Several climbs and descents in stony lanes made hard ramble
ON Sunday, October 14, the day after Storm Callum caused chaos in Carmarthenshire, Richard Leggett led the Carmarthen ramblers on a nine-mile walk that had several climbs and descents in rough stony lanes almost converted to streams after the heavy downpours of the previous day that made this a little harder than the standard ramble.
A lot of work has been done recently to improve the footpaths in this area; 18 months ago it wasn’t possible to walk parts of the route that the group followed on the day.
The Carmarthen Ramblers would like to express their thanks to the Carmarthenshire Council Public Rights of Way Maintenance Team for the work that they have done here, clearing paths, putting in signs, new gates and installing a couple of new foot bridges.
The weather forecast for the day was a vast improvement on the previous day with temperatures of about 14C – quite mild for the time of year – no rain and hardly any breeze.
The walk started from the car park opposite Ainon Chapel car park in Gellywen near Meidrim from where they followed the road across Gelliwen valley about a quarter of a mile crossing the fast flowing Afon Cynin to reach a lane just after Plas y Deri that led into Allt Cil-sant. They followed a gently ascending forestry track for over a mile-and-a-half with the Afon Sien in a gully below and passed around the farmyard of Ffynnon-felen – then descended into the valley via a lane quite gingerly as the slippery bedrock was exposed and was being washed by a small rivulet. On the valley floor they reached a ford but used a footbridge to cross over the Afon Sien to reach the road at Cwmbach.
They continued in the same general direction, climbing as they took the road out of Cwmbach briefly before accessing a field still climbing as they headed towards Llanwinio where they reached the road at Llanwinio Church at a height of 190 metres the highest point of the day. Here Richard gave a brief history of the church with its circular burial ground before they set off downhill along a quiet country road to reach Dan-llan then onto a long steep, wet, rough, stony track down the hillside to reach the road in the tiny hamlet of Felindre.
The next quarter of a mile was an easy stretch along the road running southwards down the valley parallel to the Afon Cynin until just passed Pant-howel Lodge they stopped at a bridge over the river for a lunch break.
In the afternoon, they continued along the road down the Cynin valley towards Gelliwen for just under two miles and after a short hill climb they reached a road junction just after Frondeg where they turned left and on top of the hill they met the Meidrim to Trelech road. They turned towards Meidrim and walk along this road nearly a quarter of a mile to reach a bridleway at a bend in the road and this took them up onto a hilltop to a height of 182 metres from where they had a particularly fine view southwards under an almost cloudless sky.
At a farm gate they were able to view Wharley Point and Gynst Point on the tip of Laugharne Sands with Worm’s Head beyond and the visibility was so good they were even able to see the Devon coast across the Bristol Channel in the distance - about 50 miles away as the crow flies.
The bridleway led down off the hill and ended near Bwlchgwynt and at this point they turned onto a footpath that led them into Allt Corn-gafr for the last half mile through the woods to emerge at the car park to complete the walk.
The next walk will be on Sunday, October 28, when Auriol and Huw Llewelyn will finish the summer programme when they lead a ten-mile walk along footpaths and through woodlands in the Dryslwyn/ Llangathen area. Details are available on 01267 231487.