Clive stepped in at short notice recently for Barrie and was joined by eleven walkers on a tramp in the Blaenavon area on what turned out to be a beautiful summer’s day. Leaving Blaenavon they crossed the road heading up to Ball’s Pond passing a newly constructed BMX circuit en route before turning north past playing fields to join the Iron Mountain Trail for a short while to Hunter’s car park which is situated near the top of Blorenge at a height 508 metres above sea level.
The group paused to view the grave of Foxhunter (1940-1959) the champion show jumping horse ridden by Harry Llewellyn who secured Britain’s only gold medal in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki for the team jumping equestrian event. When Foxhunter died in 1959 he was buried near the Blaenavon to Llanover road on Blorenge which has a public car park situated nearby and a memorial plaque on his grave lists his many lifetime achievements.
Crossing open country to the trig point the group paused for morning coffee before continuing along a track across open moorland with fantastic views to Sugar Loaf and Skirrid and joining the old tram road they reached Keeper’s Pond or Pen-ffordd-goch. The forge pond is situated near Pwll du and was built in the early 19th century to provide water for Garnddyrys Forge which opened for production in 1817 but was dismantled in the 1860’s after which the pond became a local beauty spot. Apparently the local gamekeeper of the grouse moors lived in a cottage close by hence the name of the pond.
They continued along the tram road before climbing to the northern edge of a balance pond once used for working Pwll du quarry and situated within the quarry is a scheduled ancient monument the water balance lift. A loaded tram was placed onto one bucket at the bottom whilst an empty bucket at the top carrying an empty tram was filled with water from the balance pond which was cut into the hillside and as the water-filled tram lowered the loaded tram was raised to the top.
At Pwll du they passed the Lamb and Fox public house continuing on and up to the Dyne Steel Incline built to replace the Pwll du tunnel where at the top brick buildings housed the winding gear and generators. Moving on to New Pit they reached Garn Lakes which are man-made and work in this area has turned the old disused industrial landscape into a wetland reserve with open grassland areas which made a perfect lunch stop in warm sunshine.
Refreshed they passed the Whistle Halt and began their final ascent to the 480 metre mark listening to the cuckoo calling as they found a track along the contours of Coity Mountain where there were large puddles containing late spring tadpoles swimming around. Below them lay Big Pit Museum and Coity Pond which was built in 1839 to supply water for the steam engines at Forgeside.
A trek through soggy fields led them to a road which they followed to Blaenavon passing the ironworks and their last climb back to the car park of the Rifleman’s Arms pub where refreshments were enjoyed whilst viewing interesting paintings of the ironworks and surrounding area by a local artist.
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