and heritage
Walk 19 Loughor Bridge to Llanelli North Dock
Walk 20 Llanelli North Dock to Burry Port Harbour
Walk 21 Cwm Lliedi Reservoir and Parc Howard
Walk 22 Burry Port Harbour to Kidwelly
Walk 23 Kidwelly and the Gwendraeth Valley
Walk 24 Llansteffan Castle
Walk 25 Llansteffan and Wharley Point
Walk 26 Laugharne North
Walk 27 Laugharne South
Walk 28 Pendine to Amroth
Walk 29 Meidrim
Walk 30 Llanboidy
Appendix A Walk summary table
Appendix B Useful contacts
Stile in the upper reaches of the Tywi Valley
INTRODUCTION
The very pleasant footpath through Coed y Castle (Walk 16)
With vast stretches of golden sands, breathtaking mountain scenery, fast-flowing rivers, quiet upland lakes, pretty market towns, isolated farmsteads, extensive tracts of forest, evocative castle ruins, empty country lanes and a rich industrial heritage, it is not surprising that Carmarthenshire is one of the most beautiful counties in Britain. Add to this the fact that it has around 3000km of footpaths, bridleways, green lanes and byways, the vast majority of which are well kept, clearly waymarked and furnished to a high standard with gates and stiles, it is hardly surprising that it is a paradise for walkers who can explore these gems at their leisure.
Carmarthenshire is often overlooked by visitors, as they speed ever westward along the M4 and A40 towards its southwesterly neighbour, Pembrokeshire. To many, it’s not so much a place to terminate the journey and explore but more that bit to pass through between Swansea and St Clears. In some ways this is a real shame because the county is stunningly beautiful with a rich diversity of landscapes. For the discerning walker, however, who has already discovered the treasures of Carmarthenshire, it is something to celebrate, as the footpaths, tracks and bridleways remain largely peaceful and devoid of people.
Covering some 2398 sq km (11.5 percent of total Wales land mass), Carmarthenshire, or to give it its correct Welsh name, Sir Gaerfyrddin, is the third largest county in Wales. It has always been a large county, and up to 1974 held the accolade as the largest in Wales. During that year, following a seriously provocative set of boundary and authority changes, Carmarthenshire ceased to exist, being swallowed up, along with Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire, in the new county of Dyfed. In 1996 it reappeared, following a further bout of reorganisation and boundary change; not quite in its original guise, but the one that we see today.
It is a county of great contrasts, stretching from the sandy beaches of Carmarthen Bay in the south to the empty uplands of the Cambrian Mountains in the north; from the high mountains of Y Mynydd Du in the east to the gently rolling farmland, along the Pembrokeshire border, in the west. Agricultural landscapes predominate, but among the folds of the hills and along the river valleys, there is a good spattering of pretty market towns, all of which are friendly, full of character and offer a range of places for refreshment or accommodation. The most extensive urban landscape occupies the southeastern corner of the county, an area that is also home to 65 percent of its resident population, who live in or around the towns of Llanelli and Burry Port, now both transformed from their industrial past.
Landscape and geology
As with the rest of Britain, the geological events that initially shaped Carmarthenshire occurred hundreds of millions of years ago, south of the equator and beneath warm tropical seas. For the past 425 million years, the continental plate, on which we stand, has been drifting imperceptibly northwards. For the most part, the exposed rocks of Carmarthenshire are sedimentary and consist largely of a mixture of shales, conglomerates, sandstones and mudstones, with Millstone Grit and Carboniferous Limestone forming the northwestern rim of the South Wales coalfield, which extends into Carmarthenshire in the southeast of the county, but which is also exposed in the sea cliffs running westward from Pendine towards Pembrokeshire.
Almost the whole of the county is hilly or mountainous, the exception being the southern coastal fringes. On its eastern borders, abutting the county of Neath-Port Talbot and Swansea, rise the imposing range of the Mynydd Du (the Black Mountains) and the westernmost part of the Brecon Beacons, where the county’s ‘top’ can be found in the shapely form of Fan Foel, standing at a proud 781m (2562ft). These north facing escarpments are formed from Old Red Sandstone, rocks of Palaeozoic age that were moulded, like the rest of Wales, during the late Tertiary period when they were thrust skyward to form hills and mountains. Glacial erosion during the Pleistocene ice ages greatly modified their contours, along with wind, rain and snow in more recent times. Outcrops of Millstone Grit and Carboniferous Limestone add to the geological mix. The area also forms part of the Fforest Fawr Geopark, the first of its kind in Wales, set up to promote the wealth of natural and cultural interest in the area. Here, as elsewhere in Wales, there is a high degree of correlation between rocks and relief.
Creek and mudflats near Burry Port (Walk 22)
In the north of the county, adjoining Ceredigion and Powys, rise the Cambrian Mountains of Mid Wales, one of the largest expanses of wilderness south of Scotland and largely composed of sedimentary sandstones and mudstones. Their geological history is not dissimilar to the Myndd Du, but their current features are the product of thousands of years of interaction between an exposed upland environment and the few communities that have succeeded in creating their livelihood there. In the past, the name ‘Cambrian Mountains’ was applied in a general sense to most of upland Wales, including Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons. During the 1950s, the name became synonymous with the homogenous upland region of Mid Wales that includes Pumlumon in the north of the region, Elenydd in the middle and Mynydd Mallaen in the south. Due to its beauty and unspoilt nature, in 1965 the National Parks Commission proposed the area be given National Park status, although this has not happened.
It is the southern part of the Cambrian Mountains that lies within Carmarthenshire’s borders, a vast expanse of rolling hills and quiet valleys comprising the Mynydd Llanllwni, Mynydd Mallaen and Rhandirmwyn, where the bleat of sheep, the splashing of streams and the call of the red kite and buzzard are likely to be all you hear as you roam these empty landscapes. Two of Carmarthenshire’s principal rivers rise in these mountains, the Teifi, a spectacular river and one of the most important rivers for wildlife, which forms the northern county boundary with Ceredigion. The other is the Tywi, a remarkably beautiful river that flows for 121km before emptying into
