All walks › Rhondda and the Western Valleys
Rhondda and the Western ValleysThe Maerdy Ridges
Open mountain at the head of the Rhondda Fach, where the last pit in the valley closed in 1990, with ridge walking in every direction.
- Distance
- 5.0 mi / 8 km
- Time
- 2 hr 55
- Ascent
- 320 m
- Difficulty
- Demanding
- Shape
- Circular
Where it is
The circle shows the general area, not the exact start. Use the directions link below to get to the car park itself. Contours and paths shown are OpenTopoMap, drawn from OpenStreetMap data.
The route
Tracks climb away from the village onto the ridge and along towards Llyn Fawr or the Rhigos, returning by a different line.
Worth knowing
- Maerdy colliery was the last working pit in the Rhondda and closed in December 1990.
- The ridges here are open access with ponies and no shelter.
- Llyn Fawr, a natural lake in a cwm to the north, produced a hoard of Iron Age metalwork.
What you’ll see
Open moorland and ponies, the head of the valley, and the Bannau if the visibility holds.
Background
The Llyn Fawr hoard, found when the lake was dammed in 1911, includes some of the earliest iron objects known in Britain.