Hole lot of history to discover on autumnal hillside ramble
A PLACE of great natural beauty but also secrets and hidden depths are the carboniferous limestone hills above Morganstown and Tongwynlais.
There’re holes in them thar hills – and one of those holes is very big indeed.
Last weekend I enjoyed a sunny afternoon’s ramble that proved to be an education. It also reminded me of an encounter back in late spring 2009, I think it was, as we walked up the Garth from the Gwaelod-y-Garth Inn one pleasant evening.
From seemingly out of nowhere appeared a senior but energetic fella who claimed to sleep rough in the summer months on the hillside when not housesitting for locals.
This gent – whose name I don’t recall – was eager to educate us so he walked with us up the mountain.
Being wholly ignorant of the area’s past (it’s not our neck of the woods, see), we were more than happy for him to be our tour guide.
Halfway up the mountainside we passed some old stones, which he claimed were the remains of a twostorey pub, the Colliers Arms.
Really? Out here in the wild, with no roads, was once a thriving venue, packed full of miners spending their pay?
It was hard to believe, but of course, it’s absolutely true.
The area is littered with clues of human activity, both quite recent as well as ancient.
Since then, I’ve become more and more fascinated by the vanishing past – its decaying remnants, and how people lived in the same spaces we live in and know so well today.
On Saturday I revisited Lesser (or Little) Garth, the hill behind the Ty Nant pub in Morganstown.
It’s a visual feast on a gorgeous November afternoon: autumnal colours stark against a cobalt blue sky, a rusty red carpet climbing up through the dark pillars of ancient beech, and golden light from the dipping western sun catching the more stubborn, lingering leaves.
The constant industrial hum of the nearby M4 aside, it’s comforting to consider that this spot hasn’t changed much in centuries.
But all is not quite what it seems. Lesser Garth has a few secrets.
Like Garth Mountain to the north and the hillside above Castell Coch on the other side of the valley, 210-metrehigh Lesser Garth has been the site of mining and quarrying for millennia; the carboniferous limestone ground abounds with myriad tunnels, mines and caves.
After a while the path crosses a small ravine by way of a decidedly out-of-place, narrow concrete bridge with high sides intended to prevent you from peeking over. When I invariably do, I look down upon a large blocked up tunnel entrance. This was a rail line. This wood wasn’t always so quiet.
I clamber down for a better look at the portal of what I later discover is the Garth (or Walnut Tree) Tunnel, a 490yard long remnant of the Barry Railway line’s Rhymney branch, from Tyny-Caeau Junction (near St Fagans) to Penrhos Junction (near Caerphilly), which opened in 1901 and fell permanently silent on March 31, 1963.
On the other side of the hill, the line spanned the valley at Taff’s Well by way of the Walnut Tree Viaduct that stood for 70 years before its removal in the early 1970s when the new A470 was constructed.
Today all that’s visible down in the valley is a huge monolithic brick pier with JUBILEE 2012 (originally 1977) painted on it.
It’s intrigued me since I was a child. Only last week when making a delivery of a few framed prints to a business in Taffs Well did I once again see this strange edifice and made a mental note to find out more about it... and thanks to this walk I finally have done.
Lesser Garth has seen mining and quarrying since ancient times, but it kicked off in earnest in 1805 with the opening of Garth Iron Mine. It lasted till 1884 and was worked once again between 1926 and 1937.
On the Welsh Mines Forum, the late Reg Malpass wrote: “The workings of the four main entries commenced at the surface and progressed downwards following the haematite ore and could, therefore, be described as quarries, the extent of the workings eventually necessitated the linking-up of these below ground by a maze of caverns and staple shafts.”
I recommend taking a look at industrialgwent.co.uk by Phil Jenkins.
The website has photos of many of the overgrown, hidden features of the area’s industrial past, as well as recent, amazing images from inside the southern workings of Garth Iron Mine.
These mining endeavours pale into relative insignificance compared to what is happening today on the other side of the hillside from where I stand near the Garth Tunnel entrance.
Lesser Garth’s big “secret” is that it is a hollow mountain.
Known variously as Taffs Well Quarry, Walnut Tree Quarry, or after previous owners Steetley Dolomite, and since 2004 sometimes named after Mexican owners Cemex, Cardiff’s last working quarry annually removes a million tonnes of aggregate, used in construction and road building.
This railway tunnel wasn’t always so well blocked up, but a new access tunnel into the vast quarry breached the old railway tunnel, so it’s become a site security risk.
Opened in 2009, the two-lane road tunnel into the quarry’s southeast corner (it joins the road near Pugh’s Garden Centre) was expected to extend the quarry’s working life by a couple of decades.
Nature, however, was the original miner. On the south-facing hillside high above the Tynant Inn is Lesser Garth Cave, also known as Ogof Tynant.
The cave was only rediscovered in 1912 by local man Mr TE Lewis, according to Twixt Chain and Gorge (1991), a history of Radyr and Morganstown. It joins up to another, Ogof Ffynnon Taf, discovered in 1986, making it – at 400 metres in length – the largest cave system in the area.
Archaeological excavations in Lesser Garth Cave in 1912-13, 1922 and 1963-4 discovered 209 human bone fragments from up to seven individuals. In 2016 five skeletons were able to be radiocarbon dated by a team from Cardiff University and the Cardiff Archaeological Society.
They had been living between the 5th century and 17th century.
Perhaps more important is the fact that the cave is presently one of only two UK homes of the rare blind cave spider (which is not to suggest it flits between the two, using Garth Cave as a weekend getaway).
I’ve barely scratched the surface of this fascinating place. There are many more footpaths to follow, as well as things on Cardiff’s fringes to explor. I think I’ll have to retire to find the time.