Starting at Dinas Powys the trail goes around the edge of the neatly groomed golf course before heading off down through woodland. Brown waymarks with a picture of a leaping salmon show the way, but you have to look for them. The section that follows, through the trees and up a small valley, is to me the most beautiful part of the walk. In spring the ground below the beech trees is full of wild flowers, and now as we walk along in the declining months of the year the leaves are all gold and russet in the November sun.
After a kissing gate there is a path with steps up to the right. This diversion takes you up a short but steep climb to an iron age hill fort. There is little to see apart from a few banks of earth; you have to imagine it without the trees when it would have a commanded an outstanding view to the north.
Continuing along the trail in the valley takes you out of the woods and across fields to a single track road. Turning off the road to the left a path follows the valley of the Wrinstone brook. There are a series of pools and small weirs on the brook up which salmon are said to leap at the appropriate time of year. A couple of men were cooking lunch on a portable stove when we passed (a bargain, they assured us, from Lidl). The path then plunges into woods, narrow in places eventually coming to a field and then a lane. At this point the trail turns back on itself returning along a lane over a hill. Look out for the almost invisible remains of a lime kiln on the left as you descend the hill.
The trail is a "figure of eight" and crosses itself along a single track road, before the returning leg turns into a field, full of sheep when we walked through today. It follows the Cadoxton river back to Dinas Powys. Today this section of path was pretty muddy in places, although the dogs enjoyed it. Having completed the loop we celebrated out achievement with excellent ciabattas, lattes and raspberry & chocolate cake at the Wild Blackberry delicatessen by the village green (it being a bit early for a drink at the Three Horseshoes).
There is a leaflet on the trial if you click here. It is about 8 kilometres or 5 miles long, a little longer if you visit the hill fort. As the trail forms a figure of eight you can shorten it to 3 miles, although this misses out the Salmon leaps. A gps file of the trail can be found on wikiloc.com, and on ViewRanger as johnpon0026.
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| The walk in May |
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| Walking in November |
