Photograph © G.Woosnam © Photograph Photograph © G.Woosnam © Photograph

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Photograph © G.Woosnam © Photograph Photograph © G.Woosnam © Photograph and steeped in history. in steeped and spectacular often diverse,

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L OAINI EAINTO RELATION IN LOCATION ALK W Ewenny Priory with behind Bridgend with Priory Ewenny

WALK FEATURES • St Bridgets Church Walk No. 32, Ogmore • Ewenny Priory • Pool at Castle-upon-Alun • River Alun Clapper Bridge Circular • Coed y Bwl Nature Reserve • Pitcot Pool (including Ewenny Priory spur)

Valeways is a registered charity working in partnership with the Distance: 7 miles, with shorter options. to reopen existing footpaths to create a network of enjoyable circular walks across the Vale of , linking towns and villages to the surrounding countryside and points of interest.We are indebted to the many volunteers who give up their time freely to provide this walk for your enjoyment.

Valeways Partnership - Many thanks to the Council and the Countryside Council for Wales for their continued support.

Pitcot Pool Photograph © Vale of Glamorgan Council Packhorse Bridge Photograph © Roger G. Lewis FOLLOW THE COUNTRYSIDE CODE • Be safe, plan ahead and follow any signs • Leave gates and property as you find them Valeways, Unit 7, Barry Community Enterprise Centre, • Protect plants and animals and take your Skomer Road, Barry CF62 9DA litter home Telephone/Fax: 01446 749000 • Keep dogs under close control E-mail: [email protected] • Consider other people Website: http//www.valeways.org.uk

Registered Charity No. 1062031 Registered Company No. 3330088 Leaflet revised November 2011 Walk No. 32, -upon-Alun Circular

A glance at the map below clearly shows that this walk is more than just one circular walk. There are three distinct sections to it. So, as well as providing a walk of about 7 miles, the walker can permutate the sections to provide a walk that meets his or her wishes.A range of walks of between 2 and 7 miles is possible.You must add on another mile or so if you wish to visit Ewenny Priory.Whichever walk is taken there are attractive downlands, a deep wooded valley and in spring delightful displays of flowers. Other features include a clapper bridge, a nature reserve, an elegant Priory and two public houses. Distance 7 miles but with shorter options. Map OS Explorer 151 and Bridgend. Parking Car park at . Limited roadside parking at Castle upon Alun and at Corntown. Public Transport Buses Nos. 45 & 46 Bridgend - , where there are railway stations. River Alun Refreshments Fox & Hounds and Farmers Arms at St Brides Major. Photograph © G.Woosnam To ilets linked with refreshment points. START This leaflet’s route guide begins at the car park opposite the Fox & Hounds, St Brides Major.

SCALE (APPROX): If you started the walk at Corntown PLACES OF INTEREST 1 Kilometre you could now shorten the walk and St Bridget’s Church 1 Mile return there following the walk guidance St Brides is a shortened version of St given after the * above. Bridget, the 5th century Irish saint. St Bridget’s Church is of 12th century Follow the narrow path to reach a Norman origin and contains 16th 2 country lane. Here turn right to walk century monuments and statuary. In the to a T junction at Wallas Farm.Turn late 19th century, it was visited by left, then immediately right over a Princess Mary of Teck during her stays couple of stiles. Now follow a series with Countess Caroline of Dunraven. Later, the princess, through marriage, of stiles that gives a passage through became Queen Mary, wife of George V. the fields.When you reach a rather 3 Ewenny Priory dilapidated stone stile bear right to a This is one of the finest examples of a wooden stile that leads you onto a fortified, ecclesiastical building in Wales. path that winds down through the Its origins were early Norman. Built by woods (Coed y Wallas). En route you William de Londres between 1115 and cross an active railway line (heed the 1120 it was given in 1141 to the of by his son, Maurice. It was warnings).The path then crosses a a Benedictine foundation with a solid small field and the river Alun via a stone screen separating the monastic stone footbridge, (a clapper bridge) portion from the parish church. Many , on to a metalled road.Turn left changes to the building took place in along this road and continue gently Tudor and Victorian times.Now the uphill. Go past the main wooden Priory is under the care of Cadw, for it is a listed building, It plays still an active gated entrance to the Glamorgan role in the life of the community Wildlife Trust of Coed y Bwl to Pool at Corntown reach soon another gate on your The pool passed at the side of the road right.You now have two choices of in Corntown was, it is thought, once a route back to St Brides. baptismal pool (Bethel Baptist), that fell into disuse for that purpose around 1900. Option 1 Cross the stone stile that It has subsequently been used for watering is adjacent to the left of the gate and cattle. It is fed by ground water. bearing a little left follow the path Clapper Bridge uphill to enter a field via a stile. The term clapper is derived from Anglo Keeping roughly to the same Saxon and means a stone slab bridge used orientation as the stile itself, with the in the past by packhorses and walkers. Sometimes the slabs, which were 4 hedge at first on your left, cross this 5 now large field (O.S map shows it as supported by vertical piers, collapsed, 1 leaving the piers as stepping-stones The two) diagonally to reach a hedge that best examples are found in the South you keep on your right to reach a west of England where the stones are stile and emerge on Blackhall Rd.. often large and made of granite.That at Turn right to continue along the road Castle upon Alun is a small example some back to the start. Distance for this 25 yards long and consists of four spans. option is just under 1 mile. Coed y Bwl Nature Reserve THE ROUTE reach the junction with what is Wick the path swings left and leads on to the Purchased by the Glamorgan trust in 1970, Rd.* (If at this point you wish to shorten Priory itself. This extension involves a Option 2 Continue up the road to a the reserve was opened in 1971. It is a Leave the car park, with the church S 1 junction and turn right. On the left predominantly ash woodland for it rests the walk and return to St Brides.Turn two- way walk of just 1 /4 mile). behind you, and cross the main road there is a waymarker post (Blackhall on carboniferous limestone, ash replacing right. Go to ** on this guide and follow Back on the main route continue (B4265). Go left to pass the Fox & Farm is to your right). From the post the former dominant elm.The wood is the route instructions from there on). along the road to reach the village Hounds.Then after some 80 yards, there is a short path through scrub that estimated to contain over 250,000 wild Here turn left, past Wallas Fach, pond on your right. Turn right on daffodils as well as wood anemones and, where the pavement ends, turn right, leads to a dilapidated stone stile giving and walk up the road for some 600 to Heol y Cawl. Walk up this lane as far on the upper slopes, bluebells. uphill, along Blackhall Road.As the on to a field. Once in the field continue yards.Then just over the brow of the as the entrance to Corntown Farm. Mormons and St Brides gradient lessens you will reach a cattle with the hedge on your right to a hill turn right along a way marked This involves a steady climb of 1/2 mile. St Brides proved to be a fertile recruitment grid with a waymarked track off to point where the hedge starts to swing route, keeping a hedge and wall on ground for the Mormon Church. Between the left. Follow this hard surfaced Turn right over the stile adjacent to the right.You diverge from by 1856 and 1875 many from the St Brides your left.You will soon reach another track as it wends its way up Castle the entrance to the farm. Once in the carrying straight on to a stone stile. area sailed to USA to join Brigham minor road. Cross it.Turn right on Down but leave it as it swings right field turn sharp left and hugging the Once over this continue with the Young.This migration, (plus that to the the road, then almost immediately left nearby coalfield), led to a reduction in to a house.You carry straight on along hedge line walk around the field corner hedge to your right to cross a wooden over a stone stile to proceed downhill the population of the village; from 914 in a wide, grassy track (with fine views to reach a gateway. Here climb over a and then a double stone /wood stile. following the good signposting 1841 to 621 in 1891. Before departure to to the west of limestone quarries and rough stile and go straight on to the Here turn left, and very shortly right towards the main road that runs USA the converts gathered in a croft then steam emissions from the Port Talbot right hand side of a stone wall/hedge. to enter an old track littered with attached to the house called Y Crofty in through Corntown. (A vista of steel works) Soon the track swings to Follow this (southward) to arrive at a debris from collapsed side-walls. Cross Penylan Rd. It is claimed that 20% of Utah’s industrial and retail development on the right (eastwards) and you pass a metal gate that gives on to a minor the stile at the end to soon reach a population have Welsh ancestry. the outskirts of Bridgend appears in four-sided, waymarker post. Carry road.Turn right and walk up the road road - Penylan. For the purpose of this Pitcot Pool front of you, while forward left you straight on here to reach shortly a for a short distance to reach a walk ignore the way marker and turn Is an attractive water feature opposite catch sight of Ewenny Priory). the Farmerís Arms.This pool fed by waymarker on the left directing you waymarker post on your left.At this, right.You will pass the now closed Follow the alleyway between the ground water never dried up so was downhill along a narrow, fairly steep turn off the road onto a bridleway. Bryn Sion Chapel on your right and Y houses to reach a stone stile that gives invaluable to farmers and the rest of the path. Follow this through a metal gate and Crofty on your left. ( When you reach local population prior to the establishment onto the main road. Here turn right. At the bottom turn right under a on to the right hand side of a hedge. Blackhall Rd, you go downhill to return of piped water in 1926. It was the scene railway bridge.You will quickly reach, (However, if you wish to visit the Continue alongside this hedge to to the starting point. Distance for this of many skating parties during the harder another gate and then into a wooded winters of the late 19th century, on your left, a stepping-stone bridge impressive Priory go just to the left and option is 11/4 miles. turn right at the side of Ty Capel to enter area. Continue through a sometimes attended sometimes by the Countess (Pont y Brown) over the River Alun. Option 1 is the easier to walk route and Dunraven.The pond has recently been muddy stretch to turn sharp left just Cross this bridge to enter a minor a lane. Go over a stile, and follow the clear the shorter. Option 2 takes you past threatened by Japanese knotweed. road. Follow this, uphill, for 1/2 mile to route to cross a footbridge and stile before before reaching a road (Wick Road). ** some interesting buildings in St Bride’s.