11 This is another great view. The Usk valley follows the Llanbadoc fault, but here that’s not the edge of the inlier. At the end of the field walk straight down through The Llanbadoc Geology Trail the farm yard(beware tractors), then turn left on The trail can be walked from Maryport carpark in Usk, Cefn Ila the lane and take the first path on the right down Woodland Trust car park or Llanbadoc Island car park. The trail is to the bat house of the Woodland Trust’s Cefn Ila. on public footpaths which can be slippery and rough underfoot so stout footwear is essential. There are 2 ups and downs of moderate steepness. Do not approach high quarry faces as they Space for qr code and logos. 8 The house is long gone ( did you spot the bricks on the are mostly unstable and trees or rock could fall and seriously We are looking North. The centre of our This is brilliant. track?)but there are the remains of the walled garden the injure you. The whole trail is 6.4km or 4miles and will take 3-4 dome is around Monkswood, just to the Behind Llancaeo lake and even the old garden terrace in the trees. There is a hours, but there are a couple of short cuts . The Llanbadoc-Usk Need a better fossil photo fine arboretum. To add to the romance ,the original owner left(West) of the prominent line of black mill there is a row part could be walked and you could drive to Cefn Ila to walk that poplars. But there is a ridge North of of wooded hills was a friend of Shelley and brought seedlings from Shelley’s part of the trail separately. grave to grow here in his garden…….. Monkswood which is nothing to do with the running down the Take water or better still a picnic with you. dome. It is the material dumped by the Usk side of the Usk There is an exposure of the Upper Llanbadoc beds on the Some of the stiles are dog unfriendly, those in Cefn Ila are not. Glacier at the end of the last ice age and valley towards us. drive. They are thin beds of mudstones and wider ones of fine sandstone, dipping to the South East as expected. marks the Southerly edge of the last ice Have a look at the sheet 20,000years ago. It is called a map and you will There are fewer fossils in these, but they are very different to the rocks we will see next. moraine. see they are topped by our old 1 1 1 tough friend the 1 2 4 1 1 0 3 Carry on down the drive and take the gravelled path on the right. blue Llanbadoc P beds. You may spot Go straight on at the crossroads of the paths and walk about 50 6 Usk castle as the 7 5 4 yards. Opposite the tubular bells is an exposure of the Usk last one appears. limestone. Go over to the pile of loose stones near the exposure 9 8 3 1 The beech 5 P tree likes a limey soil. 2 1 Watch out! You are about to cross the Rhadyr fault again. The 12 loose stones at the edge of this next field often contain fossils. Pic of the exposure Continue along the trees , into the next field, turn right up the lane, then left before the gate and go straight down by the hedge until you come to another stile. There is an enormous beech tree on your left. Carefully walk up to the shortcuts right of it as just beyond it is a quarry in the lower Llanbadoc beds. 13 Cross the stile now . Walk across straight ahead to the fossils There are lots of loose next field. Ignore the farmer’s track.Then cross the stile fragments to look at. DO NOT We hope this trail gives you some idea of the geology into the next field, walk through the centre of this field to another stile and walk up by the hedge on your right GO NEAR THE FACE, but if you of the Earth under your feet, and how geologists are look from a distance you will (North) like detectives who put together the evidence and notice a band of lumpier rock 7 about a metre from the clues to build a picture of the history of the whole 9 bottom. This is a more planet. From this field there is a great view on your left of the The Usk Limestone.The rocks look orangey and concentrated limestone band South part of the inlier. It doesn’t look much like a dome . are rough, knobbly and hard. Use the brushes to brush where the limestone has This is because the centre of the dome has the oldest rocks the dust off and have a careful look. This is the remains of The trail starts in Llanbadoc car park because geology formed hard nodules. but they are some of the softest. Some of the outer rocks a coral reef full of fossil sea lily pieces, corals, bryozoan really owes a great debt to a man who was born in a Llanbadoc beds) form the wooded ridges . bits along with some braciopods and trilobites.They are house close by, Alfred Russell Wallace. The long ridge of Wentwood to the East is of a tough older than the mudstones we have seen so far. It was Continue on the path down left roughly parallel to the stream. sandstone part of the ORS. It is not part of the dome but it formed in shallower water that was still and clear. It was Cross the stile ignoring the footbridge on your right. The next stile was folded up by the same movements. The ridge of the quarried here for use on fields or for mortar. It is far older crosses a footbridge into a field. Walk by the hedge, right, to the coalfield in the West was also folded, but folded than the carboniferous limestone of the Wye Valley or the path on the right before the houses. It leads to the main road. He became a Cross carefully and turn right up the steps by the brown sign. Walk downwards into a basin so younger rocks called coalfield. famous naturalist and co- Carboniferous rocks (360- 350Milliion years old ) form the past the children’s playground along the river. Take the pink path 14 and you can finally see the Old red sandstone – in the bridge. Now proposer (with Darwin) of top of the ridge but the lower part is ORS again. ORS has Retrace your steps to the junction of paths and take the first left at the bridge you can stop for refreshment or visit the Rural life the theory of Natural us surrounded. up the hill. Walk up to the next 2 stiles that cross the track. Cross museum in Usk, before returning back over the bridge( be very Selection, the mechanism them both and walk ahead to the closest clump of trees careful crossing the road) walking by the river on the flood of evolution. Wentwood Ty’n y caeau Coalfield opposite. The stile you can see to the right is another short cut to defences back to Llanbadoc. ORS Silurian ORS lowest slopes get back to Llanbadoc. Our next stile is hidden in the trees . Walk to the fence as its less steep to walk to the stile this way. Cross. 15 Darwin noticed that small differences between species 10 You have just crossed the Cefn Ila fault. Ahead, it runs in the hollow Nearly back where we started,stop by allowed some to survive better than others in different to the left of the stile. Behind you,it runs down through Cefn Ila just the bench. There is a house under the steep cliffs. conditions. Wallace added that species varied even if the to the right (West) of the track below the bat house. This was Wallace’s house. The bench is dedicated conditions were identical if a physical barrier isolated them to Wallace, and a little further on there is a from each other. So if a new physical barrier developed then the same species would evolve differently in the now memorial stone outside the church. Wallace was Continue on the path through the trees, take the left fascinated by the Natural World and we hope that separated areas. path to the next stile into an open field below the line our journey through continental collisions to coral of the trees . Stop about half way along when you can seas, desert plains and an ice age all in the space of Very few children in Usk had stones in their gardens that were see both the Sugar-loaf on the left (West)and Llancayo an afternoon is a fitting tribute. full of fossil shells as Wallace did. We can only guess how it windmill on the right (East). influenced him or how thrilled he might have been that he The view from 7 looking South contributed to the theories explaining why those shells were in Copyrights missing those rocks. Continue up the footpath onto the top of the cliff, past When high ground is weathered, rock is broken down to mostly the gate where the path turns sharply up and cross the As you walk up to the last stile, first The Skirrid pops sand and mud and deposited by wind or water to form new next stile.