This route was developed as a 38-mile walk around the surroundings of Cardiff, visiting the many pleasant areas and attractions on the outskirts of the city. It is now over 20 years since the route was first devised. Much has changed, especially to the east and west of Cardiff, and the route description has been fully updated for 2023, in time for the group's 40th anniversary. The revised text is here, below the map.

Start point: Swanbridge, near Sully. (Grid. Ref: ST 167 675,   W3W: /// mills.archduke.strictest)

[1]    From Swanbridge car park/promenade walk east across the car park, keeping close to the coast, to a small gateway and thus onto coastal road. Keep to this road for about one and a half kilometres to the B4267 Penarth-SulIy road. Cross this road to track opposite, there are Cosmeston Park notices on gate. Walk on and the recreated mediaeval village soon appears on the right. Take the lane on right, signed to the village, and then, unless you want to visit the village, go left at village entrance, over bridge and boardwalk to car park.

[2]    Go anticlockwise around the lake and where the lake path meets a broad service road turn right. (To the left you can see that this road goes over a bridge and between the 2 lakes). Follow this road for about 15 minutes until it reaches Old Cogan Hall Farm. Veer left in front of the farm and then right past it and then past St Peter’s Church up to the road. Turn left and go along the road for about 200 metres until, at a bend where the road swings left, you turn right. The road quickly becomes a lane and in 30 metres goes off right.Follow this path to emerge onto Murch Road. The road widens considerably as itveers left. Continue along this busy road for about 800 metres, over the railway and down to the traffic lights. Straight across this road, Cardiff Road, and into Millbrook Road. To the end of Millbrook Road and across into Mill Lane opposite.

[3]    Follow the path ahead for about 200 metres then through a kissing gate, cross a wider track and through another kissing gate into a field (information boards here). Straight across, with edge of field close on your left, through a large metal gate, to the top left-hand end of the field. Ignore left-hand path and go straight ahead through a kissing gate and over a footbridge into the next field. Still keeping the fence/hedge on your left go through another kissing gate. Carry on through another way-marked kissing gate to join a track in about 150 metres. Turn right to reach the road via a bridge over the Wrinstone Brook.

[4]    At road turn left and walk for 150 metres up the hill to go through on your left, a way-marked kissing gate, and follow a clear way-marked path alongside the manmade Salmon Leaps weirs. These are part of the Cwrt yr Ala estate, the house (private) lies above the rise to the right. Cross a stile into a wood in 400 metres and then another and follow the clear path which borders the Wrinstone Brook on the left, until the path rises to leave the wood at 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 with Wrinstone House behind you.

[5]    Turn left and go through the farmyard, straight ahead to the fence and follow the way-marker post to the right, with the house to the left and barn to the right, through a large metal gate. Then immediately left through a kissing gate, and diagonally right across a small paddock to go through another kissing gate. Bear right, below electricity lines, through a large metal gate seen opposite, then through a similar gate just ahead, to ford a stream. Follow the way-marker half right to a stile and footbridge at the edge of field. Then go straight ahead across the field to cross a footbridge and stile next to a large gate. Ahead again to a stile, then ahead again to stile and footbridge across a disused railway line. Ahead through a gap in the hedge, then straight on following the left-hand hedge/stream to a kissing gate in the lefthand corner of the field. Cross the next field with the hedge to your immediate left to a kissing gate in the left-hand corner of the field. In 15 metres yet another kissing gate, then immediately left through a wide gap in the left-hand hedge and over a footbridge. Then turn right and follow the stream for about 150 metres to reach a stile in the top right corner (not the stile straight ahead to the road). Cross the stile and a footbridge in front of water culverts. Then immediately left over another stile to pass through the tunnel under the main road into a housing estate. Walk ahead out to T-junction to main village street and turn left for St. Mary’s Church.

[6]    Just before the church turn right into Walston Road and walk about 700 meters up to a waymarked path just before the right turn in the road. Take the path and continue ahead until you cross a tarmac track. Go through the kissing gate ahead into Wenvoe Upper Orchard Field (information board) and turn sharp left. Follow the path up and around the edge of the field to a way-marker post near another information board. Turn left, through the field border, then turn right at another way-marker. Follow the path to go through a kissing gate and pass the Quarrymen’s memorial to the road. Turn right on the road, then immediately left into Twyn yr Odyn, and follow this road past the Horse and Jockey pub, until it becomes a track straight ahead. Keep on the track as it passes the TV mast on the left and finally ends to go through a small wooden gate. Then cross a stile into a field of bracken and follow the path slightly right to reach a tarmac track. Turn right on the track, then turn left to go past houses on the right to reach the A48.

[7]    Take great care in crossing this very busy road to go through a kissing gate directly opposite. Follow the hedge on the right to reach a stone stile. Cross this and go straight ahead to a marker-post. Turn left as indicated and follow the path as it goes down to the right to follow a fence, and then the edge of a wood, to a stile on the right. Cross the stile and go straight downhill across the field to cross a way-marked stile opposite. (Ignore another stile in the same fence to the left). Go up slightly to the right, then take the middle waymarked path into woods. Soon this main path has old woods to the left and labelled specimen evergreen trees to the right. Follow it straight and then as it veers left and right to go over a stile. Go left to a large metal gate/stile, and soon to another stile ahead, then half left to a kissing gate into a wood of young trees. Follow the waymarked path to the right through the wood to exit at a small metal gate. Go straight ahead following the fence of a solar energy farm on the left, over a waymarked metal barrier. As the fence goes left, follow the way marker to the right through a large metal gate. Turn left and follow the lefthand field boundary to cross a stile. Go diagonally right to a field corner next to a large metal gate. Go to the right of the gate to follow a lefthand field boundary again, then right, across the bottom of the field, to go through a kissing gate to the road,

[8]    Turn left on the road, and after 70 metres, on the right opposite the driveway to Greendown, cross a stile which leads across the narrow field to a footbridge which takes you over the river and under the railway. Bear half left away from the railway line then right for 300 metres to a gap on the left in a line of trees. Go right and in 100 metres a stile on your right takes you down and under the dual carriageway road which is a spur road for the M4. Once under go left, up some stone steps, then right and wind up and around for about 20 metres, with a fence on your right, to a high stile at the top of the rise. Climb over, turn right and head for the museum at St. Fagans, visible in the middle distance. With the road on your left and the river on your right, you will come to a stile/gate on your left near the entrance to the museum car park.

[9]    Turn right on the museum road and at the T junction, turn sharp left up between some cottages to a path which soon has the museum fence on your left and the castle wall on your right. Where the fence ends on your left, turn half left through a wooden kissing-gate (with information board), and left again and follow the lefthand fence to go through another kissing gate. Carry on along a green avenue of tall trees. As you leave the trees bear right, gradually veering away from the wooden fence on your left and head down to a stile to the left of a large copse ahead. Over the stile and go slightly right to a marker post by a fence near a house ahead. Follow the fence as indicated to the right of the house, then over a stile onto St. Brides Road. Cross the road carefully, turn right and go along the grass verge of the road for 700 metres. Just after a house on your right turn left off the road, through a kissing gate.

[10]    With the hedge on your right walk across the field for 500 metres until you come to a stile/gap which leads you through a small wood and then across a disused, very muddy, sunken railway line. Take the kissing on the left into the field beyond. Straight down this field through a gap in the trees/brambles to the farm, Lower Stockland, in the middle distance. Through a kissing gate at the end on the left and turn right past a barn, then left onto a lane. Follow the farm track for about 600 metres until you reach Upper Stockland Farm. On this track, to your left, you have a fine view of the old, ruined mill at St. y Nyll on the skyline. Go left of the house and through the farmyard and over a gate into a field. The footpath goes to the top righthand corner of the field to go through a gap in the hedge. Then turn sharp right and go through a kissing gate in 10 metres. Then diagonally down over field heading for a kissing gate in the opposite left-hand corner. Through a kissing gate and with farm buildings on your right, in 120 metres, ahead through another kissing gate. Turn left on the farm road away from the farm for 380 metres, passing a pylon and a big red and yellow house, on your left, through the large gate of Tydu farm to reach Llantrisant Road, another very busy road, near where it crosses the M4.

[11]    Turn left on road and once over the motorway go right up a road (Star Lane). 135 metres up this road, and opposite a house called "Woodfield”, turn right through a kissing gate and onto a track leading to Trewern Farm. Follow this track as it goes through the farm gate, and just before the farm turn right over way-marked stile. Straight across the field to stile and footbridge and follow M4 fence to another way-marked stile which overlooks the motorway. Over stile and turn left to follow a track between two rows of trees to go through a large metal gate. In 30 metres at the corner of the fence, opposite an old farm building which is on your right, turn left and follow the fence on the left to a stile beside another large metal gate. Once over the stile, turn right and follow the right hand fence , then carry straight on through an area of rough grass to the end of the field bearing right along the right side of a green hill towards the trees, to a stile in the righthand corner. This leads onto a sunken and sometimes very muddy track. Turn left and go up this sunken track. In about 250 metres you will reach a narrow metalled drive leading along a row of houses on your left. In about 100 metres, and just before the road joins a bigger one, turn right and you will find yourself between a kissing gate and a stile. Cross the stile on the right and down the field to a stile at the corner of the woods below. Over and go down, and then up diagonally right across the field in the direction of the last house on the left of the row of houses. Before the house, on the left, there is a large metal gate to go through. Turn right and in 20 metres you will come to a fork in the path. Go left up through the wood to a kissing gate onto the road leading up to the village of Pentyrch. Turn left and up the hill, taking care on the road, for about 600 metres, past the church and the Kings Arms pub to the T junction.

[12] Go to the right of house number 51 opposite, and follow the path to a kissing gate into a field containing a ruined building. Turn left and follow the hedge on the left to go through another kissing gate, then follow the lefthand hedge again to a signpost. Go straight on following the track round past the houses which will be on your left.Cross the stile onto a tarmac road, go left past three houses and take the marked stile on the right. Go steeply down to the road (Heol Goch) and cross it with care to a gravelled field entrance slightly to the left. Take the wooden kissing gate on the right to a track. Turn left to follow the track down and around to the right through a large metal gate to a footpath sign just before another gate. Take the path going left uphill to a marker post then bear left to go up steps and through a kissing gate. Cross diagonally to the left field boundary and follow it up to go through another kissing gate on the left. Cross this field to a kissing gate which leads down steep steps to a road. Turn right, taking care on these narrow roads with no pavements. 30 metres uphill take the road to the right which leads gradually uphill past a cattle grid. You are now on the Taff Ely Ridgeway Walk. A tarmac lane forks up to the left marked "Access only" which leads onto the open land of the Garth.

Garth Hill: The summit is 307 metres marked by a trig point on the highest of 5 bronze age burial mounds (tumuli). From here you have views northwards to Pen y Fan, the highest mountain in South Wales, and, to the south to the Bristol Channel and the coasts of Somerset and Devon.

[13] Ascend the lane bearing slightly right onto a footpath. This takes you past a bench and on up to the right of the trig point which marks the summit. Set off right along the ridge, past a tumulus, for about 600 metres. There are fine views down the Taff valley to Cardiff and the sea. When you reach a crossroads, with a steep downhill path ahead, turn left along a clear path ahead then take the right fork down and through a gate. Follow the steep rocky path down as it widens and flattens out, and then turn sharp right onto a track which leads to a gate after 450 metres. Go through the gate here and follow the footpath straight on to meet the road. Turn left and walk down to the Gwaelod y Garth Inn. At the Inn turn right, taking care as the road can be busy and has no pavements, and at the bottom of the hill where the road flattens, opposite a large white house, take a footpath on the left descending steeply. Turn right at the bottom to go down steps through the underpass and take the footbridge over the Taff. Then go ahead to the main road of Taffs Well.

If you would like to visit the sight of the only thermal spring in Wales, at the main road turn right, go past the Inn and turn right again to go down the lane and into the park. Walk through the memorial flower garden and you will see ahead the information boards and the building which houses the well.

[14] Carefully cross the busy main road, turn right and immediately left into Sycamore Street and ahead to reach another footbridge which leads over the railway line to a car park. Cross the car park and then the road ahead to go down another short road to a path at the end. Follow the path as it turns right and cross the road ahead. Go left and then right at the end to cross the road bridge of the A470 dual carriageway ahead. Take the next right, Parish Road, which goes along the back of a football pitch, then turn sharp left to go past a chain-link fence and a red-brick house on your right. Follow the path straight ahead across a track through a wood with a stream on your right, cross a road and continue ahead then left until you reach a bridge. Go under the bridge and turn immediately left onto a path which leads up onto the bridge itself. This is the Taff Trail (beware of cyclists). Turn left and follow the Taff Trail south with the Taff valley or your right. After the path has climbed gently right, go through a metal barrier to a T junction turn left and continue on the Taff trail uphill. Follow the path, which is also the Cambrian Way, up through the Fforest Fawr for almost 3kilometres, going past the Three Bears Caves, which are 3 mine entrances marked by the sculpture of a bear and bear cub. You will join a wider forest track leading past a picnic site and car park, down to the road.

[15] At the road turn right and then, almost immediately, left onto the way marked Cambrian Way. Follow this path contouring above the valley and take the first path on the left leading up to a road. Go right for 22 metres and then next left. The tarmac road becomes a wide stoney track and is still the Cambrian Way. Follow it for about a kilometrethrough a large (usually open) metal gate, as it veers left and right, and undulates up and down, ignoring a way marked path off to the right. Just after a ruined building on the right and then old stables on the left, go through/over a gate/stile and straight ahead. As the main track veers left go straight on a wide grassy track then down into a wood and over a footbridge. Turn right, go through a metal gate and follow the path out of the woods onto the Ridgeway Golf Course with the fairway on your left. Keep straight ahead along the path as it joins a wider path from the right, until you reach a way marked signpost on the right. Turn left and go straight over the course to the right of a line of trees to a way marker, up a small slope and ahead to another way marker at the edge of the trees. Turn left at the way marker and make for a way marked gap in the shrubbery ahead leading to a path. Follow the path as it bears right through the wood, across a small footbridge and onto another fairway, go straight across the fairway to amarker post opposite.

[16]    Leave the golf course by the marked path into the wood as at goes left to a kissing gate on the right. Go through and uphill, taking care not to trip on the small metal rods on the steps, until it ends on another path at a waymark post. Turn right here, following the path around to the right of a house, then turn right and follow the drive to the main road. Caerphilly Mountain car park will now be in view. From the car park take a footpath north-east from the back of the car park, and follow it until you are walking along a track with a boundary on the right. There are good views of Caerphilly with Its castle to the left. Keep along the boundary on entering wood and then along the ridge, ignoring paths to the left, until the path drops down to join a forestry track. Turn right along this and then after 5 metres turn left. Follow this track and as it bears left go right through a kissing gate into Coed y Wern (information board). Keep straight on the path, then follow it left down an old brick path. Turn right onto track and 40 metres further on turn left onto a narrow path opposite a notice board to cross a stream. Follow the path uphill to go through a kissing gate onto the road and turn right. After about 400 metres the road bends round to the right. Turn left beside a barrier gate into an old road here. Follow this as it curves to the left and go through a gate, following the track for 120 metres to a T junction. Turn sharp right onto an access track leading to the Rhymney Valley Ridgeway Walk.

[17] At the fork in the track go left to skirt a disused quarry. At the top of the hill at a waymarked T-junction turn left and walk along the ridge through open farmland. Go through a gate, and later through a second gate to the road. Cross the road slightly right to a stile and gate beside Cefn Onn Farm. Follow the path along the fence on the left into the wood (Coed Cefn Onn). Keep straight on for almost 2 kilometres, going downhill for a while and crossing a stile next to a set of joined cattle gates (or you can use the gates), before carrying straight on again.

[18] After passing a large pylon beside the path to the right, walk a further 40 metres and turn right at a waymarked post before a green metal gate. Follow the path, with a steep drop and a handrail on the left, past some old lime kilns and continue down Craig y Llan to join another path at the bottom. Cross the path, going slightly right, through a gap in the hedge opposite to the right of a stile. Follow a path down to two footbridges. The first footbridge is currently broken so you will need to ford the first stream, then use the second footbridge to cross another stream. Turn left and walk parallel with the stream on your left through two gates and then a stile leading into woods ahead. Quarter right and follow this path upwards through the wood until it reaches a stile at the boundary of the wood and open fields. Cross into the field and go half left through the middle of a line of trees at a way marker post. Carry on in the same direction to go through a large gap in another line of trees. Then ahead to the right of a telegraph pole to a kissing gate in the field boundary.

[19] Turn left onto the road, taking care, and shortly after the house you reach a road junction. Cross the road straight ahead to two parallel tracks and take the one on the left. This is part of the Rhymney Valley Ridgeway Footpath which you will be following all the way to Ruperra Castle. It takes you past a house and through a gate into a field. It then follows a stone wall, going through a second gate into the woods and then following a fence on the right. Ignore the first two gates and a barrier on the right, then at a clearing with a green shed, go over/through a stile/gate on your right to the track. Turn left and follow the track past a large house on your left. At the T junction, you will see a kissing gate opposite into Craig Ruperra woods, and an information board. Do not take the kissing gate but turn right and take the track to go past the back of Ruperra Castle and its grounds on the right.

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.

[20]    Walk along clearly defined, well maintained track for 2 kilometres until it joins the Michaelston y Fedw to Draethen road. Turn right onto this road and go down to the river bridge at Michaelston. Cross the bridge, turn left on the road, and go through the stile/gate just past the houses on the right. Go straight ahead to ascend the field, to the left of the pylon, and through a way marked gap in the hedge in the top lefthand corner of this field. Go straight across the next field to a kissing gate on the opposite side. This gives access to a lane and on the opposite side, slightly to the right, is a wide gap in the hedge with large boulders. Go through this and follow the yellow directional marker across this field to a marker post in a gap in the hedge. Keep straight on passing just to the left of an isolated beech tree on the ridge top. Descend to a road and a further stile on the other side. Follow the yellow directional marker to cross a stile and then a footbridge across the M4.

[21]    Bear slightly left on the other side to a stile and then straight ahead to a footbridge crossing a stream. Carry straight on up to the ridge and down the other side to reach a marker post, then down to a stile and a subway to go under the A48(M). Go straight ahead, through the left edge of the wood and through a gate. Turn left and follow the path through a metal gate to the car park at the back of the Premier Inn.

[22]   Proceed down to the car park exit and cross the A48 dual carriageway using the footbridge down to the right. Walk back up on the other side to the lane leading to Walk Farm. Go down the lane and cross a stile on the left before the farmhouse. Follow the field boundary on your left over a stile. Turn right and follow the field boundary on your right-hand side, over a stile then diagonally left to a stile in the opposite hedge. Cross this and turn left and follow the field boundary through a small metal gate then double green metal kissing gates. Turn right and follow the right-hand hedge through two gates and across a footbridge. Diagonally cross the field to the stile in the top left-hand corner, then follow the left-hand boundary along two sides of the field to a stile in the top corner. You are now following a hedge along a large drainage channel, the Pwllbargod Reen. Keep the Reen on your left and go through a gate marked GB, for Gelli-ber Farm, then through another gate and down to the end of the field. Cross the Reen and go straight down the field to a gate and footbridge giving access to a minor road.

[23] Turn left and follow the road which runs along the Drenewydd Reen for almost a kilometre. At its end turn right into Hawse Lane and follow this road for almost 2 kilometres, going over the main Cardiff-London railway line and past Hawse Farm on your right. At the end of the road turn left onto the B4239. Go 300 metres along the road to reach Outfall Lane on your right, with a finger post marking a bridleway to the seawall, about 800 metres. When you have done that, congratulations, you have completed the Capital Walk.