HAVEN OF OLD WALES
Tucked between the M4 and the Severn Estuary is a thriving wetland world of charming villages, flowery meadows and a dramatic coast. Fergus Collins explores the Gwent Levels
Tucked between the M4 and the
Severn Estuary is a thriving wetland world and a dramatic coastline. Discover the amazing wildlife of the Gwent Levels.
“The freshwater flowing from the higher lands in the north gives the Levels their unique quality”
On a typical summer’s day, 50,000 cars stream across the Severn bridges into Wales on the M4. Many will be visitors dreaming of Gower, Pembrokeshire and the Brecon Beacons. And though it’s impossible not to be thrilled by the vistas of the vast estuary, few people will stop to look closely at the magical coastal landscape to the south as they speed west.
These Gwent Levels, a peaceful, pastoral wetland realm with unique history, wildlife and atmosphere, have only recently been saved from an expansion of the very motorway that encourages people to ignore them. But with the M4 threat receding for now, and reports of cranes and other rare birds nesting here, it’s high time to explore.
The Gwent Levels run from Cardiff in the west to Chepstow in the east and, for the sake of argument, are bordered by the M4 and the industrial strip
along the Queensway to the north. They are low-lying, having been reclaimed from the sea over the past 2,000 years. Water is ever-present and an everpresent threat. Mighty sea walls protect the entire stretch (the earliest Roman and medieval versions, some way inland now, can still be encountered on walks) and, when you stand atop the modern walls at high tide, the defended land is far lower than the sea. But it’s the freshwater flowing from the higher lands in the north that give the Levels their unique quality. As rainwater drains from the attractive wooded hills of Wentwood, a vast network of wildliferich ditches – known as reens, gouts and pills – channels this water to the sea
and protects the precious grazing land and villages. The Romans began this process and you can see one of their drainage channels, Monks Ditch, still functioning as it runs north-south alongside the village of Whitson.
This blend of water and pasture is the essential character of the Levels – big skies, wildflower-rich meadows of sleepily grazing cows and winding lanes. The villages linked by these lanes have their own personality, too. While Goldcliff, Redwick and Nash have an ‘English’ character of cottages clustered around a pretty church, Whitson has what was described to me as a Dutch feel – houses set back from the road, flanked by broad areas of common land. This creates unusual but welcome land for walkers, with plenty of room for cars and cyclists.
QUIET LANDS
My tour begins in the west but not in the far west of the Levels. There is a large chunk of land between the Usk
and Cardiff known as Wentloog that I have yet to explore so I’m going to focus east of the river, the Caldicot Level just south of the much-overlooked city of Newport. Newport city docks and various riverside industries cast an atmospheric shadow here but the spell is instantly dispersed if you start your quest at Great Traston Meadows.
Owned by Eastman Chemicals but managed in partnership with Gwent Wildlife Trust, this series of large irregular fields north of Nash are the area’s best-kept secret. I visited in July when the blend of vetches, knapweeds, yellow rattle and thistles create a stunning knee-deep meadow of endless colour and delights. The hum of crickets, grasshoppers and bees was laced with the flutes of Cetti’s warbler, blackcap and reed bunting, while marbled white butterflies drifted over, bombing the grasses with their eggs. It was magnificent and such a surprise. Perhaps it is not well known because parking is limited to two cars. If the tiny parking place is full, you’ll have to walk in from the delightfully named
“The views over the estuary are magnificent and strangely poignant. Bring binoculars...”
Pye Corner or, better still, follow the Wales Coast Path north from the Waterloo Inn in Nash.
The coast path loops south to the RSPB’s Newport Wetlands reserve, a key destination for most visitors to the Levels. This vast area of reedbeds and lagoons is a classic ‘view, brew and loo’ location to top up your sightings of wildfowl and, in spring, hear the booming bitterns that now breed here. But the central reserve, with its towering and slightly claustrophobic reedbeds, has a very different character to the rest of the area, where the skies seem bigger.
Nearby, the coast path actually meets the coast and rides the sea defences all the way to the Severn Bridges and beyond. If you only have time for one walk during your visit, then hit the sea wall. The views over the estuary are magnificent and strangely poignant. Bring binoculars to hunt for waders among the saltmarsh and mudflats – many species are seen here and it’s a fabulous stop-off point for migrants. When I last visited, curlew song rose from estuary mud.
At Goldcliff, you get the best of all worlds. Seawall vistas, wildlife-rich lagoons, broad commons along the lanes, intriguing watery channels, a unique café and the Farmers Arms pub just inland. The skeletal remains of a massive fish trap – for salmon – stretch out into the water and the imprint of Goldcliff Priory behind the seawall, where the handsome Hill House Farm now stands.
What I love about this and all the other villages is the hotch-potch of architectural styles, from functional bungalows to some enviably handsome country homes full of charm, perhaps peaking in the great Georgian bastion of Whitsun Hall. While it’s tempting to drive between hotspots, a cycle ride from station to café to pub allows you to stop and appreciate the little treasures. And, crucially, pause to check the ditches and water channels that you constantly cross for the herons, kingfishers, otters and water voles that haunt this watery web in good numbers. I’ve yet to do pond dipping – the aquatic life is fantastic here, though it’s at its best in Magor Marsh reserve further east, where the great silver water beetle has its stronghold.
WANDERING WILDLIFE
Between Whitson and Redwick, you can take a footpath through the heart of Levels countryside. It’s an ideal short adventure through peaceful skylark-serenaded meadows, with the added incentive of a stop at the Rose Inn in Redwick, a meander around St Thomas’s churchyard and
perhaps a jaunt down to the sea wall again to check on the waders. Somewhere out here, the cranes nest. Keep an eye out in late spring.
I’m saving the most intense wildlife experience – and an insight into how much the area might have looked before the intensification of silage cutting – for last. Gwent Wildlife Trust’s Magor Marsh is the largest surviving area of old fen – a carefully managed blending of land and water where dragonflies hunt over flag irises and cuckoos thrive in spring. Despite its proximity to the ribbon of villages and towns that wind along the A48 and motorway to the north, this is a tranquil haven. Hang around long enough and you will see water voles – the staff leave out apples for them on special rafts in the reens and you’ll hear their crunching before you spot them. I’ve always seen kingfishers here. Linger for a morning then take a walk through the reserve down Magor Pill to the sea for another bracing view.
My favourite view is at the far eastern edge of the Levels. Portskewett is an
old Severn salmon-fishing village. The locals, passing arcane knowledge of treacherous tides, shoals and mudflats down through the generations, use large triangular lave nets to catch salmon from the surging river. They are the descendants of prehistoric hunters whose footprints are still preserved in the estuary mud. Or they were, until Natural Resources Wales enforced a mandatory catch and release order on the eight remaining fishermen, which appears to have suffocated the old tradition. It does seem a bit rough on the lave net fishers
when you consider the far bigger – and as yet untackled – problem of pollution of salmon-spawning rivers in Wales.
From the Portskewett high street, turn down a lane signposted to the picnic spot and Lave net fishery to reach a beautiful wooded promontory over the River Severn. It is the most stunning spot to contemplate the river, the incredible bridges and the lives of the people and wildlife that have depended on this mighty waterway for millennia. There’s even a poignant statue of a giant lave fisherman wading through the grass, pursuing a salmon. The secrecy of this place is a fitting end to a journey through a quiet, little-visited haven of old Wales: the Gwent Levels.
GETTING THERE
You can cycle or walk to the Levels from Severn Tunnel Junction station in the east or from Newport in the west; both stations are served by GWR Cardiff to Bristol line. The M4 runs along the northern edge of the Levels. • For more about the Gwent Levels, visit livinglevels. org.uk and Gwent Wildlife Trust, gwentwildlife.org
Fergus Collins is editor of BBC Countryfile Magazine.