A group of nine walkers joined Joy and Bracken at Penarth Clifftop car park at the start of a 4.5-mile evening walk in glorious sunshine with a cooling breeze.
Setting off along the clifftop walk there were lots of people and dog walkers out enjoying the delightful weather including a delightful spaniel puppy called Trevor.
Following part of the rough Wales Coast path between high hedges they made their way to Lavernock Point with a pause to view the pretty 12th century St Lawrence Church and on its outer wall a plaque to commemorate the fact that on 13 May, 1897 Marconi and his friend George Kemp, successfully sent the first radio message in Morse code across open water to Flat Holm.
Following the quiet Fort Road they deviated into the Lavernock Nature Reserve lovingly cared for by volunteers on behalf of the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, following pathways past summer flowers and tall grasses blowing in the breeze.
A concrete road brought them into the remains of the World War Two Lavernock Gun Battery.
A fort was initially built at Lavernock in the late 1860’s following recommendations by the Royal Commission when batteries were set up against possible invasion by Napoleon’s French army. In this case to protect the Bristol Channel and the shipyards at Bristol and Cardiff, batteries were set up at Brean Down, Flat Holm, Steep Holm, Lavernock and Nell’s Point on Barry Island.
They bear the name Palmerston Batteries after Lord Palmerston or Henry John Temple who at the age of 17 inherited his father’s title to become the 3rd Viscount Palmerston. He served as a Liberal politician for 46 years in total, serving as Secretary of War for twenty years and as Foreign Secretary under Queen Victoria who unfortunately did not trust him, because he made decisions without consulting either herself or Parliament. He was over 70 years old when he became Prime Minister an office he served in between 1855 and 1865 and he was still in office when he passed away on 18 October 1865.
Unfortunately most of the original fort now lies beneath The Bay Caravan Park but the present remains of the WW2 site with the concrete road running in a circle is classed as an ancient monument.
After enjoying grand views over St Mary’s Well Bay to Sully Island cut off by a high tide from near the shell of a forward observation building, and out across the Bristol Channel to Flat and Steep Holm and the misty but sunlit Weston-Super-Mare and Brean Down, they circumnavigated the remainder of the nature reserve, passing only a couple of other people to exit back onto Fort Road.
Carefully following the road to its junction with Lavernock Road a gateway led them into Cosmeston Country Park and past the dappled sunlit thatched roofs of the cottages in the Medieval Village which is set in the 1350’s.
Another gateway led them onto Mile Road which bisects the park and was constructed by the Bute Family, before a deviation along the boardwalk through the reed beds, which had been cut back to allow more access for walkers led into the main car park.
Crossing Lavernock Road once again, some pavement bashing up through Cosmeston Drive brought them to the disused Taff Vale Railway Line which was built in 1865 and carried passengers on a spur line through the halts at Alberta, Cosmeston, Lavernock and Sully before re-connecting to the Barry Railway at Cadoxton Station and which is now a walkway and cycle track.
Continuing along The Paddocks led to the old pitch and putt course where the local authority are leaving swathes of long grass to encourage insects, butterflies and bees, before returning back to their start.