Cardiff to Machen on Cambrian Way: Day 1

The Cambrian Way is a long distance walking route that crosses Wales from Cardiff in the south to Conwy in the north, trying hard to climb all the major mountains of the principality. Conceived in 1968 and promoted by a rambler called Tony Drake until his death in 2012, it was opposed by various interest groups. Helped by a legacy left by Tony Drake, a trust was set up to develop the route. Some success has been achieved and the Cambrian Way has now been waymarked with the help of the Ramblers Association, although a guidebook or GPS loaded with the track is essential to find your way. At 479 kilometres long it should take me about 21 days to walk, which I plan to cover in sections. As I live in Cardiff I thought I would do the first stage from home, as the lockdown from Coronavirus is just beginning to be lifted. Starting point for the Cambrian Way is Cardiff Castle, the route then follows the River Taff up to Castell Coch, before continuing along a ridge through woodland and a few fields to the village of Machan.

Cardiff Castle, has Roman and Norman foundations, however much of what you see is a Victorian Neo Gothic fantasy created by the 3rd Marquess of Bute, one of the richest men in the world at the time, his money gained from the volumes of coal passing through Cardiff docks. The internal wall decoration, with its colourful pictures of fantastical animals and swirling vegetation attracted my admiration as a young child. As I started off along the walls of the castle, stone beasts with glass eyes looked down on me, and not always in a friendly way.

Animal on the wall of Cardiff Castle

Turning off the main road, I followed the trail beside the River Taff, whose now clear waters flow through a band of green that runs out from the centre of Cardiff to its outskirts, avoiding the need to pound the city streets. Bute park lies at the start of that recreational corridor, with trees, now with young leaves freshly green with the spring, and a few flower beds. There are three cafes on this stretch and the good news was that the Summerhouse Cafe was now open for takeaway service. Suitably refreshed by a morning latte and chocolate muffin I headed on, the trees blowing in a cool wind creating dancing patches of sunlight on the path. An avenue of lime trees beside the river after Blackweir suspension bridge I thought particularly attractive. On reaching Western Avenue, on which my mother recalled the sound of antiaircraft guns firing during the Second World War, I crossed to the other side of the river, where the Cambrian Way almost, but not quite, takes you to Llandaff Cathedral, an edifice dating from the 12th century. I walked the extra few steps to view it. Damaged by bombing in the war, instead of reconstructing it as it was before, the nave of the cathedral has a modern Epstein statue of Christ on a concrete arch. Whatever your opinion of its beauty, the juxtaposition of old and modern is certainly dramatic.

After recrossing the Taff, the Melingriffith Water Pump was my next historical sight, this time an industrial one from 1800 when it pumped water from a lower stream into the now abandoned Glamorganshire Canal. A beam pump lifting the water was driven by a waterwheel driven by the lower stream, an unusual and energy efficient combination. Shortly after I followed the old towpath of a section of the canal that has not been built over. My mother remembered horses pulling barges along this canal in the 1940s, but now the still, dark water supports mallards, lilies, yellow flag iris and half hidden among the reeds, I spotted a hunched up heron. Above the rotting remains of a lock, I climbed up a bank and crossed under the massive interchange where the M4 motorway intersects with the A470 dual carriageway as it heads up into the Welsh Valleys.

Tongwynlais is not quite a village, more part of the urban landscape that sprawls up the Taff from Cardiff, hemmed in by the steep sides of the valley, it did however have an open shop where I could buy a sandwich, which I took with me to Castell Coch for my lunch. Although on ancient foundations, the castle you see, with its spiky roofed towers, is another medieval fantasy created for the 3rd Marquess of Bute, no doubt inspired by romantic tales of ancient times by the likes of Walter Scott in Ivanhoe. It may be familiar to you from various films in which it formed a backdrop. 

After Castell Coch I climbed steeply up through trees to the ridge that runs behind Cardiff, the southern edge of the geological basin that contains the South Wales coalfield, the cause of the ares prosperity in days gone by. I followed the route along the ridge, with a few ups and downs, until it dropped down to Machan, much of it on a dirt track, but with some woodland paths. This section of the route was through forests of beech, the earth carpeted with the white flowers and distinctive smell of wild garlic. A few clusters of late bluebells drooped their heads. Once this was a busy industrial area. Beside the trail are the remains of two iron ore mines. Exploitation of iron, limestone and coal in the area dates from the 16th century, creating various quarries and excavations. Three Bears Caves is one such mine working, on the left of the trail, the three tunnels visible gives this working its name. Nearby, tree stumps have been turned into sculptures of strange creatures.

Sculpture in the woods, is there a story behind it or should you make one up?

Later, I left the trees for a while, crossing pasture by sheep munching the grass, calves lying down together, and hawthorns in white blossom. An old limestone quarry on the right, overgrown with brambles, was where I collected crystals of calcite as a teenager. On my left I looked down on the town of Caerphilly with its large Norman Castle. As I approached the Maenllwyd Inn through the next stretch of woodland, I thought of the nearby secret underground bunker of the "Auxiliary Units", that would be left behind to continue the war if Hitler had invaded Britain. I did not visit it today, as I had a rendezvous for a lift back home. The final woodland, reached by a narrow lane from by the Maenllwyd, had numerous tracks and trails, and I was glad of my GPS as I followed a gravel track down to the village of Machen and the end of my first day walking the Cambrian Way. Walking further sections will have to wait until the restrictions of the coronavirus lockdown are lifted and we are again able to travel freely.

Cambrian Way waymark, apparently it is a traditional Welsh hat, I though it was a triangulation column!