Walk over well-used footpaths through delightful woodland
ON Saturday, November 6, Jenny Anscombe led the Carmarthen Ramblers on a six-mile circular walk in the Johnstown and Llanllwch areas west of Carmarthen.
The walk incorporated several well-used footpaths, some wellknown landmarks as well as a beautiful section that led them through Ystrad wood in Johnstown. The weather was kind to them as the threat of rain did not materialise until the end of the walk.
The walk started from the Bowls Club in Picton Terrace from where they walked along the footpath between the club and the park to meet the footpath that runs along the northern perimeter of Tesco car park.
Their route dropped down to pass the Tovali building in Pothouse Road and crossed the busy A4242 approach road into Carmarthen to meet the coast path near the three Salmon Landform Sculptures.
Here they turned westwards to follow the path beside the Towy passing underneath Lesneven Bridge and B&Q then crossed the Tawelan Brook at its confluence with the Towy.
The well-surfaced path turned southwards to pass under the railway line that crosses the Towy on the Bascule Bridge, then onward on the footpath for about a quarter of a mile along the flood plain to reach the leisure centre at Johnstown.
Following the footpath around they soon reach Rhydygors School and then turned back towards town to reach the Davies estate and walked through the estate to reach a footpath that led into Ystrad Wood.
They followed a footpath through delightful woodland kicking up the autumn leaves as they climbed to reach a high point on the edge of the wood where they stopped for a refreshment break at a modest height of 84 metres – the highest point of the day – with a great view over the Towy and the flood plain down river to Green Castle Corner.
Suitably refreshed they retraced their steps a hundred metres or so to continue through the woods for about a quarter of a mile stopping occasionally to pick out landmarks like the Trinity College buildings and St David’s Hospital on the other side of the valley.
The woodland footpath ended at Alltycnap Road where they walked down the hill briefly to locate a footpath that led through Cillefwr industrial estate to a footbridge that crossed the Nant y Ci stream.
They followed the stream along a footpath for about a quarter of a mile to pass the mill at Llanllwch to reach St Mary’s Church where they stopped whilst Jenny gave a potted history of the church.
They made their way through Manor Crescent estate then onto a footpath that crossed the main railway line. A minute later a train shot past on its way to Carmarthen.
The route emerged onto approach road to the park and ride carpark then passed through the subway under the A40 dual carriageway into Travellers’ Rest. They now followed the road uphill past The Kennels and Llysonnen mill to reach a byway.
This was the start of the return journey, walking the byway eastwards towards Johnstown for just over half a mile – crossing the new road (Ffordd Pendre) on the way- to eventually reach the old St Clears Road.
A short distance down this road they crossed a footbridge over Tawelan Brook and walked through Glan Tawelan to Pondside to pick up the footpath that led across the Morfa Wetlands and across the allotments at Five Fields back to the Bowls Club to complete the circuit.
Details of the next walk can be found on the website at www. carmarthenramblers.org.uk.