walk behind.
Just upstream is a small cascade at the site of the old ford, which gives the waterfall its name.
Further upstream, the map shows more, near to this old railway embankment.
River bridge under the embankment.
Just downstream is this cascade. Nice but not really worth going out of your way for.
Crags on Cribarth (426 metres).
Cwm Tawe, just inside the Brecon Beacons National Park. The dinosaurs are some of Wales' largest native species, particularly the brachiosaur. They roam freely around the Dan-yr-Ogof wildlife park.
On a less comical note, the dimetrodon, on the other hand, is not a dinosaur at all. It is one of the earliest synapsids, the animals that would later give rise to mammals, and eventually humans. Although beginning from the same family as reptiles, they would progress to developing fur, homeothermy (warm-blooded-ness), sweat and mammary glands.
Dan-yr-Ogof is the site of the only showcaves in Wales, but when they are of this quality, there is no need for more. The passages are typically shaped like this, with obvious phreatic ledges.
Just about everything has been given a name. This is a showcave after all. This is The Frozen Waterfall.
The Alabaster Pillar.
It looks better from the other side.
The Flitch of Bacon, basically a small curtain formation, with a backlight shining through the crystals. The bands are created by the layers of dissolved minerals that are deposited in series as the formation grows downwards. Annoyingly, the showcave operators have now chosen to cage in all of the formations to protect them from damage.
Grotto with flowstone.
The Dagger and the Pillar of Salt (Lot's Wife).
The Angel hiding behind it. Don't blink. Don't even blink!
The Nuns.
Cauldron Chamber, the largest part of Dan-yr-Ogof's showcave, complete with artificial waterfalls, created using pumps to lift the water.
The large and impressive curtain in the ceiling looks best when backlit.
Bridge Chamber, where cavers continue under the bridge, and onwards into the powerful riverways.
Out and up past a recreation Iron Age village.
And into what is more correctly known as Tunnel Cave, but the showcave site call Cathedral Cave. This begins with the cave painting exhibit and burial scene.
The passage here is much grander than Dan-yr-Ogof's. This part is called The Straws after the formations in the ceiling. To cavers, this section of large passage is known as Davy Price's Hall.
The superb following section of Davy Price's Hall is just referred to as The Passage by the showcave owners. Inspired!
End of The Passage, where the fluting effect on the left wall is called The Organ Pipes.
The immense final chamber of Davy Price's Hall, the Dome of Saint Pauls. The waterfalls again are artificial, and used to also be decorated with fake cavers climbing ladders.
Beyond here, it becomes Tunnel Cave again. The passageways lead steeply upwards, with a final vertical ascent to an entrance on the mountain above. Caving visits are made from top to bottom.
A further climb up through the wildlife earns a view over the Tawe Valley, with Fan Gyhirych (725 metres) on the left, and the hillside containing the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave system on the opposite side of the valley.
Dry gorge above the caves.
At the foot of the gorge is Ogof-yr-esgyrn (Bone Cave in English), where human artifacts and numerous bones from several types of prehistoric animals have been found. The first display here is the caveman family preparing food, and leaving the bones behind.
The second display is a simulated archaeological dig, several of which have taken place in this cave. For cavers, there is also another entrance here.
A collection of artificial bones marks the end of the showcave.
A little further up the valley are the conjoined Fan Hir (761 metres) and Fan Brycheiniog (802 metres), part of the Black Mountain collectively known as Bannau Brycheiniog.
The escarpment continues past the county line, and the name accordingly changes to Bannau Sir Gaer.
Heading up the Sawddle valley to Bannau Sir Gaer.
The Bannau Sir Gaer ridge, seen over the Llyn y Fan Fach lake. If the colours look terrible (they do) and the images blurry, that's because they were taken from a useless phone camera, because I had stupidly forgotten my proper one. The images were so badly distorted, I gave up manually stitching, and used a panorama program to stitch it for me, correcting some mistakes afterwards. Not proud of the picture, but the view itself is stupendous. On the left is Fan Brycheiniog, followed by Picws Du (749 metres), its Cwar-du-mawr and Cwar-du-bach buttresses, and Waun Lefrith (677 metres).
The 240 metre scarp of Picws Du.
Opportunist sheep taking some much needed salt from a grit bin in Blaen Senni. So that's why we're always running low in winter, eh?
Maen Llia, a 3.7 metre high Bronze age standing stone, in front of Fan Llia (632 metres).
Light and stormy skies over Fan Llia's Fan Dringarth ridge (617 metres).
Looking over Taff Vale from Cefn Eglwysilan. On the left is Pontypridd, in the middle is Ynysybwl, and on the right is Abercynon, with the snow-capped Brecon Beacons behind it. The ridges range from about 300 metres on the left, to 500 metres on the right.
The flanks of Cefn Eglwysilan (382 metres), looking into the Taff Vale.
Approaching heavy rain. This would hit us and remain for the rest of the walk, requiring a second visit to get several of the pictures. Try to work out which is which.
View over the lowlands that interrupt the middle of the South Wales Valleys. The left-most valley is the Cynon, followed by the Taff. To the right of those are the towns of Nelson, Treharris and Trelewis, at the mouth of the shallow Cwm Bargoed (or Cwm Bargod), the valley carrying the river Bargoed Taf (or Bargog Taf). On the right are the towns in the Blackwood area. At the right edge of the picture is the top of Mynydd Eglwysilan (355 metres).
Distant view of the Brecon Beacons. On the left is the Black Mountain range. Behind the closer ridge are the mountains of the Fforest Fawr range. on the right are the main Brecon Beacons range.
Rain pouring onto Craig-yr-efail (346 metres).
Blackening the hillsides around the Taff Vale.
The hillsides surrounding Senghenydd. On the right are Cefn Eglwysilan and Mynydd Meio (322 metres). In the distance to their left are Craig yr Allt (273 metres) and the rumbling Caerphilly Common (271 metres). After those is the 344 metre Waun Deiliaid ridge of Mynydd Eglwysilan, with the obvious Llambradach Tip on its left. After that are the cluster of Mynydd y Grug (370 metres), Mynydd Machen (362 metres), Mynydd y Lan (381 metres) and Twmbarlwm (419 metres).
Someone had been trying and failing to dig new tracks here. The sudden difference in depth would be enough to drown most offroad vehicles. Maybe it is intended to function like a tank trap.
Approaching the tips, with the characteristic three cones (three pyramids?) on the right.
Large enough to be hills in their own right.
Tipped tip fence.
We had grown up beneath tips, they had been our playground for many years. I don't recommend walking up them though. The tops are covered in tracks from motocross bikes.
Llambradach Tip. Even when seen this way, it is hard to get a sense of scale. These tips are immense, running for 670 metres across the hillside, some 40 metres or more high. Imagine the cavities that must have been created underground to allow for all this spoil, and don't forget that this is just the stuff they threw away, not the stuff they were actually mining.
Hengoed Viaduct at Ystrad Mynach near Blackwood, with the Wheel o Drams (circle of tram trucks) sculpture at one end.
Industrial remains at Senghenydd. It's customary to mention that Senghenydd suffered a coal mining disaster in 1913, where an explosion in the mine killed 439 colliers, about half of the total number in the mine, making it the worst in British history.
Just upstream along the Taff Vale is the Pont y Gwaith nature reserve. The Taff Trail runs along here, using one of the most monumental dismantled railway lines. These sleeper stones once carried the World's first steam railway locomotive, created by Richard Trevithick in 1804.
Little more than a few stones with holes in, just like the ones used by the gravity powered trams that took quarry trucks up and down the hillsides. But these ones changed the World, marking the first use of steam trains, and revolutionising global transport.
Sleeper stones.
A points junction in the sleeper stones.
Pont-y-gwaith, a ridiculously hump-backed bridge to nowhere, built in 1811 to provide access to the old ironworks that used to be here.
The immense ruin of the Cyfarthfa Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil.
Chimney at one of the old furnace sites.
Passageway to a furnace base.
Passageways between the furnaces.
Alabaster-covered passageway carrying groundwater through the ironworks.
Water-filled hole to catch out the unwary explorers.
Tall passageway behind the furnaces.
Pont y Cafnau, the World's oldest surviving iron railway bridge, dating from 1793. Beneath the railway line is a metal trough that carried water supplied by a leat running from a weir some distance up the river; an aquaduct as well as a viaduct.
The rails, held in rail fasteners by wooden blocks. The rails carried narrow-gauge trams with simple, flat wheels, and the rails therefore have a large lip to keep the wheels in place.
A short distance away is the Brecon Mountain Railway, which is neither in Brecon, nor does it approach any mountains. Despite being a steam engine, the Graf Schwerin-Löwitz is not a coal fired engine; it burns oil. As a result, it smells too clean, and not at all like a proper steam engine. It may as well just power the wheels in the same way as a regular diesel engine. But it looks the part.
Heading along the Taf Fechan valley, towards Corn Du (873 metres), Pen y Fan (886 metres), Cribyn (795 metres), Fan y Bîg (719 metres), Gwaun Cerrig Llwydion (754 metres) and Waun Rydd (769 metres).
Cribyn. Always worth a second picture.
Arriving at Pontsticill Station. Although the train goes past here, there are no further stations. At some point they hope to continue up to the mountain pass at Torpantau, but the Torpantau tunnel (once the highest railway tunnel on Britain's standard guage railway) is unlikely to make it back into the route.
Remains of a steam powered traction engine, the precursor to tractors.
View of the Brecon Beacons over Pontsticill Reservoir.
Reservoir outflow.
Sgwd Henrhyd, the tallest single drop waterfall in South Wales at 27 metres, located in the village of Coelbren. It is also the tallest single drop waterfall in Wales that you can walk behind.
Just upstream is a small cascade at the site of the old ford, which gives the waterfall its name.
Further upstream, the map shows more, near to this old railway embankment.
River bridge under the embankment.
Just downstream is this cascade. Nice but not really worth going out of your way for.
Crags on Cribarth (426 metres).
Cwm Tawe, just inside the Brecon Beacons National Park. The dinosaurs are some of Wales' largest native species, particularly the brachiosaur. They roam freely around the Dan-yr-Ogof wildlife park.
On a less comical note, the dimetrodon, on the other hand, is not a dinosaur at all. It is one of the earliest synapsids, the animals that would later give rise to mammals, and eventually humans. Although beginning from the same family as reptiles, they would progress to developing fur, homeothermy (warm-blooded-ness), sweat and mammary glands.
Dan-yr-Ogof is the site of the only showcaves in Wales, but when they are of this quality, there is no need for more. The passages are typically shaped like this, with obvious phreatic ledges.
Just about everything has been given a name. This is a showcave after all. This is The Frozen Waterfall.
The Alabaster Pillar.
It looks better from the other side.
The Flitch of Bacon, basically a small curtain formation, with a backlight shining through the crystals. The bands are created by the layers of dissolved minerals that are deposited in series as the formation grows downwards. Annoyingly, the showcave operators have now chosen to cage in all of the formations to protect them from damage.
Grotto with flowstone.
The Dagger and the Pillar of Salt (Lot's Wife).
The Angel hiding behind it. Don't blink. Don't even blink!
The Nuns.
Cauldron Chamber, the largest part of Dan-yr-Ogof's showcave, complete with artificial waterfalls, created using pumps to lift the water.
The large and impressive curtain in the ceiling looks best when backlit.
Bridge Chamber, where cavers continue under the bridge, and onwards into the powerful riverways.
Out and up past a recreation Iron Age village.
And into what is more correctly known as Tunnel Cave, but the showcave site call Cathedral Cave. This begins with the cave painting exhibit and burial scene.
The passage here is much grander than Dan-yr-Ogof's. This part is called The Straws after the formations in the ceiling. To cavers, this section of large passage is known as Davy Price's Hall.
The superb following section of Davy Price's Hall is just referred to as The Passage by the showcave owners. Inspired!
End of The Passage, where the fluting effect on the left wall is called The Organ Pipes.
The immense final chamber of Davy Price's Hall, the Dome of Saint Pauls. The waterfalls again are artificial, and used to also be decorated with fake cavers climbing ladders.
Beyond here, it becomes Tunnel Cave again. The passageways lead steeply upwards, with a final vertical ascent to an entrance on the mountain above. Caving visits are made from top to bottom.
A further climb up through the wildlife earns a view over the Tawe Valley, with Fan Gyhirych (725 metres) on the left, and the hillside containing the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave system on the opposite side of the valley.
Dry gorge above the caves.
At the foot of the gorge is Ogof-yr-esgyrn (Bone Cave in English), where human artifacts and numerous bones from several types of prehistoric animals have been found. The first display here is the caveman family preparing food, and leaving the bones behind.
The second display is a simulated archaeological dig, several of which have taken place in this cave. For cavers, there is also another entrance here.
A collection of artificial bones marks the end of the showcave.
A little further up the valley are the conjoined Fan Hir (761 metres) and Fan Brycheiniog (802 metres), part of the Black Mountain collectively known as Bannau Brycheiniog.
The escarpment continues past the county line, and the name accordingly changes to Bannau Sir Gaer.
Heading up the Sawddle valley to Bannau Sir Gaer.
The Bannau Sir Gaer ridge, seen over the Llyn y Fan Fach lake. If the colours look terrible (they do) and the images blurry, that's because they were taken from a useless phone camera, because I had stupidly forgotten my proper one. The images were so badly distorted, I gave up manually stitching, and used a panorama program to stitch it for me, correcting some mistakes afterwards. Not proud of the picture, but the view itself is stupendous. On the left is Fan Brycheiniog, followed by Picws Du (749 metres), its Cwar-du-mawr and Cwar-du-bach buttresses, and Waun Lefrith (677 metres).
The 240 metre scarp of Picws Du.
Opportunist sheep taking some much needed salt from a grit bin in Blaen Senni. So that's why we're always running low in winter, eh?
Maen Llia, a 3.7 metre high Bronze age standing stone, in front of Fan Llia (632 metres).
Light and stormy skies over Fan Llia's Fan Dringarth ridge (617 metres).