Landscape and Wildlife

No longer are the valleys scarred by the processes of industry, nature has made a comeback and the valleys are truly green and wildlife is thriving. Visitors to the valleys will find a mixture of landscapes to take their interest. The mountain tops and hill sides, relatively left alone by the industry and urban development at the bottom of the valleys, are a mixture of moorland covered in heather and gorse, and large tracts of coniferous forestry. The magnificent crags at Penpych show nature at its most impressive, where buzzards and peregrines can often be seen soaring on the thermals. There are also a large number of agricultural landscapes on the mountain tops, where farmers eked out a meager living, working the nutrient deficient soils as best they could. Through large tracts of the landscape run dry stone walls, a countryside craft now in decline. Although many are falling into disrepair they make a great haven for wildlife, and often small mammals can be found making their homes among the fallen stones. As you wander through the hills you will come across the remains of sheep folds and shepherd huts now long abandoned, but once part of the heart of the landscape.

At the valley bottoms, where industry and development has been centered, regeneration of the environment has been dramatic, with nature taking back the sites where coal was hewn from the earth, and where iron was smelted for the industrial development of the world. The heaps of coal slag which once marred the valleys have been replaced with broadleaved woodlands and acres of grassland and meadows where all manner of wildlife and flora, such as purple moor grass, devil's bit scabious and meadow thistle, can be found. Listen closely and you might hear a woodpecker hard at work, or the calls of the great tits as they hunt for food along the river banks. Other species can be readily identified, such as nuthatchers, pied flycatchers, jays, all variety of tits, and Chaffinches to name but a few. Visit Cwm Saer Bren and Cwm Parc in the Rhondda Valley, or Cwm Dare in the Cynon Valley where peregrines and buzzards are regularly spotted. The Red Kite is also making a welcome return to the area.

The Loops and Links trails take the visitor through many of the nature reserves that now dot the landscape of Rhondda Cynon Taff and Merthyr Tydfil and where the skeletal remains of industry can be seen through the vegetation. Take a visit to Pontygwaith Nature Reserve along the River Taff, where some of the Oak and Beech Trees are hundreds of years old and would have witnessed the changing landscape, from agriculture to industry and back again, and where herons and kingfishers are regularly spotted. Visit Parc Taff Bargoed and stroll around the lake bursting with fish and other aquatic life, and witness the reed bed system converting the waters from the mines. The rivers winding through the valleys are now as clean and clear as the springs from which they originated. Life is returning to them with trout accessing ever further up the river Taff. Look closely along the edge of rivers and streams and you might see the larvae of mayfly and other species, indicators of good clean water, hiding under stones. Otters are also beginning to make a return to the valleys, keep yours eyes open and you might be lucky enough to spot one.

Below are some sites of interest for nature lovers through which the Loops & Links trails travel.

Pontygwaith Nature Reserve, Quakers Yard, Merthyr Tydfil

Glyncornel Site of Special Scientific Interest, Llwynypia, Near Tonypandy

Webbers Pond and Gethin Woodland Park, Near Merthyr Tydfil

Penmoelallt, Near Cefn Coed y Cymmer, Merthyr Tydfil

Cwm Bargoed, Bedlinog, Merthyr Tydfil

St. Gwynno Forest, Ynysybwl

Taff Fechan Nature Reserve, Cefn Coed, Merthyr Tydfil

Dare Valley Country Park, Aberdare

Barry Sidings Country Park, Trehafod

Glamorgan Canal Nature Reserve, Cwmbach, Near Aberdare

Pen Pych, Treherbert

Parc Taff Bargoed, Trelewis, Merthyr Tydfil

Garwnant Forest Centre, Near Merthyr Tydfil

Cwm Cadlan, Near Penderyn

Lluest Wen Reservoir, Maerdy

Clydach Vale Country Park, Bwlch Clawdd, above Cwm Parc

Craig y Llyn and Llyn Fawr, Rhigos, Near Aberdare.

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