Scenic Place in Caerphilly County Borough

Mynydd Twmbarlwm is a prominent hill rising to approximately 419 metres above sea level in the county borough of Caerphilly, South Wales. It stands at the northern edge of the Sirhowy Valley and forms part of the broader upland landscape that defines the western fringe of the South Wales Valleys. The hill is instantly recognisable from miles around due to the dramatic tump — a rounded earthwork mound — that crowns its summit, giving the entire massif its distinctive silhouette against the sky. This combination of natural elevation and human-made feature has made Twmbarlwm one of the most iconic landmarks in Gwent, visible from Newport, Caerphilly, and much of the coastal plain stretching toward the Severn Estuary. Locals frequently refer to it simply as "the Tump," and it holds a deep affection in the regional consciousness as a symbol of place and identity. The history of Twmbarlwm stretches back thousands of years, and the summit bears clear evidence of prehistoric occupation. The most striking feature is the Iron Age hillfort whose earthworks are still clearly visible, consisting of a large circular enclosure defined by ramparts and ditches. This fort would have served as a defended settlement or refuge for communities living in the area during the first millennium BC. The conical mound at the very top, the "tump" itself, is believed to be a Norman motte — the earthen base upon which a wooden or stone castle would have been constructed following the Norman conquest of Gwent in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. The Normans were adept at exploiting existing high points and prehistoric earthworks, and at Twmbarlwm they superimposed their own defensive architecture onto a site already laden with centuries of human significance. No substantial masonry survives, suggesting any castle here was relatively modest or was constructed largely in timber. Legend and folklore cling to Twmbarlwm with unusual tenacity. The hill is associated in local tradition with the presence of the Tylwyth Teg — the Welsh fairy folk — and stories persist of strange lights, unexplained sounds, and encounters with otherworldly beings on the slopes and summit. The wild, atmospheric quality of the hilltop, especially in low cloud or at dusk, makes it easy to understand why such stories took root. There is also a tradition that the mound conceals buried treasure, or even the remains of a Welsh chieftain, though no archaeological excavation has confirmed such claims. The hill features in the collective memory of the valley communities below, particularly Risca and Crosskeys, where generations of children were told tales of the mountain's mysteries and where the silhouette of the tump on the skyline served as a constant, reassuring presence. In physical terms, Twmbarlwm is a genuinely dramatic place to visit. The ascent from the surrounding valleys is steep and can be demanding, but the summit plateau opens into a broad, windswept expanse of moorland grass, bilberry, and heather, typical of South Welsh upland terrain. The tump itself rises sharply from this plateau, a steep-sided grassy mound that requires a short but energetic final scramble to reach its very crown. The views from the top are exceptional and panoramic: on a clear day, the Bristol Channel shimmers to the south, the Brecon Beacons are visible to the north and west, the urban sprawl of Newport lies to the southeast, and the ridgelines of multiple valleys recede in succession toward the north. The wind is almost always present at the summit, and the silence between gusts is broken only by the calls of red kite, buzzard, and skylark. In autumn the moorland takes on rich amber and bronze tones, while in summer the whole hillside hums with insect life. The surrounding landscape is characteristic of the post-industrial South Wales Valleys, where former colliery towns nestle in narrow valley floors while the uplands above remain remarkably wild and largely undeveloped. To the south and east lies Risca, and further east the town of Crosskeys, both in the Ebbw and Sirhowy valleys respectively. The Cwmcarn Forest Drive, operated by Natural Resources Wales, lies nearby and offers waymarked trails, a visitor centre, and mountain biking routes through Forestry Commission woodland on the adjacent hillsides. The whole area sits within or adjacent to Sirhowy Valley Country Park, which provides an accessible green corridor linking valley communities to the upland environment. The contrast between the heavily populated valleys and the immediately adjacent open hill is one of the most striking features of this landscape. For those wishing to visit, the most popular starting points are from Crosskeys or from the Twmbarlwm car park area accessed via the lanes above Risca, with several recognised footpath routes climbing the southern and eastern flanks of the hill. The terrain is open access land under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, so walkers are free to roam the summit plateau. Appropriate footwear is strongly recommended as the ground can be boggy in wet weather, and the exposure at the summit means wind and rain can arrive quickly even on days that start bright in the valleys below. The hill is walkable year-round, though spring and early autumn tend to offer the clearest visibility and the most pleasant conditions underfoot. There is no café or facility at the summit itself, and mobile signal can be unreliable, so some preparation is advisable. One of the more fascinating aspects of Twmbarlwm is the way it encapsulates multiple layers of Welsh history in a single viewpoint. Standing on the Norman motte and looking out across the industrial heritage of the valleys, the medieval lordship of Gwent, the prehistoric earthworks beneath your feet, and the living Welsh communities in the towns below, you inhabit a remarkably compressed chronology. The hill is also notable for its role in local recreational culture: for over a century, walking up Twmbarlwm has been a rite of passage for communities in the surrounding towns, a Sunday ritual, a test of fitness, and a mark of belonging to this particular corner of Wales. That enduring human relationship with the summit, as much as its archaeology or its views, is what gives Mynydd Twmbarlwm its singular character.

Penallta Park is a substantial country park located in the Rhymney Valley in Caerphilly County Borough, South Wales. Covering around 330 acres, it is one of the largest country parks in Wales and is managed by Caerphilly County Borough Council. The park sits on the site of the former Penallta Colliery, one of the most significant deep coal mines in the South Wales Coalfield, and this industrial heritage gives the landscape an unusual dual character — part reclaimed wasteland reshaped into rolling grassland and woodland, part living memorial to the communities whose lives revolved around the pit for nearly a century. It draws visitors for walking, cycling, picnicking, and wildlife watching, and is notable for containing one of the most extraordinary pieces of public land art in Wales. The colliery at Penallta was sunk by Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company and began producing coal in 1909. At its peak it was among the largest and most productive pits in Wales, employing thousands of men from the surrounding villages of Ystrad Mynach, Gelligaer, Hengoed, and Maesycwmmer. The colliery had a reputation for both its scale and the tight-knit community it fostered. Like so many South Wales pits, Penallta was deeply affected by the social and labour upheavals of the twentieth century, including the interwar depression and the bitter industrial disputes that defined coalfield life. The colliery closed in 1991 as part of the wider collapse of the British deep-mining industry, leaving behind a vast spoil tip, surface buildings, and a landscape scarred by a century of extraction. Reclamation work began thereafter, gradually transforming the site into the green and open space visitors encounter today. The most remarkable feature of the park is Sultan, a colossal figure of a horse carved into the hillside in the manner of the famous chalk hill figures of southern England. Sultan was created by the artist Llanelli-born Mick Petts working with local communities, and was completed in 2000. The horse commemorates a pit pony of the same name who worked at Penallta Colliery and serves as a broader tribute to all the thousands of ponies who spent their working lives underground in the Welsh coalfield, never seeing daylight. The figure is formed from mounds of earth and coloured stone and is best appreciated from an elevated viewpoint within the park, from where its full scale becomes apparent — Sultan is around 200 metres long, making it one of the largest equine figures in the world. The creation of the figure involved extensive community consultation and participation, embedding it firmly in local memory and pride. Physically, the park is a place of considerable variety and quiet beauty. The terrain rises and falls across the former spoil tips, which have been grassed over and planted with patches of native woodland, creating a landscape that feels almost surreal in its greenness given the industrial past beneath the surface. Wildflowers colonise the grasslands in spring and summer, attracting butterflies and bees, while the scrub and woodland edges provide habitat for linnets, yellowhammers, and other farmland birds that have become increasingly scarce elsewhere. The valley views from the higher points within the park are expansive, taking in the broader Rhymney Valley and the moorland ridges of the Caerphilly uplands beyond. On a clear day the sense of openness and height comes as a surprise given the park's relatively modest elevation, a reminder of how dramatically the valley sides rise from the valley floor. The surrounding area is deeply characteristic of the post-industrial valleys of South Wales. The villages nearby — Ystrad Mynach to the north, Hengoed and Gelligaer to the south and east — retain the terraced housing, chapels, and community halls that speak to their mining origins, and the park functions as a genuine green lung for these communities. Ystrad Mynach itself has a railway station on the Valley Lines network connecting to Cardiff, making the park accessible without a car, and the town provides basic amenities including shops and cafés. The wider Caerphilly County Borough contains Caerphilly Castle to the southwest, one of the greatest medieval fortresses in Europe, as well as the Cwmcarn Forest Drive and Visitor Centre a few miles to the west, making the region quietly rich in things to see and do. For visitors, the park is open year-round and free to enter. There is a car park accessible from the road near Ystrad Mynach, and a network of well-maintained paths and bridleways traverses the site, making much of it suitable for pushchairs and accessible for people of varying mobility levels, though some of the hillier sections are more demanding. Cyclists are welcome on the dedicated trail network. Spring and early summer are arguably the best times to visit, when the grasslands are at their most colourful and birdlife is active, though the elevated position can be exposed in poor weather and appropriate clothing is advisable at any time of year. Dogs are welcome and the park is well used by local dog walkers throughout the week. One detail that stays with many visitors is the emotional weight the park carries even for those with no personal connection to the mining industry. The combination of the Sultan figure, the interpretive information available on site, and the simple knowledge that the rolling green hills were once an industrial workplace of enormous scale gives the landscape a reflective, elegiac quality that sets it apart from an ordinary country park. It is a place that asks something of its visitors — an acknowledgement of what was here before — and repays that attention with one of the more moving and distinctive landscape experiences available in South Wales.

Bute Town, located at coordinates 51.77421, -3.30064, is a small settlement situated in the Rhymney Valley in Caerphilly County Borough, South Wales. It lies just north of the town of Rhymney and is notable as one of the earliest purpose-built industrial villages in Wales, constructed to house workers employed in the local ironworks during the height of the Industrial Revolution. The settlement takes its name from the Marquess of Bute, the powerful aristocratic family whose vast mineral wealth and landholdings shaped much of industrial South Wales and the development of Cardiff as a major coal-exporting port. Though modest in scale today, Bute Town represents a remarkably intact example of planned workers' housing from the early nineteenth century and carries considerable historical significance for anyone interested in Wales's industrial heritage. The origins of Bute Town lie firmly in the ironmaking era of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when the upper valleys of South Wales were transformed almost overnight into some of the most intensively industrialised landscapes in the world. The Rhymney Iron Company, established in the early 1800s, drove development in this area, and Bute Town was laid out to provide orderly, planned accommodation for the growing workforce drawn to the ironworks. The involvement of the Marquess of Bute's estate in the development gave the village its name and reflects the paternalistic model of industrial settlement common among large landowners of the period, who sought to exert control and order over their workforces by providing housing, and sometimes chapels and schools, directly adjacent to the works. This model was relatively progressive for its time, representing an improvement on the overcrowded and haphazard housing that characterised many other industrial settlements in the valleys. Physically, Bute Town presents a striking and somewhat unusual streetscape for a Welsh valley settlement. The village consists of rows of terraced cottages arranged in a planned, formal manner that distinguishes it from the more organic growth of typical valley towns. The stone-built cottages have a solidity and uniformity that speaks clearly to their origins as a planned development rather than a settlement that grew piecemeal over time. Walking through the village today, there is a sense of stepping back into an earlier era, with the scale and character of the housing largely preserved from the original construction period. The surrounding hills close in on the valley, giving the place a sheltered, enclosed feeling typical of the South Wales valleys, and the sounds are those of a quiet rural-industrial community rather than a busy town. The landscape around Bute Town is characteristic of the upper Rhymney Valley, with steep hillsides rising sharply on either side, their upper slopes covered in rough moorland and sheep pasture while the valley floor retains traces of its industrial past alongside more recent regeneration. The River Rhymney flows through the broader valley, and the area has undergone significant environmental improvement since the closure of the heavy industries that once defined it. The town of Rhymney itself is immediately to the south and provides basic amenities. Further afield, the area connects to the broader network of valley communities stretching southward toward Caerphilly and Cardiff, and northward toward the Brecon Beacons National Park, whose boundary lies only a short distance away. For visitors, Bute Town is best approached by road via the A469, which runs through the Rhymney Valley. The settlement is small and can be explored on foot within a short time, making it a natural stopping point for those touring the industrial heritage of the South Wales valleys rather than a standalone destination for most visitors. There is no significant visitor infrastructure in the village itself, so those planning a visit should come prepared with their own provisions. The site is most rewarding for visitors with an interest in industrial archaeology, social history, or Welsh heritage. It can be combined comfortably with visits to nearby sites associated with the broader iron and coal heritage of the region, and the proximity to the Brecon Beacons makes it a worthwhile stop on a wider itinerary through this part of Wales. One of the more quietly fascinating aspects of Bute Town is what it represents in the broader story of Welsh identity and the industrial valleys. The communities that grew up in places like this, shaped by iron and coal and the paternalism of great landowners, forged a distinctive Welsh working-class culture characterised by nonconformist religion, choral singing, trade unionism, and radical politics. Though Bute Town itself is a small settlement, it is a genuine physical remnant of the forces that shaped modern Wales, and its planned streets stand as a rare and legible document of how industrial capitalism and aristocratic landownership combined to create an entirely new kind of human settlement in the nineteenth century valleys. For those attuned to reading landscape and built environment as historical text, it rewards careful attention.

This location in the Rhondda Valley area of south Wales, specifically in the vicinity of Treorchy or the surrounding communities in Rhondda Cynon Taf. This area of the South Wales Valleys is characterised by tight-knit former mining communities set into steep-sided glacially carved valleys, and public recreational spaces here carry a particular social and historical weight rooted in the working-class culture that developed around the coal industry. A handball court in this context would most likely refer to a traditional Welsh handball or fives court — a hard-surfaced walled facility used for the game of handball, which has deep roots in the sporting traditions of Wales and the wider British Isles. Welsh handball, known historically as "pelota" or simply handball, was once an enormously popular recreational sport throughout Wales, particularly in the mining valleys of the south. Before the rise of association football and rugby union as dominant pastimes, handball was played enthusiastically by miners and their communities, often on courts built against the walls of public houses, chapels, or purpose-built structures. The South Wales Valleys were home to numerous such courts during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and a handful survive today in various states of preservation. These courts represent a now-rare physical remnant of a sporting culture that has largely disappeared from everyday Welsh life, making any surviving example genuinely significant as a piece of social and sporting heritage. In physical terms, a traditional Welsh handball court of this type typically consists of a smooth, hard playing surface — often concrete or tarmac — set against a high stone or rendered brick wall, sometimes with side walls creating a three-sided enclosure. The front wall, the main playing surface against which the ball is struck, tends to be several metres high and carefully finished to provide a true, consistent bounce. The court itself would feel functional and austere in the tradition of Valley architecture — no ornamentation, built for purpose — and the surrounding stonework carries the patina of age and weathering characteristic of structures in this damp, cool, upland climate. The sounds of the valley, the wind funnelling through the narrow topography, the distant echoes of community life, form the ambient backdrop to any visit. The Rhondda Valleys landscape is dramatic and unmistakable. The terrain is steep on all sides, with rows of terraced housing climbing the valley slopes and the valley floor accommodating roads, the river, and patches of public open space wherever the tight geography permits. The hills above the communities are open moorland and forestry, managed under various conservation designations, and the sense of enclosure within the valley gives the area an intimate, almost theatrical quality. Near coordinates of this type in the Treorchy area, one might expect to find community parks, recreation grounds, and public amenities that reflect the strong civic investment in leisure infrastructure that characterised Valley communities throughout the twentieth century. Visiting a site like this requires reasonable expectations and an appreciation for industrial heritage rather than polished tourist infrastructure. There is unlikely to be formal visitor management, signage, or facilities on site. Access would typically be on foot through the surrounding residential streets, and the location is best reached by rail — Treorchy has a station on the Rhondda Valley line from Cardiff, making it straightforwardly accessible by public transport. The best time to visit is during daylight hours in spring or summer when the Welsh upland light is at its most generous, though the valley climate can be wet and overcast at any time of year. Visitors with an interest in industrial heritage, sporting history, or Welsh social history will find the broader area richly rewarding beyond any single site. It is worth noting that handball courts of this vintage in the Valleys are increasingly rare survivors. Many were demolished during urban renewal schemes of the mid-to-late twentieth century, and those that remain are not always well documented or formally protected. The survival of a court at these coordinates — if it retains its original fabric — places it among a small number of structures that quietly preserve the memory of a sporting tradition that once defined leisure time for tens of thousands of Welsh working people. Local history societies in Rhondda Cynon Taf have in recent years shown increasing interest in documenting and celebrating such heritage, and the court may feature in local records held at Pontypridd Museum or through the Glamorgan Archives in Cardiff.

Mynyddislwyn, sometimes rendered with the variant spelling seen in local usage and occasionally paired with the name Twyn Tudur, is a hill and ancient ecclesiastical site rising above the valleys of south-east Wales, situated in the county borough of Caerphilly. The coordinates 51.63738, -3.16700 place it in the upland area between the Sirhowy and Ebbw valleys, a landscape of moorland ridges and former industrial communities that has been gradually returning to a wilder character since the decline of the coal industry. The hill itself is notable chiefly for its historic hilltop church, St Tudor's Church (Eglwys Sant Tudur), which is one of the more dramatically sited ancient churches in Gwent, perched on the exposed summit ridge with sweeping views across the surrounding valleys. This combination of a remote, atmospheric church on a windswept hill with deep roots in early Welsh Christianity makes Mynyddislwyn a place of genuine historic and spiritual interest, even if it remains largely unknown outside the local area. The ecclesiastical history of the site reaches back to the Age of Saints, the period in the fifth and sixth centuries when Celtic Christian missionaries and hermits established prayer sites and communities across Wales. The church is dedicated to St Tudur, also written as Tudor or Theodore, a figure associated with this early Christian period in Wales. It is believed that Tudur, a disciple or associate of the broader network of early Welsh saints, established a presence on this commanding hilltop, and the tradition of Christian worship at the site has therefore continued in an unbroken, if interrupted and often precarious, thread for well over a thousand years. The current church building dates in its visible fabric largely from the medieval period, with significant elements suggesting construction or reconstruction around the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, though the foundation itself is far older. The isolated hilltop position of the church, far from any significant medieval settlement, is itself a clue to its pre-Norman origins, since Celtic Christian sites were frequently placed on high ground for contemplative and defensive reasons rather than for congregational convenience. Physically, the hilltop at Mynyddislwyn has the character of exposed Welsh upland: the wind is almost a constant companion, even on days that seem calm in the valleys below, and the vegetation is a mix of rough grass, bracken, and the low scrubby growth typical of moorland edge. The church of St Tudor stands within its ancient churchyard, the whole enclosure giving the impression of a place that has absorbed centuries of weather and quiet use. The building itself is simple and sturdy in the Welsh rural tradition, with thick stone walls and a modest profile against the sky. The churchyard contains old gravestones in varying states of legibility, many in Welsh, and the sense of accumulated local history embedded in that small enclosure is striking. On a clear day the views from the hill are exceptional, taking in wide panoramas across Caerphilly county borough, toward the Brecon Beacons to the north, and down toward the Bristol Channel to the south. The surrounding landscape reflects the complex layered history of this part of south Wales, where ancient upland terrain sits directly above communities shaped by the Industrial Revolution. The villages of Mynyddislwyn, Pontllanfraith, Blackwood, Crumlin, and Risca are all within a short distance, each with its own character formed by the coal and iron industries that transformed the valleys from the late eighteenth century onward. The upland between the valleys retains a sense of older, pre-industrial Wales, and walking the ridge near the church it is possible to feel a marked separation from the busy valley floors below. The area is also within relatively easy reach of the Sirhowy Valley Country Park to the north, which offers substantial walking and wildlife interest in the reclaimed former industrial landscape. For practical visiting, the church and hilltop are accessible by a combination of minor road and short walk, since the summit is not directly served by a through road. The nearest sizeable settlements with road access include the village of Mynyddislwyn itself, and the church can be approached via narrow lanes climbing the hillside from the valley communities. Parking is limited and the lanes are typical of rural Wales in their narrowness, so drivers should exercise caution. The site is best visited in late spring or summer when the weather is more reliably kind and the daylight is long, though winter visits on clear days offer particularly dramatic views and a stark atmosphere appropriate to the antiquity of the place. The church may not always be open, as it is a living parish church serving a small community, and visitors should check locally or through the relevant diocese for access arrangements. Walking boots and layered clothing are advisable given the exposed elevation. One of the more quietly remarkable facts about this place is simply the persistence of Christian worship on this windswept hilltop across so many centuries and through such profound changes in the surrounding society. The valleys below were transformed beyond recognition by industrialisation and then again by deindustrialisation, while up on the ridge the church of St Tudor continued its function as a place of burial and occasional worship, maintaining a thread of continuity with the earliest period of Welsh Christianity. This kind of palimpsest — ancient spiritual site above post-industrial valley — is found in other parts of south Wales but rarely with quite the physical drama that the hilltop position here provides. For those interested in early Welsh saints, medieval ecclesiastical architecture, or simply the experience of standing on a windswept hill above a landscape that tells multiple stories at once, Mynyddislwyn and its ancient church offer something genuinely worth the detour.

The Chartists Mural in Blackwood, Caerphilly, is one of Wales's most striking pieces of public art, commemorating the Chartist movement that profoundly shaped the history of working-class political rights in Britain. Unveiled in 2001, the mural stretches across a substantial exterior wall in the town centre and serves as a vivid reminder that this corner of the South Wales valleys was at the very heart of one of the most dramatic episodes in British democratic history. The Chartist movement of the 1830s and 1840s campaigned for universal male suffrage, secret ballots, and parliamentary reform — causes that seem unremarkable today but were considered dangerously radical at the time. The mural makes those struggles tangible and emotionally present for anyone passing through Blackwood. The historical context behind this mural is extraordinary. On the night of 3–4 November 1839, thousands of armed Chartists marched from the valleys surrounding Newport in what became known as the Newport Rising, one of the last armed insurrections on British soil. Men from Blackwood and the surrounding Sirhowy and Ebbw valleys — miners, ironworkers, and labourers — formed a significant part of that marching column, led by figures including John Frost, Zephaniah Williams, and William Jones. Their intention was to seize Newport and potentially spark a nationwide uprising. The march ended in catastrophe at the Westgate Hotel in Newport, where soldiers opened fire, killing at least 22 Chartists and wounding many more. The leaders were condemned to death, later commuted to transportation to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). Blackwood's role in sending men on that march, and the grief and repression that followed, left a deep mark on the community's collective memory. The mural itself is a bold, colourful work that depicts the Chartist marchers with dramatic visual energy, capturing the determined faces and working clothes of the men who walked through rain and darkness toward Newport. It features figures carrying banners and pikes, rendered in a style that is at once heroic and human, honouring these men not as abstract historical symbols but as recognisable members of a working community. The artwork has considerable physical presence — it is large enough to dominate the space around it, and the colours, despite weathering over the years, retain a vitality that draws the eye from a distance. Standing before it, especially on a quiet morning, gives a visitor the feeling of encountering something that means a great deal to local people, not merely a decorative installation but an act of communal remembrance. Blackwood itself is a former mining and industrial town in the Sirhowy Valley, and the landscape around the mural reflects that layered industrial and post-industrial identity. The town centre has the practical, unpretentious character of many South Wales valley towns — terraced streets climbing the hillsides, a busy high street, and the constant presence of the surrounding green hills that close in on either side of the valley. The Sirhowy River runs nearby, and the hills above the town are criss-crossed with walking paths that offer sweeping views over the valley. The area carries a certain melancholy beauty, the legacy of heavy industry now largely gone, replaced by quieter lives against a backdrop of remarkable natural scenery. Visitors to the mural will find it easily accessible as part of a broader exploration of Chartist heritage in this part of Wales. Blackwood is well connected by bus from Newport and Cardiff, and the town is also reachable by car via the A4048. The mural is located in the town centre near the Blackwood Miners' Institute, itself a historically significant building that has been sensitively restored and continues to function as an arts and cultural venue. The Miners' Institute is well worth visiting alongside the mural, offering a deeper sense of the community culture that sustained the people who made the Chartist march. The combination of these two sites makes for a meaningful half-day visit for anyone interested in Welsh history, labour history, or public art. One of the most fascinating and somewhat underappreciated aspects of this site is how it positions Blackwood within a wider radical geography of South Wales. The valleys from which the Chartist marchers came were, by 1839, already deeply politicised communities shaped by the brutal conditions of early industrial capitalism. The men who marched were not acting on pure idealism alone but on genuine desperation and a conviction that political representation was inseparable from economic survival. The mural, by placing this history on a public wall in the everyday environment of the town, refuses to let it be filed away into museums or textbooks. It insists that this history belongs to the street, to the people passing by, and to the ongoing story of a community that has always understood the relationship between politics and livelihood in unusually direct terms.

Cwmcarn Forest Drive and Visitor Centre in the Ebbw valley in Caerphilly County Borough provides one of the most popular outdoor recreation destinations in the South Wales valleys, combining a scenic seven-mile forest drive, mountain bike trails of national and international significance, waymarked walking trails and a visitor centre with café and facilities. The mountain bike trail network at Cwmcarn is one of the most celebrated in Wales, with technically demanding red and black grade trails on the forested hillsides that attract riders from across Britain and beyond. The forest drive provides access to viewpoints overlooking the Ebbw valley and the broader south Wales valleys landscape. The visitor centre hosts events and activities throughout the year and the surrounding conifer and mixed woodland supports a range of upland birds including red kite, peregrine and various forest species.