Walks And Walking – The Wales Coast Path With Saga Walking Holidays

Walks And Walking – The Wales Coast Path With Saga Walking Holidays

If you are looking for a bracing few days walking then you can’t go too wrong with a visit to the Wales Coast Path where you can take in the lush rural landscapes, the dramatic coast, breathtaking mountains, secluded ancient forests and the rugged foothills of the Brecon Beacons National Park, the Gower Peninsula and Offa’s Dyke Path National Trail.

I spent a week with the parents in South Wales a few years ago, where we walked a few sections of the Gower Peninsula and it was stunning, you can find them here Wales Walks. The Wales Coast Path officially opened earlier this year and you can see the whole 870 miles of the Wales Coast Path in a 5 minute video here Wales Coast Path video.

Walks And Walking – The Wales Coast Path With Saga Walking Holidays – The Gower Peninsula

In addition to the award winning golden beaches the walking routes along the Gower Peninsula also include 5 unique conversation areas, places of historical interest such as ancient monuments, caves and castles and an impressive 24 wildlife trust reserves to visit. You can also explore the town of Laugharne where the legacy of Dylan Thomas lives on, not forgetting the impressive Laugharne Castle that has influenced so many other writers and artists to this day.

From June 2013 Saga Holidays will be introducing walking holidays in Llanelli, at the Stradey Park Hotel, so you can enjoy the outstanding natural beauty of the Wales Coast Path. This classic converted Edwardian mansion has plenty of character and benefits from its elevated position overlooking the town with sweeping panoramic views across Llanelli, Carmarthen Bay and the world famous Gower Peninsula.

Walks And Walking – The Wales Coast Path With Saga Walking Holidays – Laugharne Castle

From its Celtic roots, Llanelli grew in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries with the mining of coal and tin. Today, sport plays a key role in the town, which is the location of the famous rugby union ground. You can also explore the historic town of Llanelli overlooks the Gower Penisula and Carmarthenshire coast as well as the 13 mile long shoreline of the Loughor estuary, which has been transformed into the Millennium Coastal Park.

Walking the Costa Blanca – Saga Walking Holidays

If you want to escape to sunnier climes (literally) this autumn/winter then Saga Holidays are currently offering walking holidays in the Costa Blanca from November. For more information on all Saga walking holidays you can visit Saga, use the drop down search menu and click on Walking. You can also chat with Saga Holidays on their facebook page here.

Walks And Walking in Wales – Welsh Waterfalls

Walks And Walking in Wales – Welsh Waterfalls

The Brecon Beacons in South Wales are famous for mountain walks across the vast ranges of the Brecon Beacons National Park. However, by visiting South Wales and the Brecon Beacons National Park you are also rewarded with the spectacular Welsh waterfalls hidden amongst the ancient woodlands and forest walking routes.

Welsh Waterfalls in South Wales

Whilst the Brecon Beacons offer reliable walks and walking routes there are also claustrophobic caverns, woodland gorges and forest tracks that spring pleasant scenic surprises. Where the sandstone gives way to a band of outcropping carboniferous limestone you enter Waterfall Country.

The limestone weathers to form craggy, fractured landscapes made up of narrow gorges, pot holes, sink holes, caves and, most rewarding, waterfalls.

The landscape has definitely suffered for the pleasure of man and the main area to see these splendid features is Ystradfellte, an isolated area close to the abundant Mellte, Hepste, Nedd and Pyrddin Rivers. It is here that there are a succession of magnificent waterfalls which includes the most famous Welsh waterfall; Sgwd-yr-Eira also known as The Spout of Snow.

The overhang at Sgwd-yr-Eira is such that you can walk the low pathway around and behind the cascading waterfall without getting (too) wet.

For the caving enthusiasts there is the giant mouth of Porth-yr-Ogof up the Mellte River but for the walkers, hikers, trekkers and ramblers staying above ground is a happier pursuit to the underground mazes created by the erosive action of water on limestone.

Unlike the mountain ranges of the Brecon Beacons that are best tackled with the assistance of clear blue skies it is best to walk the Welsh waterfall walking routes when it has been raining, preferably the night beforehand.

Most of the walks and walking routes for the Welsh waterfalls can be found at the Clun Gwyn starting point by the Mellte, Hepste, Need and Pyrddin rivers that all plunge over a series of waterfalls although the distance becomes tiring due to the tricky, rocky climbs of this eight mile stretch.

Following the Afon Mellte you emerge at the Sgwd Uchaf Clun Gwyn, Sgwd being the Welsh for waterfall. Continuing along Gwaun Hepste to the Sgwd Isaf Clun Gwyn there are opportunities to splash through streams passing between the Mellte and Hepste valleys until reaching the Sgwd-yr-Eira. Then following Afon Nedd to Afon Pyrddin the result is the Sgwd Gwladys beauty spot.

The final Welsh waterfall of note is Henrhyd Falls. This delightful walking route takes you through Craig-y-nos Country Park and its 19th century castle to the summit of Cribarth returning along the beautiful gorge to Henrhyd Falls.

Henryhd Falls is the highest waterfall in South Wales and offers another chance to walk behind this fabulous Welsh waterfall without getting too wet, even offering enough space to sit down, relax, enjoy a picnic and marvel at this unbelievable area of outstanding natural beauty.

Walks And Walking in Wales – Brecon Beacons

Walks And Walking in Wales – Brecon Beacons

The Brecon Beacons in South Wales offers walks and walking routes as varied as you could imagine. An area of true outstanding natural beauty its landscape is intertwined with exploitation, conservation, preservation and recreation.

The Brecon Beacons, defined by the Brecon Beacons National Park, has embraced the need to protect this beautiful area with investment and environmental consciousness. The area boasts the tallest, roughest, toughest peaks in South Wales engulfed in the boundless terrain, swooping escarpments, huge vistas, impressive tarns (lakes formed by glacial formations) and the barren moorlands.

The Brecon Beacons South Wales - we were headed to the peak on my right hand shoulder

The sudden transition from the tranquillity and the breathtaking scenery of the Brecon Beacons to the coal bearing valleys legacy of the industrial revolution is almost instant.

Merthyr Tydfil used to be the largest town in Wales with a legend dating back to 480 when Saint Tydfil was slain by pagans. In her honour the town was renamed Merthyr Tydfil, with Merthyr being a modern Welsh translation of Martyr. With the growth of the iron industry, several wars and the rapid expansion of railways meant the town grew until its peak in 1861. By the 1930’s following World War I the area and industry was in decline. All that remained of the Dowlais ironworks finally closed in 1987 marking the end of 228 years of continuous production from one of the many, many sites.

Close by is Port Talbot, the home in 1952 of one of Europe’s biggest steelworks and the then largest employer in Wales. A chemical plant in 1960 and deep-water harbour renovation in 1970 meant the area was good for the community but a ruin within the landscape.

Herein lays the importance of maintaining rural South Wales with the Brecon Beacons being the saviour of tourism and the Gower Peninsula by Swansea offering wonderful holiday spots for the beach lovers and coastal walkers.

The Brecon Beacons National Park offers a consistent character of wave upon wave of open hillside and crystal clear mountain air. The terrain dips, rolls and rises fluidly like a giant green sea. Walking routes in the Brecon Beacons are uncomplicated with wide open spaces and vast skies above, easy to navigate but ruthlessly draining with slow steady climbs that seem endless.

The Black Mountains is the first of the four main mountain ranges in the Brecon Beacons, a lofty range of hills along the Welsh/English border. The Brecon Beacons are the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park and to the west are the moors and plateaux of Fforest Fawr. The loneliest of mountain ranges is at the far west of the Brecon Beacons, Black Mountain; a daunting wilderness for the very brave explorer.

In comparison to its northern counterpart, the Snowdonia National Park, the Brecon Beacons is more reliable than the lucky-dip landscape of boulder strewn slopes, jagged pinnacles, boggy moors and woodland valleys.

Whilst Mount Snowdon and the Snowdonia National Park may sound like the preferred choice for the more adventurous the Brecon Beacons beholds rarer of treasures; the Welsh waterfalls. The Welsh waterfalls are almost as endless as the mountain ranges and can be found in the ancient woodlands and forest pathways in and around the Brecon Beacons.

The experience of walking into, around, up and below, inside and outside of a Welsh waterfall is a definite rival to the many peaks and cwms of Mount Snowdon.