[Closed] Cycle from Cardiff to Cwmcarn?

It's possible to ride there off-road then do a lap and ride back.

Not done it myself, but its a popular route with the Cardiff lot, who will no doubt be along in a bit to explain.
Pretty sure it goes over the ridgeway, rudry woods then Sirhowy Valley.

Ride to the top of the hill above Machen and ride down the otherside to Risca and Cwmcarn. Plenty of tracks down, easiest route is up a lane Bedwas end of Machen.

I was thinking of doing it by train from London, I assume Newport would be best bet?

Thanks. It's looking like a fair old ride, not sure if I have enough time... Thinking now perhaps best to drive and do 2 laps of the Twrch!

Rewski, you can get the train to Cardiff and get a connection to Crosskeys, although the trains only go every hour, so you may have a wait.
Newport is about a 20 min ride mostly along the towpath though.

Cheers LoCo.

Drop me an email and I'll send you a map 🙂 Really nice ride over that way.

Rickon - cheers, YGM, any chance you can do it before I leave at three???

If you don't want to ride over to Cwm Carn or do 2 x laps of the Twrch trail then why not explore the top of the hill & valleys, put your bike over the fence @ Airstream and go ride.

I've got a GPX file of a route we did a while back with a nice descent into the valley & back out again.

If you want me to send it to you email me - addy in profile.

Great ride.
Take TT up to Tongywnlais, ST around Castell Coch, Ridgeway arcoss the Rudry Common, drop down to Bedwas.
Up "cowpat climb", along the top of the Sirhowy / Machen ridge. Drop down to Sirhowy Country park, quick road section through Newtown / Crosskeys.
Quick lap of Cwmcarn, back up to Machen masts. Take in one of many DH machen tracks.
Back up through Coed Cefn pwll du. Take in Secret Singletrack.
Quick beer at Maenllywd (if required).
Back along Ridgeway.
Simples.

@flokl, that sounds a good run. A question for you.... where's cowpat lane? Is it the hill out of Bedwas, or the one past the old colliery near Trethomas??

I haven't got my GPX files here, and they dont seem to be on the Garmin site for some reason either....

My route is basically the same as Floki's... although...

Take TT up to Tongywnlais, ST around Castell Coch, up the road through Blaengwynlais, turn right up a double track drive, follow this up to the crest and it'll start to descend down - through a gate and though the golf course, pop out on the road betwixt Caerphilly mountain and Thornhill, straight over the road and left a little bit to go through a gate - follow that until you get to a T-junction on fireroad, go left and up, through a gate and turn right, follow that patch and you'll get to a field, turn left into a farms field (angry farmer's field), straight over and across another gate at the bottom, up the cable climb, then descend down, when you get to a horse gate, go through it and turn right - you'll eventually pop out on a road by a stream - this is in lower machen - follow the road til you get to the main road through machen, turn left up the road, then continue until you find Silo hill - go up this for ages, then you're at the top of Machen with the slag heaps.....

It's not as easy to navigate without a map, or a guide really... so I'll stop there!

I'll have a look around and see if anyone has a gpx I can get to you, there are lots of places to go wrong, and you could just end up doing a big road loop.

Rickon - no worries, it's my fault for being so last minute! Your directions are probably very clear on the ground but less so on Google Maps... I worry about never reaching Cwmcarn!! Which would be all fine and well but I really want to do the Twrch as a measure of my progress over the past year.

So Floki - thanks to you too but same applies really. I don't think I've got time to go wrong!!

If you really fancy going for a ride, go on the road up to Cwm Carn - is fine really 🙂 you go from Taffs Well train station for a pretty nice ride, and it's easy to map

I just got lost between llandaff and cardiff...

Chrispo - ah, not the best start to getting to Cwmcarn and back 😉 Better luck next time.

@Fandango - "Cowpat Climb/Lane" is labelled up as "Mountain Road" on the OS map and goes up past Pen-y-waun farm (source of high volumes of cowsh!t).

Bunch of variations to this, but whichever way you go, its always a good ride.

Floki that route is ace..reminds me of way back, but isn't Cowpat Hill a beetard!!! It takes me about 2 1/2 hours to bimble along from Llandaff to Cwmcarn without smashing it. Great ride though.