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Note : the estimated time below is calculated automatically according to Naismith's rule. A  more realistic estimate is 4 hours 15 minutes.

Start Point: On the road across the stream from the Hollybush Inn (closed down). Grid ref. ST 221 873 what3words: ///valley.bride.patrol

Getting there from Cardiff:

by train and bus: Take the Ebbw Vale Town train from Cardiff Central to Pye Corner. Walk 500 metres to Park View to catch bus 50 to Lower Machen. Walk 800 metres to Draethen.
by car: Take North Road (A470) out of Cardiff and after the Gabalfa flyover bear right to the A469. At the roundabout take the B4562 (Ty-Glas Road) to Lisvane. Turn left into Church Road and then follow Rudry Road to the Maenllwyd Inn, turn right and drive 4 miles to Draethen.

Route Description:

First published 1997; revised and updated in 2022.

[1] From the parking place go to the stile on the right-hand side of the Hollybush pub and climb left uphill to a gate. Go straight ahead and continue climbing the path through mixed woodland until a forestry track is reached. Cross the track and go straight up, then turn right at the next junction. At a fork with a bench go left, then at a crossroads go straight ahead, then down steps to emerge from the wood onto a wide track. This is the Rhymney Ridgeway Walk. Go right following a high wall and pass Ruperra Castle and its grounds.
RUPERRA CASTLE: "splendidly direct and uncompromising" according to John Newman in "The Buildings of Wales; Glamorgan". The castle was built as the home of Sir Thomas Morgan around 1620, rebuilt 150 years later after having been burnt down and is now nothing but a ruined shell. It is a square, three-storied building built in a style harking back to mediaeval castles as can be seen in the round towers and battlements.

[2] After about 300 metres just before reaching a white house and garden turn left, still on the Ridgeway, and continue on a stone-surfaced road along the left-hand side of the house and its garden. Follow the Ridgeway for about 600 metres passing a small gate and then a large gate on the left to reach a kissing gate on the left. Go through and down half right to a footbridge, kissing gate and another footbridge in the hedge. Go straight across the field and look for a hidden stile leading onto a narrow lane. Turn left and after 500 metres, passing ‘Ty Gawla Bach’ to reach ‘Ty Gawla Isaf’, turn right down the track. Pass to the right of the house, then ahead along the track. Turn left at the T-junction and over a cattle grid following a stream on the right. The stream appears on the left before you cross another cattle grid then go right making for a large electric pylon. Go down across a field and through a gate with a cattle grid. Just beyond the pylon, before a house, turn left and go through a small broken gate.

[3] Cross the field keeping right of the line of the pylons, across a ditch, and keep straight ahead to a farmgate visible at the far end of the field. Go through the gate and cross a stream then make for the extreme left-hand corner of the next field. Go through a gap in the line of trees, then cross a bridge over a stream. Keep ahead, uphill, and make for a stile (made from concrete blocks) at the top of the field. Continue along another field, keeping close to the wood on the right. Where a section of the wood juts out ahead follow a path diagonally right into the wood to cross a footbridge into a field. Climb the field to a gap between the houses ahead and go up the steps which lead into Cefn Mably Country Park, formerly the grounds of Cefn Mably Hospital now converted to apartments.

[4] Turn left down the estate road and follow it round to go through the large gate to exit the Park. Continue down the long drive as it turns right and meets another tarmac road, then go right making for the bridge over the River Rhymney. After crossing the river go left over a stile and walk along the riverbank until the river turns left. Leave the river here and cross the stile on the right onto the road. Turn left and go to the left of the house, passing a basketball court on the left, and then some cabins on the right. Immediately after the cabins take a right uphill to cross a stile. Go left along the hedge, cross a double stile, then along the edge of a long field, keeping the hedge on left. Then through a gate and across the field to the right-hand corner to a stile onto a tarmac road. Turn left and take care following the narrow road straight ahead for about 75 metres then, taking a left turn, straight ahead, for 180 metres to a fingerpost opposite ‘Woodvale’. Turn right and walk past a row of stables, up 5 concrete steps at a way marker, and along the path at the back of the gardens to cross a stile. Go left and follow the fence to cross a stile to the left of a row of houses. Go half right following a faint path up then alongside a house, with garages on the left. Then go half left steeply down through a grassy area to a fingerpost just before Michaelston Bridge.

[5] Do not cross the bridge but follow the main road ahead 120 metres to a waymarked post on the left. Go through the hedge, down steps and ahead to walk right along the riverbank into woodland then over a footbridge on the right. Turn left proceeding through wood before reaching another footbridge and on through the wood to a gate. Continue along the riverbank through another gate, and as the river goes left, go through a kissing gate ahead (ignore the one on the right).

[6] Go half left for 25 metres, then through a gap in the line of trees, turn right and walk with the hedge on the right. After going through a gap in the field boundary ahead the path becomes a farm track. At a T-junction turn left and eventually reach another gap in the field boundary. Go straight across the next field and soon cross a ditch and ahead to another gap. Turn left and follow the hedge back to the river. Turn right and, following the river, cross another footbridge and follow the river round to the right to reach a gate onto a tarmac road. Turn left, cross the road bridge and follow the road back to the Hollybush.