“Amazing Mountain Walking by Train” in the South Wales Valleys

Bristol-based travel writer Steve Melia has published a website with over 100 walks by public transport starting in Bristol, including 20 (and growing) in the South Wales valleys.  Maps, descriptions, photographs and gpx files (to follow on a mapping app) can all be found on his website: www.greentravelwriter.co.uk/bristol.  He is urging walkers looking for mountain walks, to try using the trains through the valleys.

Steve began recording his walks and putting them on his website and on Facebook two years ago.  Last year, he set up Railwalks.co.uk – a national organisation which aims to encourage walking by rail.  Following coverage in the Guardian, it now has 3000 members.  Greentravelwriter.co.uk is one of 60 websites listed on www.railwalks.co.uk, with information about walks from and between railway stations in each region and nation of Britain, including five in Wales.

Steve said:

“Of all the places I have been walking by rail, the South Wales Valleys have surprised me the most.  Like many people, I had a mental image of this area as post-industrial.  I’ve been amazed to see how quickly nature has reclaimed the land around the former coalfields.  There are seven railway lines up the different valleys with surprisingly frequent services, offering dozens, possibly hundreds, of easy walks along the rivers, and wild and beautiful walks across the mountains.

Several of them start or finish in country parks, which get you straight out of the towns onto hills or mountains.  Three of my favourite mountain walks are Pontypool to Abergavenny, Maesteg to Treorchy and Lisvane to Risca, all of which pass through country parks.

If you compare these valleys to the Cotswolds or the Mendips, the towns and villages are not as pretty, so they don’t attract many tourists.  That means you can find cafes serving local people with straightforward food at reasonable prices.  I ordered fish and chips in the café in Maerdy and they brought me what looked like a shark, for just £8.  You’d pay three times that in Chipping Norton!

I have seen the new tram-trains in the depot at Taffs Well.  When the South Wales Metro is fully running, this area will have some of the best rail services in the country.  There’s clearly great potential to encourage more tourism, without creating more traffic jams.  I hope my website, and Railwalks.co.uk will help to do that.”

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