Here today for you is an insight into the beauty to be found on the Rhondda Fach Trail 881 that runs between Tylorstown and Ferndale in the heart of the Rhondda Valleys in South Wales UK.

This area use to be at the heart of the South Wales coal mining industry with the landscape dotted with collieries, railway tracks and coal tips and as you will be able to see from the video on this page that this area has undergone a major transformation.

What once was a heavily blighted area is now fast becoming the heart of leading tourism in the South Wales Valleys.

click on image for large view

When all the collieries started to close after the Miners Strike of the early 1980′s the communities were devastated financially and emotionally by the loss of the pit’s in the area.

They had been the “Beating Heart ” of the valley communities for many a long year and had been the reason that many of these valley communities and villages had come into their existence.

However the people of the Rhondda Valleys have always been the type that are ever resourceful and move on to other means to support themselves and their families.

It has not been an easy transformation however, and is still an on going process even to this day, but as you can see nature has joined in with this radical transformation.

Tylorstown 2011

In the video you can watch on here you can get a glimpse of just how wonderful nature can be in it’s ability to transform an area blighted by heavy industry in the past.

The below video is complied from my own snap shots of the old railway line that now forms part of the Rhondda Fach Trail in the Rhondda Fach Valley leading up from Pontypridd to Maerdy and beyond.

The photographs that I took to make this video with start at the Tylorstown area of the Rhondda Fach trail and can be accessed from next to the roundabout at the end of the new main road that leads up the Rhondda Fach valley from Porth.

Or you can proceed just a little further just up the old main road through Tylorstown and on up in to Ferndale ( then turn left at the Anchor pub in Ferndale ) and park next to the brand new visitor complex of the Glynrhedyn and access the track from the opposite side of the road outside the complex.

click on image for large view

The Glynrhedyn is helping to promote the Ferndale Rugby Club and inside you can see framed rugby shirts and other commemorative items hanging on the walls there.

They even have a fantastic lounge called the Sir Stanley Baker Lounge named after the famous actor that comes from the area.

This particular part of the Rhondda Fach Trail is a really wonderful nugget of natural beauty where nature has taken back control and is easy to traverse on foot or by bicycle.

The one side of the old railway track ( the side of the valley opposite Ferndale and Tylorstown )  as you can see from the video has literally become a narrow path amongst the tree’s and bushes so is a little harder to travel along in places.

 

It is also where the steps up the mountain side ( next to the wooden foot bridge ) made out of the disused railway sleeps leads up to a path that can take you up to “Old Smokey” or the old main Tylorstown No1 Colliery tip where there are some absolutely stunning views to be had.

Railway sleeper steps up to the track to “Old Smokey”

“Old Smokey” or Tylorstown N0 1 Tip

You can see for miles on a clear day from the top of “Old Smokey” in fact as far as the Brecon Beacons in one direction and to the Bristol Channel in the other.

However at present on the track on this side you can still use a bicycle along it if you so wish. On foot the ground can get a little water logged due to the water traversing down off the mountain sides above but that is one main reason that the beautiful natural habitat is now so prominent.

So I would say that the track on that side is so beautiful and the air so fresh that get those walking shoes on and go for gold as it will not disappoint you at all.

If you wish to traverse the cycle track on the Ferndale side of the valley you will find it much easier to navigate and more suitable for a family stroll, or should you wish to bring along the children’s bicycles a lovely route to gently cycle along.

It’s not too steep a cycle as it gently slopes down from Ferndale to Tylorstown, so no matter which direction you wish to travel along, the family will find it a fairly easy walk or cycle route.

The river along this section has many a deep pool and large rocks so the river tumbles and cascades down it’s route towards Pontypridd, Cardiff and then on to the Bristol Channel.

So here you will see wild trout and Salmon  feeding in the river and jumping up stream on their way up the valley in the cool crystal clear river water.

I can highly recommend a visit to this location if you want to enjoy an enjoyable day out with the family or wish to cycle along a very interesting and beautiful part of the Rhondda Fach 881 Cycle route.

There are also many other attractions to call in and visit in the area as well as the opportunity to stroll around Ferndale see the shops, eat and savor the welcoming feeling you will get by walking around where the friendly local community shop and live.

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