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