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Note : the estimated time below is calculated automatically according to Naismith's rule. A more realistic estimate is 3 hours.
Start Point: Lane opposite Millbrook Rd, Dinas Powys. Grid. ref. ST 154 716. What3Words : ///flight.moved.linked
Getting there from Cardiff:
by bus: 95 from Wood Street or 304 from Customhouse Street.
by car: on the A4232 out of Cardiff, take the exit to the A4055 for Penarth/Barry; straight on past the Merrie Harrier on the right, through Eastbrook to the traffic lights at Dinas Powys Primary School. Turn right into Millbrook Road and go to the parking space opposite the end of the road.
Route Description:
First published 1997; revised and updated in 2022.
[1] From the car park space turn right and walk along the road, past St Peter’s Church to the second turning on the right, Heol y Cawl. Walk up the steep lane past Ebeneezer Church, then turn right into Highwalls Road, to pass to the right of Dinas Powys golf club and car park. Follow the track and then turn right to pass the first tee, then follow the hedge as it turns left then right around the green. Shortly the path turns right into the woods and widens as it descends through 2 kissing gates into the wooded ravine, Cwm George.
[2] Turn left to enter the gorge via a kissing gate and walk past a row of beech trees on a wide track. In about 500m opposite a steep limestone cliff, and on top of the wooded hill to the right, is the site of an iron age settlement. This is marked by a Coed Cadw, Woodland Trust information board. There is another board further on at the end of the site.
[3]Walking straight ahead and up a small incline, ignoring the 2 paths to the right, and the permissive path to the left. Go ahead with open fields on the right through 2 kissing gates to follow the old Cwrt yr Ala estate driveway through cultivated land with a fence to the left. Michaelston-le-Pit can be seen to the right and Leckwith Hill beyond. Follow the fence around to the right then through a gate to reach the road via a bridge over the Wrinstone Brook. Turn left, and after 150m go through a kissing gate on the left and follow a clear way marked path alongside the manmade Salmon Leaps weirs. These are part of the Cwrt yr Ala estate, and the private house is above to the right.
[4]Cross a stile into a wood in 400m then and then another and follow the clear path which borders the Wrinstone Brook on the left until the path rises to leave the wood to go through a kissing gate into a small meadow. Turn left and through a second kissing gate ahead. Turn right along the short, concreted driveway of Wrinstone Farm, then turn right onto a stony track just before the road. In 400m just beyond an electricity pole turn right onto a similar track going east. This track descends and zigzags to a T-junction in 600m.
[5] Turn right and in 40m go left through a kissing gate. (At this point the walk could be reduced by about 2 km by walking further along the road to pass the entrance to Salmon Leaps to rejoin the gate which allows one to cross the footbridge over Wrinstone Brook and rejoin the walk at**). Continue diagonally right across the field to another kissing gate in the right-hand hedge 10m to the right of a gate. If the field is too muddy follow the field boundary around instead. Go through this and cross the field diagonally left to a stile in the facing hedge. Go over this stile, taking care to avoid the barbed wire, and cross the metal footbridge. Cross another stile opposite, then cross another stile in the right corner and follow the hedge on the left uphill alongside Coed y Ddylluan woods to another stile in 100m. Cross this stile and follow the left-hand fence to a further stile in the facing hedge. Cross this and follow the hedge to the right keeping to the left of the barn ahead and then turn diagonally right to a stile. Turn left and then right along the driveway of the facing White Farm Estate and take the footpath to the left at the cattle grid, down some steps and through and out of a wood into a field. Walk along the left-hand hedge, cross the stile, then to a large gap ahead into the next field and turn left through a gate. Walk across the field to the kissing gate between the houses opposite and past the green substation and take the footpath to the road.
[6] Turn left then shortly sharp right onto a track fronting a row of old houses (Norman Cottages). In 15m turn left onto clear narrow path between the hedges of two houses. Go through the kissing gate at the end of the path into a field. Turn right and follow a wide green sward to a gate which leads onto the road.
[7] Turn left and walk 150m along the road to reach the gate on the left leading to the footbridge over the Wrinstone Brook crossed earlier in the walk.** Retrace steps and after 150m turn left through a wooden kissing gate onto a track. Follow it through a kissing gate with the fence on the right to the corner, crossing a kissing gate to reach a track (Cwm Drive). Go left down a path. Follow the path keeping to the right and through a gate. The ruins of Dinas Powys castle (circa 1190) are hidden above on the hill. Go ahead through a kissing gate, across the track and ahead through 2 kissing gates to the start point
(On the right, beyond the stream, (River Cadoxton), a glimpse can be had of the Manorial Mill (c.1426), now a private residence. The stream turned part of an extensive mill leet, since dried up following the disuse of the mill).
