Cardiff in Covid lockdown: following the boundaries: Day 4

A few weeks ago my home city of Cardiff was put into lockdown and nobody was allowed to leave unless they had a very good reason. Not knowing exactly where the limits of this open prison were I decided to walk around the boundaries of the city, giving one day a week to the exercise, but before I finished my project the rules had changed again. Wales is now in a "Firebreak" or "Circuit Break". There is no limit on the amount exercise I can take, and hence the distance I can walk, so long as I do not use a car or public transport, so I can now in theory leave Cardiff provided I walk from my house. At least that is my understanding, keeping up with the ever-changing rules is difficult, especially as they differ from those in England, and I suspect many people do not bother. As I had walked three quarters of the way around the city, keeping within the Cardiff County boundary, I thought I might as well finish.

So I returned to Cardiff Gate service area by the M4 on a day of intermittent showers and sunshine, and continued east. This lead into another new housing development before I joined a more established neighbourhood. While it was urban walking the changing colours of trees, from green to yellow and red, were attractive in the periodic patches of sunlight. Cardiff Garden Centre, with its giant spade standing outside, was closed, no doubt owing to the  Welsh "Firebreak", although lights had been left on inside. Beyond it was another new housing development. One observation from my walk around Cardiff has been the large number of new houses being built, invariably without any sign of any new shops or other facilities. I then turned down a quiet lane through the St Mellons Golf course. There are a surprising number of golf courses around Cardiff, although it is not a pastime I have ever been attracted to, no doubt because whenever I have tried to hit a golf ball, it seemed to go in a direction contrary to the one I intended. St Mellons Golf course did not seem too welcoming, especially to dog walkers.

New housing beside the Rhymney River

St Mellons Golf Club

Shaded, sunken Vaendre Close which passes through the golf course

After St Mellon's Business Park, with its roads named after old programming languages, I tried to cross fields on a public footpath marked on my OS map. There was no footpath sign and no way across a water filled ditch in the second field I entered. Later I tried to find the path from the opposite direction, but the presence of a wider water filled ditch (called Faendre Reen on the map) prevented this too. Evidently the "right of way" was no longer in existence. The "reens" in the area are channels that are part of the field drainage system for this flat plain beside the River Severn, that date back to Roman times.

I had more success after walking along the street at Hendre Lake Park, which I never knew existed before today. As the name suggests there is a lake with ducks, swans and fishermen beneath their green canopies. I followed the path around it then a leafy track beside a reed lined drainage canal (called Pil du Reen) south of some housing. After a children's play area I followed rougher paths, where brambles had been cut down, to reach a path that took me across the railway into an industrial area. The railway is the main line in and out of South Wales with four tracks, that has recently been electrified, although I have yet to see any electric trains.

Hendre Lake

I followed the coast road towards Newport, until I saw a sign welcoming me to the city of Newport, although it was actually several kilometres away across fields, this is where the county borough of Newport began. Not wishing to cross the boundary out of Cardiff, I turned right onto a footpath over fields, with some just about passable wooden footbridges across ditches. Reaching the embankment that protects the area from flooding I followed it beside the River Severn estuary towards Cardiff on what was now the Wales Coast Path.

Cow beside the Severn estuary

To reach the starting point of my circumnavigation at Cardiff Bay, I could have followed the Wales Coast Path along its original route, close to the sea, around the steel works and other industrial areas. However, although I found the original route still passable, the Coast Path has been diverted through a park and the streets of Tremorfa. Following this diversion I rejoined the original Wales Coast Path route by a large roundabout and then followed it down the remnants of a canal to an old dock with moern apartments and cormorants sitting on old wooden posts. Shortly beyond was Cardiff Bay and its railway station.

As people in Wales are currently not allowed to use public (or any other) transport unless essential I walked back home, diverting through the City Centre to see the impact of the lockdown. All the shops and shopping centres were closed, but the banks and some of the coffee shops were open, the latter just for takeaways. I bought a latte and sandwich which I ate in the pedestrianised area by St Johns church. There were more people about than during the lockdown in April, a couple of Deliveroo cyclists were cycling around in circles, maybe waiting for the next order.

Between University and Welsh Government buildings there was a new tented walk-in Coronavirus testing centre. There were plenty of students around. Social distancing was not that evident as they walked by in groups.

For a gpx track of my route visit wikiloc.com.

Cardiff in Covid lockdown: following the boundaries: Day 3

As I write this my home city of Cardiff is in lockdown. We are not allowed to leave unless it is essential for fear of spreading the Coronavirus. Not knowing exactly where the boundaries of the city were, I decided to walk them. This is my third day of my circumnavigation.

I returned to the village suburb of Tongwynlais which I reached on my previous hike, and continued my trip around the boundaries of this lockdown prison, by walking up to Castell Coch. A Victorian extravaganza built over the remains of a Norman castle on a wooded hillside, it was closed today but open for pre-booked people, later in the week. The forest above the castle is a popular areas for walkers and their dogs. I climbed up the steep path to the ridge meeting the Cardiff County boundary. Possibly I crossed briefly into Caerphilly County Borough by an old quarry called the Slide pit, but it was debatable. I followed the track through the trees, passing two ladies in orange clad jackets who were doing some forestry work, and a couples out walking. After the Three Bears Pit, an old fenced off mine with three tunnels guarded by a wooden sculpture of a mother bear and cub, there was a collection of figures, sculptured out of old tree stumps. The Cardiff boundary ran across the golf course just to the north of me. Cardiff's outer boundary often seems arbitrary, maybe once it followed the line separating different farms but now it frequently seems to make little sense. After a short road walk I climbed behind a quarry on a track. Careful perusal of my map suggested that if continued I would inevitably cross into Caerphilly, there being no footpath off to the right. A cyclist passed me, apparently unaware that he was breaking the law by leaving Cardiff, but I retraced my steps and took a zig-zag route down a path, around a fallen tree and across a stream into the Wenallt woods. From there it was up the valley through fields, eventually reaching the road junction at the Traveller's Rest pub. 

Sculpture in the forest above Castell Coch

As the pub is in Caerphilly I had to be careful where I crossed the road to avoid also breaking the law. Once over I walked down Thornhill on the roadside as a cyclist puffed slowly up it on the other side of the road. I was looking for a footpath on the left which I had never noticed before, hidden in the trees. Fortunately it proved a good path over fields on the lower slopes of the ridge that rises behind Cardiff, with grey views of Cardiff Bay and Penarth. I then climbed up the ridge to reach the woodland behind Cefn Onn park. In spring it is covered with bluebells, but today any colour was from leaves beginning to turn. Finding a log I stopped to eat the baguette I had bought for my lunch. Then it was back downhill on some steps, to join the farm track by Nant Fawr farm (the start (or end) of the Nant Fawr trail through Cardiff). Then it was uphill again on a a narrow tarmac road to rejoin the County boundary at the top of the ridge. The track here along the top of the ridge through fields and has excellent views down Cardiff, although today the visibility disappointing.

View of Cardiff, with Penarth in the far distance from the ridge

Once more it was yet another downhill into trees to avoid crossing into Caerphilly, then over a field to group of houses called Tai Mawr ("Big Houses"). After walking through an unmarked gate, there was no indication of how of the right of way passed through these houses, and inevitably I went down the wrong driveway to reach a road. Annoyed that I had clearly picked the wrong route, I walked up the road to find the correct way by approaching the houses from the opposite direction along a little used footpath. After an overgrown stile it followed the edge of a field of maize. Reaching the houses I could see that the public footpath must pass between two white houses, over a neatly cut lawn. While I appreciate that people are not too happy about rights of way going through their garden, if the route is clearly waymarked, there will be fewer people wandering about your property wondering where to go.

Looking back at the right of way through Tai-Mawr, it passes between the two white buildings.

I followed the road back towards Cardiff to an old chapel, now converted to a house. A footpath was supposed to go through the old cemetery into fields, but although there was a yellow arrow showing that the path went into the cemetery, there was no way out of it. I was forced to return to the road, passing aa battery of CCTV cameras. On a later footpath I managed to cross fields, and a neatly cut area of grass in front of a large house to arrive at another single lane road. I left this after some houses called Graig-Llyn on a path across some grassy banks marked on the map as a "fort",  an Iron age hill fort maybe? My walk around Cardiff was revealing more archaeological sites that I had expected.

After walking through some stinging nettles I hit the Cefn Porth road which I followed down to the Cardiff North M4 motorway service station. This area of Cardiff is not served by any railway line, although a more enlightened council would build one by the Rhymney river to serve the large number of new houses in this area. Buses do however run from the Cardiff North retail park.

Cardiff North Industrial Park, the trees were are lovely yellow

For a gpx track of my route visit wikiloc.com

Cardiff in Covid lockdown: following the boundaries: Day 2

Due to the rise of the Covid 19 cases in Cardiff, part of the "second wave", residents are not allowed to leave the city, which is also a county, unless essential. That led me to wonder where exactly the boundaries are, so I set out to walk them. My first day of this circumnavigation of Cardiff was from Cardiff Bay to St Fagans, where the boundary roughly followed the edge of the urban area. Today, the boundary went a little AWOL, heading off into the surrounding farmland for no obvious reason to create a bulge into the countryside away from the city.

I returned to St Fagans, stopping for coffee on the way by Fairwater Green. A blanket of drizzle dulled the colours of the landscape, although the autumnal orange of some trees stood out in defiant contrast. The county boundary of Cardiff follows the A4232 dual carriageway, a kilometre west of St Fagans, a busy road on which no pedestrians are allowed. Consequently I followed the nearest footpath, which runs between two parts of the St Fagans museum, before passing mature woodland. A few fallen trees forced a slight deviation, but otherwise it was one of the more attractive parts of my hike today. The footpath then crosses fields where a battle was fought in the English Civil War, when in 1648 Parliamentarians (the Roundheads) under Oliver Cromwell defeated a larger number of Royalists (the Cavaliers). After a diversion along a quiet road it was through more fields edged by mature trees, crossing under an abandoned railway line and over a stream. Curious cows wandered over to have a look at me as I checked the route. I was trying out an Ordnance Survey App called "OS maps" on my phone today for the first time, which allowed me to see my position on an Explorer series map I had bought some time ago. The cows stood around me thoughtfully reviewing what I was up to. Maybe they thought it strange that they were in Cardiff rather than in the more rural county of the Vale of Glamorgan nearby.

Cows checking me out, the one on the right a little camera shy

Sunken single lane road, with ferns below the hedges, typical of the area around Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.

I left the footpath, crossing a stile overgrown with ivy, to follow a single track road that took my under the M4 motorway near its intersection with the A4232. At this intersection the county boundary turns west following the M4 for a kilometre or two before turning north and passing between the villages of Creigiau (in Cardiff) and Groes-faen (in Rhondda Cynon Taf). To keep close to, but not illegally crossing the Cardiff boundary I walked beside the A4119 in a westerly direction from the little church of St Ellteyrn. Although a busy road there was a pavement beside it, although it unhelpfully swopped from one side to another. As on my previous day's boundary walk I encountered a large area of new house building. Given the high price of housing compared with people's salary, building more houses, thereby increasing the supply can only help moderate future house prices, making living more affordable. People are of course concerned about loss of green areas around Cardiff, although this patch of land was not of the greatest scenic or ecological value. However, these modern estates seem to lack facilities like pubs and shops forcing people to use their cars.

I walked up the road by the village of Creigiau, in places hoping that a fast car would not come round the bend as there was no place to jump out of the way, the bank and hedges beside the road being impenetrable and rising steeply. There was a Neolithic burial chamber signposted to the left of the road and I tried to find it. I incorrectly went down a drive and was directed towards a large, and well-manicured lawn but could not work out where it was, the lettering on my map covered too large an area and I did not know exactly what I was looking for. Subsequently checking on the internet, it appears only the stone slabs remain, the mound has gone, and it seems to be against a wall and covered in creepers at grid reference ST07728214. Maybe I will have another go at finding it.

Summit of the Garth

Reaching the Glamorgan Ridgeway path I turned right into Ty'n-y-coed woods, where a muddy track took me by old quarries now lost in the trees dripping with water. Diverting left through a field to keep as close as possible to Cardiff's boundary I walked up to a single track road. Following that up between hedges led me to the footpath that would take me up the Garth. When I was young I was told the Garth was the nearest mountain to Cardiff, being just over a thousand feet at 1007 feet. A bronze age burial mound at the summit is the only reason it exceeds a thousand feet. It was the inspiration for the book and film "The Englishman who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain". Since I was young some have claimed that a mountain is only a mountain if it is over 2000 ft, naturally they are wrong as the Garth has always been a mountain. Today the tumulus and trig point at the summit were enveloped in cloud. Squat black cows watched me as I climbed to the top. At the end of the ridge there is usually a good view down into Cardiff and across the valley of the River Taff, but today it was hidden by cloud. I descended down to the river through the village of Gwaelod y Garth, following it south, downstream passed housing. There were two pedestrian bridges over the river to Taff's Wells, but crossing either one would have taken me into the county of Caerphilly and a potential fine under the Welsh Coronavirus regulations. Instead I crossed at the road bridge and walked into Tongwynlais (a village in Cardiff). Sadly the café there was closed and so, leaving the rest of the Cardiff boundary for another day, I progressed on tarmac paths through the massive M4, A470 interchange, before following the busy Northern Avenue down to Whitchurch Railway station, arriving two minutes before the 16:06 train.

Part of route down the Taff

For a gpx track of my route visit wikiloc.com.

Cardiff in Covid lockdown: following the boundaries: Day 1

Rising numbers of Covid 19 cases has resulted in a local lockdown in Cardiff, with residents not allowed to leave the city except for essential travel. Overhearing a conversation about whether one could visit Marks & Spencer's in the Culverhouse Cross retail park, set me wondering where the boundaries of Cardiff were, important as when out walking, I would not want to accidentally break the law by leaving the area. So I decided to try and walk along some of Cardiff's boundaries to see where they went. 

Cardiff is both a city and it appears a county, as well as a council area. I thought it was part of the county of South Glamorgan but it appears that was abolished in 1996. In my school days Cardiff was part of Glamorgan but that disappeared even earlier. Glancing at the map in the regulations I decided to start my walk at Cardiff Bay, walking from Cardiff Bay railway station across the barrage that has enclosed the bay since 1999. A pleasant walk, the bay on one side and the sea on the other, with water gushing through large gates from the bay to the sea, which today was at low tide. It strikes me as an excellent place to generate some hydroelectric power, capturing some of the energy of the departing water.

Being Cardiff Bay I naturally thought it was in Cardiff. A mistake. On seeing the Penarth Marina sign having crossed the barrage I thought I better look more carefully at my Ordnance Survey map. In fact I had inadvertently left Cardiff and entered the borough county of the Vale of Glamorgan when I crossed the locks in the barrage. I saw no signs to indicate my error, and there were plenty of people enjoying the walk and unbeknown to them risking a fine of £60. A more natural geographical boundary would have been the ancient sea cliffs behind the bay, with the town of Penarth on the top, a natural barrier now covered with trees, behind the marina with its posh modern houses. I crossed the Ely River back into Cardiff at the first opportunity at a pedestrian bridge, here there was indeed a sign warning against anything but essential travel. In my little excursion outside Cardiff it seemed highly improbable that I had become infected by anyone since I had been several metres away from the nearest person, nor likely that I had inadvertently spread the virus should I not know I had it. Most transmission is in homes, work places, care homes, hospitals and the like, not outdoors so why the act of crossing an invisible line should somehow spread Coronavirus, when there are plenty of the above in Cardiff, is a bit beyond me. Nevertheless, as a law abiding citizen I made especially sure to stay within the county line for the rest of the day. At first this was easy as the map showed the county boundary running down the centre of the River Ely, and on the Cardiff side of this river there is the waymarked Ely trail, which I followed through trees, and a park on a former rubbish tip, beside the more urban areas of Cardiff.

Barrage enclosing Cardiff Bay, the County boundary is at the locks (below the pale blue steel work), and not at the tree covered slope beyond.

I saw no signs on the barrage but when I re-crossed into Cardiff, restrictions to essential travel were clearly posted.

My walk along the river ended with a new estate of high density housing built on a "brownfield" site. Google maps unfortunately anticipated the future, suggesting there was a way through the estate, however, at the end of the street I walked along, building work was still in progress, and I had to retrace my steps and walk along a section of the busy Cowbridge Road. After crossing the Ely River beside the road bridge, I turned left back along the river into older housing in an attempt to get close to the boundary again. Spotting on my map where Cardiff's boundary ran proved difficult, I concluded the dashed lines were hidden by the A4232 dual carriageway, a road with no pedestrian access. To get as close as possible I walked into Trelai Park, an area of grass, dog walkers, football and rugby pitches I never before knew existed. There was also a smart, new looking school, in an area that I had previously, and wrongly, thought of as a bit run down.

Following backstreets I was looking for a means of reaching a hillfort marked on my map. Once before I had attempted to find it, but was deterred by the lack of Public Footpath signs. I also found no such signs this time, but with my map at hand in case I should be challenged, with public rights of way clearly marked on it, I first followed a tarmac path through an area of neatly cut grass and when that died, climbed up through woods on a steep path of slithery mud. Reaching the plateau, grassy ramparts and ditches were evidence of the Iron Age Caerau Hillfort. In the centre was the ruins of St Mary's church, which may date back to the 13th century. It appears there are plans to make the site more accessible with a visitors centre and better trails, certainly it deserves to be a better known as a major archaeological site lying just within the boundaries of Cardiff. 

Earthworks of Iron Age Hillfort with ruins of St Mary's church beyond.

Coming down from the hillfort on a mucky vehicle track, it was through the houses again back to Cowbridge road, passed a cemetery and almost to the Culverhouse Cross roundabout, which people were crossing and possibly illegally leaving Cardiff. Instead I turned right down Michaelston Road before returning to a path that ran close to the A4232. Initially I followed a tarmac path, but after that the public footpath marked on the map, that should have returned me to the Michaelston Road shrank to multiple partings in the undergrowth. I suspect I lost wherever the path was meant to go and followed a vague route made by local residents that led down to the River Ely. Pushing through Himalayan balsam plants, following the fence by the railway at times, and passing an old wooden weir gate, I arrived back at the road by the railway crossing at St Fagan's.

Old wooden weir gate.

St Fagan's has a wonderful Folk Museum, currently closed by the Coronavirus pandemic. So I headed back down the Ely Trail, and up through the suburb of Fairwater to its park (the Dingle Dell) which, improbably though it seems, has an artificial ski slope. Shortly after that there was the Fairwater Railway station and the end of today's ramble.

For a gpx track of my route visit wikiloc.com.