As I walked out of Crosskeys I again noticed the greeny browny grey sandstone used in buildings in South Wales, not as beautiful as the honey coloured stone of the Cotswolds or Bath but characteristic of Victorian and Edwardian building in the area. Also typical are the well tended municipal parks in each town with facilities for sporting activities, such as the park I walked through now. They show some thought was given to the happiness and welfare of those that at one time worked down the coal mines and in other industry in the Welsh valleys.
I followed a combination of a small road, bridlepaths and footpaths up the steep side of the valley. The transition from town to countryside is very sudden. Soon I reached the ridge where I left off the previous day beside an old slag heap (consisting of the unwanted rock dug out with the coal from the mines) now grassed over in the many years since mining ended in the valleys. After heading west along the ridge the path drops through woodland. I am not quite sure I followed the correct route around the Ynys-Hywel activity centre (a place with rubber tyres and things for people to climb over), the waymarking rather lapses in places, however, it was an enjoyable route all the same with little bridges made out of railway sleepers across little streams.
After following the west side of the valley for a while I reached the Candle Workshop and water mill at Gelligroes, the former with some very strange looking candles. On previous trips I have joined the Sirhowy Valley walk at this point, following National Cycle route 47 from Hengoed railway station, a route that takes you over the impressive Hengoed viaduct.
The trail then passes various industrial units, through a car sales area and past houses, but as I was getting hungry I diverted to Blackwood Town Centre, a place more pleasant than it sounds, and had a coffee and blueberry cake in a second hand (or pre-loved as they say these days) furniture and charity(?) shop with a defective till. On rejoining the trail beside the gurgling river among the trees and yellow celandines, it was difficult to believe that a busy high street and retail park was only a few hundred metres away.
Eventually the trail starts climbing up the east side of the valley. While daydreaming I missed a turning but after following a section of abandoned and overgrown railway line through trees I was easily able to rejoin the Sirhowy Valley walk, aided by a man with a collie pointing out where I should be going for a lovely path. The path then heads uphill along a road and then across fields skirting the village of Manmoel. After Manmoel there are two options, an east and west route that rejoin a few kilometres later. I chose the easterly route which soon climbed onto Manmoel common. The old slag heap here is now difficult to detect below the grass, only in places where bikes have worn away the grass is the grey black waste rock visible. The views from the common are extensive, reaching the Brecon Beacons to North West. At this time of year, the trees are without leaves, so their silhouettes were showing the intricate pattern of branches against the yellow grassland. Skylarks were singing overhead as I continued to the aerial at the end of the ridge.
From the aerial it was downhill and onto a small road through trees until I reached the Aneurin Bevan Memorial stones, Nye Bevan was a local MP who as Health Minster after the Second World War founded the National Health Service, although this is surprisingly not referred to at the memorial, which is perhaps more suited to an archaeologist than a progressive politician. There is also a small stone dedicated to local people who fought in the Spanish Civil War against the Franco.
I then headed for Ebbw Vale town via a path, very muddy in places. The railway station has only recently opened, or rather reopened, the previous station was closed in 1962 with the Beeching cuts, but the Ebbw Vale line reopened for passenger traffic in 2008. More recently it was extended to the town of Ebbw Vale. Unfortunately they have yet to erect any signposts telling you how to get to it and none of the roads go directly from the town to the station. The road layout is confusing to say the least. After a few false starts I eventually reached the station and looking back I realised there was a funicular, beside a modern college building, which took you from the bottom of the valley to the town and vice versa making the trip from town centre to the station very short indeed. I wandered around the town while waiting for the train and admired the stainless steel dragon on the high street. The man sitting beneath was not so impressed and pointed out it was a Chinese dragon and not a Welsh dragon. Ebbw Vale was once a steel producer and as the the remaining Welsh steel producers are being driven out of business by cheap Chinese steel it seemed fitting that a Chinese dragon was raising its head in Ebbw Vale High Street.
The route I took was 35 kilometres long, with a cumulative ascent of 857 metres. As this is quite long it can be conveniently shortened by starting at Hengoed Train station and following Cycle route 47 to the trail. A gpx file of my trip can be found on wikiloc.com. A version of the route can be downloaded onto a phone from ViewRanger.
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