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