Cowbridge Area – Wednesday 8th May 2013
Meet at Cowbridge Town Hall Car Park, ready to leave by 7pm
4 miles (G2) Cowbridge Circular via Aberthin and St Hilary
Leaders: Judy and Mike Holley
(01446 774867 M: 07896 334789)
Wednesday Evening Walks – Cowbridge Area
Wednesday 17th April 2013
Ian led 17 of us from Cowbridge Town Hall Car Park on his usual route to start off the Wednesday evening walks.
From Cowbridge we walked through Llanblethian, up the St Athan Road, across the River Thaw to Llandough.
A quick water break then upwards over the fields back over to Llanblethian and down Constitution Hill finishing at the Duke of Wellington!
Spring is definitely in the air and it was a lovely breezy but bright evening.
A pleasure to see some familiar faces and meet some new friends.
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- Vale Ramblers heading out of Llanblethian
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- Quick water break in Llandough
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- Rickety stile
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- Signs of Spring – Cowslips
Join us every Wednesday evening for a 3-5 mile walk throughout the Summer. It’s a wonderful mid week breath of fresh air.
Cowbridge Local Area – Sunday 17th March 2013
This walk is a 9 mile local walk from Cowbridge, heading east to Stalling Down and Tair Onen, crossing the A48 to Llantrithyd House, and back via St Hilary Down.
It is an ‘undulating’ walk (G2), through fields and woodlands, including a wooded valley recently opened up by The Forestry Commission. Given good visibility, the views north to The Valleys, and south across The Channel, should be excellent.
The start is 9:30am from Cowbridge Town Hall car park.
The weather forecast is fair, so I hope to see you all on Sunday.
Vale Historical Walk – Thursday 20th September 2012
I am leading the first of the winter short walks starting at the Bush Inn, St. Hilary at 10.30 am.
From here we will go up a track to “The Clump” then visit the Glamorgan Yeomanry war memorial.
Then we will cross over to Stalling Down with a bit more history of the area.
Then back to St. Hilary to visit the church and finishing back at the Bush Inn.
Look forward to seeing some of you again for these weekday walks.
Margaret
Vale of Glamorgan Walk – Wednesday 11th July 2012
My first Wednesday evening walkwith Vale Ramblers for weeks started from the Vale Resort Hotel, Hensol.
We took an anti-clockwise route this week, from Hensol Park round to Tredodridge, Pendoylan and returning via the Ely Valley.
There were 25 of us this fine evening and although we had 1 sharp shower, we were able to enjoy some fine weather and glorious Vale of Glamorgan scenery. I admit it was a little soggy underfoot in parts, but the company and the chat was so entertaining, it didn’t bother us at all.
It was particularly enjoyable to climb over some well-maintained stiles that were cleared by our volunteers just a couple of weeks ago.
Thanks to Ian for a lovely walk and great to see some old friends and some new faces.
Author: Leigh
Next walk is Sunday 15 July leaving Cowbridge Town Hall Car Park at 9am.
9 miles (G3/4) Caerfanell Valley and Neuadd Reservoir circular.
Leader: Peter Lane (01446 751610 M: 07969 366507)
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Wednesday 20th June – Evening Walk Pendoylan Area
Taking place on almost the longest day of the year the hoped for warmth, wonderful views and glorious sunset were replaced by mist and incessant rain.
But it hardly seemed to matter as far as the 14 who turned up were concerned. They enjoyed the exercise and chat, as well as local information, that they experienced during the 4.5 mile walk around Pendoylan, Clawdd Coch and Tredodridge.
Some of the paths followed had not been used by the group for some years. One downside noted was that to walk this route later in the summer will be hampered by maize filled fields unless the paths are reinstated.
The pleasure of walking was enhanced for most by a visit afterwards to the recently refurbished Red Lion Inn at Pendoylan where we dried out and warmed up.
Pendoylan Walk – Wednesday 20th June 2012
We’ll meet at 7pm near St Cadoc’s church at Pendoylan. The walk will be between 4 and 4.5 miles long.
There are one or two modest climbs, but apart from these the walk is undemanding. However, there are inevitably several stiles to negotiate.
The latest weather forecast is encouraging up to Wednesday evening, so I’m crossing my fingers that the fine weather lasts into Wednesday night.
Hope to see some of you then to celebrate the longest walking day of the year.
Graham
Aberthin Circular – Sunday 17th June 2012
This delightful 8 miles (G2) circular walk around the picturesque Vale of Glamorgan was lead by John Moore – YES! JOHN MOORE, ably assisted by Bill.
We left Cowbridge Town Hall Car Park promptly at 9.30am after a stirring speech by our leader and off we set in the direction of Cowbridge Comprehensive School. The weather was perfect for walking and after the deluge of the past few days, the sun was a welcome sight. Wild flowers were in abundance and one highlight was watching a buzzard being bombarded by a couple of crows.
The going underfoot was pretty good, despite the recent rain, although a little soggy in parts. We walked at a steady pace, in view of John’s recent tumble at Cwm Darren Park resulting in a torn hamstring. He soldiered on bravely!
We walked through Trerhyngyll, stopped at the bus stop at Maendy for tea break, then walked on through Hensol Forest, round the quiet waters of Pysgodlyn Mawr where fishermen were patiently waitnig for a bite and the water lillies were just about to burst into bloom.
Before we arrived at Welsh St Donats we walked through fields with the most spectacular marsh thistles. Lunch was at the lovely church in this beautiful village, then it was downhill all the way, via a field with a couple of noisy llamas (alpacas?) to Aberthin.
Here we parted ways with John, who had walked over 6 miles, then it was an amble back to the cars and a refreshment in a local holstelry in Cowbridge.
John, freshly showered, suited and booted joined us and enjoyed a birthday drink.
Author Leigh
Vale of Glamorgan Walking Festival
Friday 11th – Sunday 13th May 2012
Vale of Glamorgan Walking Festival Website
While most of the Vale of Glamorgan Ramblers were enjoying the Isle of Wight Walking Festival, some of us stayed at home and took part in the 3rd Vale of Glamorgan Walking Festival.
The programme was varied over the 3 days with David James leading 2 of the walks.
Saturday 12th May – Iolo Morgannwg Community Walk
Iolo Morganwg (Ned of Glamorgan) was the ‘bardic name’ of Edward Williams (1747-1826) who was born at Penonn near Llancarfan, and lived at Flemingston where there is a memorial in the church. He followed his father as a stonemason, and imported marble into Aberthaw.
However, early on he became a successful poet, and was concerned with preserving, and maintaining, the literary and cultural traditions of Wales.
To coincide with the National Eisteddfod at Llandow in August, this walking route has being developed by Creative Rural Communities, to entice visitors to explore areas of the Rural Vale, whilst gaining an understanding and appreciation of Iolo Morganwg’s life ,work and legacy.
Led by Dave Owens of Transition Cowbridge, with Debbie Leigh of Cowbridge Hub and Richard of Coed Hills Forest Gardens we were met in the Physic Gardens by Branwen of CRC who gave us a brief outline of his life before heading down the High Street to Costa Coffee, which was his shop, the first Fair Trade shop of its time.
Heading past the Comprehensive School on the boardwalk, we walked through a Site of Special Scientific Interest onto Aberthin. During this part of the walk Richard of Coed Hills, identified many plants and their uses. It was here we saw a buzzard enjoying the warm thermals.
We continued up to Stalling Down to see the breathtaking views where he held his first Gorsedd meeting. It also offered a great view of the Pant Wilkin racing stables.
Onwards to the Clump – the site of public hangings, which Iolo never attended, then down into St Hilary village for lunch at the Bush Inn. Richard fried up some nettles for us to try and they were very similar to crispy seaweed. From here, Emlyn took a small group of us southwards towards the Old Vicarage where we had a superb view of the coastline and Beaupre Castle.
Walking through Bluebell Wood, the wild garlic was out in force and it was here we stopped for some romantic poetry Iolo wrote and one of the group, Katie read it beautifully in Welsh, then gave us the english translation.
Returning to the Old Hall gardens via Llanblethian, we all agreed that walking in the footsteps of Iolo Morgannwg, while learning about his life and hearing some of his poetry brough the walk to life.
A special thanks to Richard and Emlyn for sharing their knowledge and enthusisam.
Our Secretary Ian Fraser will be leading this walk during the Eisteddfod and I would highly recommend it.
View route on Runkeeper – it had a blip as it lost GPS signal on the way round
Author: Leigh
Vale of Glamorgan Walk – Wednesday 25th April 2012
Margaret is leading this 4 mile (G1) local area walk.
Meet at the roadside parking adjacent to the Lamb and Flag Public House, Wick CF71 7QE
Have your boots & waterproofs ready for a 7pm start.