a Cwm Tawe landscape shaped by water
A low-level circular walk from Craig-y-nos Country Park
Summary
This walk stays within the confines of the upper Swansea Valley so there are no significant ascents involved though there are sections of path which can be wet and muddy at times, along with some rough surfaces. It traces some of the impacts that water – in its liquid and solid forms – has had on this landscape in deep time.
- Distance: 4km / 2.5 mile
- Ascent: About 60m / 200ft
- Time: Allow about 2 hours to fully enjoy the walk
- Map: Use 1:25,000 scale OS Explorer map OL12 ‘BBNP western area’
- Start: Geoterrace at the top of Craig-y-nos country Park (OS grid ref SN 839155, postcode SA9 1GL)
This walk passes by and across many watercourses. Look into each one; the variety of rocks in the riverbed of each tells us something about the journey each has been on. The wellbeing of our streams and rivers is central to the health of our landscape as a whole. And enjoying places like these does our own health and wellbeing a power of good. Watch out for dippers and kingfishers!
Walk description
1. Descend the steps below the terrace and pass through the gateway on the left to the ornamental lake. Keep right, making for the river – this is the Afon Llynfell which emerges from the Dan yr Ogof cave complex. Follow it downstream to the bridge at its confluence with the Afon Tawe. You may see a difference in the colours of the two rivers, particularly after rainfall, one having passed through extensive limestone caverns, the other having travelled across the surface of Old Red Sandstone hills.
Keep left over the bridge, following the newly tarmacked path upstream beside the Tawe to a path junction and river ford before a second bridge.
2. Cross the bridge and follow the path as it twists across the river’s floodplain – beware it may be wet in parts or even impassable after wet weather – this is the floodplain after all! The river to your left is the Llynfell once again. Pass along a boardwalk to the right of a large pond to emerge at the A4067 road.
3. Keep right, along the broad grassy verge for just over 300m until you can fork right along the old road which soon crosses the Afon Haffes. The Haffes was originally the ‘haf hesb’ or ‘summer dry’ river. This quiet road re-joins the main road shortly beyond the Gwyn Arms. Keep right, along the footway to cross the Tawe once again and reach the next road, Heol Callwen.
4. Walk up Heol Callwen and through the hamlet of Callwen itself. Cross the Nant Byfre and turn almost immediately right to follow the Beacons Way through a kissing gate. You pass by a deep hollow to your left. This is Pwll Coediog (‘wooded pit’) after which the nearby farm is named; it is a doline or shakehole. This is private land so please keep to the path. Listen for birdsong. Continue to a kissing gate at the top corner of the next field.
5. Bear right to follow the bridleway for around 700m to a gate on the right through which you can descend into the country park. The woodland through which you have passed is dominated by birch and ash with hazel and some hawthorn. Keep an eye out for signs of small-scale quarrying of limestone and the remains of a kiln into which it was fed to produce lime for building and agricultural use.
6. Keep left at the foot of the slope. If time is short, you can retrace your earlier steps back through the country park to the start, otherwise keep left to pass by the ‘far lake’. It is fed by a perennial spring known as Pistyll y Rhiwarth or Hospital Rising, at the foot of the slope running down from Craig y Rhiwarth. The English name derives from the period when these landscaped grounds formed a part of the TB hospital centred on the ‘castle’, now reborn as a hotel.
Beyond the dam, follow the path around to the right to pass along the side of the Tawe once again. Craig-y-nos Castle hotel sits on a relatively flat spur atop the steep bank. This is probably a delta terrace. Continue to the bridge you crossed shortly after the start and make your way back up to the car park and Dwy Afon (‘two rivers’) café.