a circular walk exploring the heritage of Coelbren
Romans and railways on the southern fringe of Fforest Fawr Geopark
Summary
Geological upheavals 300 million years ago and the march of Roman armies nearly two millennia ago, the efforts of an early industrialist and the ‘railway mania’ of the 1860’s. All of these events left their mark as lines in the landscape around Coelbren. This walk explores those legacies.
Known earlier as Capel Coelbren (the chapel dates from 1799), the village is perched on a broad saddle between the hills of the National Park on the one hand and those of the South Wales Coalfield on the other. An early development was Dickson’s Row (name after a railway contractor) now known as Price’s Row. The Miners Welfare & Memorial Hall was built in 1925. Draining the moorlands and forests of the park, the waters of the Llech hurry west from Coelbren into the Tawe; to the east the Pyrddin’s headwaters tumble towards the Nedd Fechan and the Vale of Neath.
- Distance: 6km / 4 miles (or 5.5 km / 3.5 miles)
- Ascent: 110m / 350ft
- Time: 2 – 2.5 hours
- Map: 1:25,000 scale, OS Explorer OL12 (BBNP western area)
- Start: National Trust car park for Henrhyd Falls (OS grid ref SN 853120) or Coelbren Miners Welfare Hall (OS grid ref SN 851116, postcode SA10 9PN)
Walk description
The trail is described from the National Trust car park at Henrhyd Falls but can be joined at any of several points. If joining from Coelbren Miners Welfare Hall (only 5.5km) then take the path beside the hall to join the walk at point 4.
Navigational text is plain. Interpretive text in italics.
1. Turn right out of the NT car park onto the minor road and cross the bridge over the Nant Llech.
Note how it rushes over sloping beds of the Farewell Rock, a tough sandstone marking the base of the thick sequence of rocks we know as the Coal Measures. Visitors to the falls just downstream see the river pouring over a 27m (90ft) high lip of this rock where the Henrhyd Fault has thrown down the rocks to the southwest. The National Trust acquired the Falls and surrounding farmland between 1947 and 1986. It also cares for the upper reaches of Graig Llech, the gorge through which the Nant Llech flows. The wet conditions in this deep wooded valley allow rare lichens, liverworts and ferns to thrive there.
Ignoring the road off to the right into the village, walk up the short hill to a minor road junction at the top.
2. Turn right through a gate onto the line of the old Brecon Forest Tramroad which marches straight across the boggy ground on an embankment.
Some of the old stones drilled to accept the tramplates can still be seen in places. The tramroad was the creation of Scottish-born industrialist John Christie who bought the Great Forest of Brecknock (Fforest Fawr) from the Crown in 1819. His plans to exploit its mineral wealth and improve the farming estates to the north led him to construct over 20km of tramway between Sennybridge and the upper Swansea Valley. Horses last pulled wagons along it some 160 years ago. Though much of it was obliterated when the mainline railway was built along a similar route, some of the cuttings, embankments, culverts and bridge abutments can still be traced.
3. At the end, turn left through kissing gates up a path beside the children’s playground and behind the Coelbren Miners Welfare Hall.
4. Follow the path downhill to a tunnel beneath the former Neath and Brecon Railway line. Coelbren Junction Station opened in 1873 where the Swansea Vale line met the main Neath and Brecon Railway which had reached Brecon by 1867. Busy for the next 90 years, the village grew up around this junction though passenger services ended in 1962 and quarry traffic from Penwyllt ceased in 1975. Sections of the route now form part of the National Cycle Route 43.
Continue in the same direction for a further 130m to a stile beside a barn on the left.
5. Turn left, go over 2 stiles, and follow the gently curving line of the former Banwen Ironworks Railway. This short – and short-lived – branch ran between the Brecon Forest Tramroad and the ironworks established in 1845 beside the Pyrddin, east of Coelbren. Part of its route is followed by modern day footpaths, along which the occasional stone block can be seen. Continue to a footbridge and bend on Camnant Road.
Turn right along the road for 160m to a junction. Turn left and drop down to cross the Afon Pyrddin. Continue to the right/east of the farm buildings at Tonyfildre along a farm track. At the end of the first field, turn left up beside a stone wall. You now follow the straight line of the Roman road, Sarn Helen up through several fields to a gate near the corner of a forest. Take the track across the field to a gate onto the minor road at Cefngwaunhynog.
Several sections of Roman road in Wales are known as Sarn Helen including this one from Neath (Nidvm) to Brecon Gaer (Cicvcivm). Walkers can follow the road east and south from Coelbren Auxiliary Fort, a 1.8ha (4.5 acre) site built around AD 80. A 14ha (34 acre) Roman marching camp nearby dates from around AD 57/58.
7. Turn left along the road and follow it west for 2km as it twists beside the conifer plantation and over two of the headwater streams of the Afon Pyrddin; Nant y Fedwen and Nant y Bryn. Approaching Coelbren once again the road passes over the line of the former railway – it closed to passenger traffic in 1962. Its sweeping curve almost encircles the village.
Careful inspection in the bushes on the right-hand side reveals a cutting and low embankment which marks the line of the former Brecon Forest Tramroad which was constructed around 1822. A small building near the road junction was a smithy serving the horse-drawn wagon-trains on the tramroad.
Continue along the road here to return to the Henrhyd Falls car park (or, if bound for the Miners Welfare Hall, go left through the gate onto the line of the old tramroad as described in 2 and 3 above.