Looping around fields, paths and over difficult stiles
ON Sunday, October 24, Enfys and Kevin Jones led the Carmarthen Ramblers on a nine-mile figure of eight walk that took them through fields, paths and country lanes in the Nantgaredig area and incorporated some shorter walks that the couple had used for exercise purposes regularly during lockdown.
The grey cloudy weather gave a few inconvenient drizzling showers but was generally dry.
The walk started from near the school in Nantgaredig from where they walked southwards down Station Road for about half a mile before turning left into a lane at Dyffryn Towy. This in turn led into a series of fields – with some difficult stiles to negotiate between them.
They also crossed the route of the old railway line (that could in time become part of the proposed cycle track between Carmarthen and Llandeilo) – before reaching the western banks of the Cothi.
Their route followed the line of the Cothi up river across the showground to reach the A40 in Pontargothi. They crossed the river via the foot bridge then turned right onto a country road that led them in a southerly direction past the Cothi Bridge Hotel.
Now walking down river for just over half a mile where they stopped to admire the grand Abercothi House through the hedgerow.
A little further along, the road swung around to face eastwards and they then arrived at a 90-degree turn in the road. The road crossed a stone bridge over what was once a railway line – now dismantled, but the group left the road at this point and continued in the same general direction along a track on the edge of the flood plain to reach Llwchgwyn where they came close to a bend in the river Towy. Continuing along a track they reached the village of Llanegwad where they stopped to enjoy the character of the village.
The group turned northwards here and followed the road up hill for about a quarter of a mile to reach a bridleway that led them westwards where the jogger that they had passed earlier passed them again.
The bridleway led through the farmyard of Kincoed before dropping back down the hillside to complete a loop when they met the country road beside the Cothi.
From here, they retraced their steps back past the Cothi Bridge Hotel then over the bridge over the Cothi to access Heol y Deri.
This was the start of another loop as they now headed northwards along the road following the Cothi up river on the opposite bank to the Cresselly Arms for about a quarter of a mile before veering westwards to cross the B4310 Abergorlech road just after Nant-y-saer.
Continuing along the road about a quarter of a mile they turned left at New Cross and continued westwards for about three quarters of a mile to reach the ancient church of St
Michael’s and All Angels at Llanfihangel-uwch-gwili where they stopped for lunch.
In the afternoon, the terrain remained good as the road continued westwards around the hillside heading down the Annell valley for just over a mile to take a left fork in the road at Cwple – still encircling the hillside to pass Penbryn where the hard surface of the road suddenly ran out at a fork.
Taking the left fork towards Waunyr-afr briefly, they soon met a pedestrian gate that gave them access to some fields on the hillside and as they climbed, they looked back over their route to see the well-known landmark of Merlin’s Hill in the distance as they looked down the Towy valley towards Carmarthen. This section of the walk was blessed with some newly installed pedestrian gates that have replaced the old wooden stiles making it much easier to pass between fields.
The route connected with a green lane that took them to the highest point of the walk at a height of 140 metres which gave them a great view over the Annell Valley and the surrounding rolling Carmarthenshire hills before they started the descent down a stony track to meet the A40 near the Nantgaredig turning which meant a brief stroll back down Station Road to the start.
Details of the next walk can be found in the website www. carmarthenramblers.org.uk