places to run near-ish to cardiff

Hi guys,

struggling for places nice to go running around here. i'm currently in pontypridd (at uni in glamorgan) and whilst here, i don't know many places nearby to go running. i've been to forest farm but that's really too small, and i've been up gelliwion hill side around hopkinstown, as nice as it it, it's all up, then all down. just looking for some off-road/trail sort of stuff really and looking for somewhere i can do a nice 10-12 miles in.

i've just noticed caerphilly woods, anyone know how big these are, and can i just go exploring and cover a decent distance without doing lots of small laps.

thanks in advance

Ross.

Try the taff trail at Pontypridd:

http://www.tafftrail.org.uk/trailpage.php?Pontypridd:index

thanks for that kev. i have run along taff before and it's quite nice, but mostly tarmac. need to find how i get there from here though (only ran on it nearer cardiff)

has anyone here ran around caerphilly woods? what's it like?

thanks again

Ross.

get a local OS map................I run out around gwaelod y garth sometimes..........the garth is a good climb..........also caerphilly mountain can be joined up with the woods by castle coch and you can run along the ridgeway towards rudry with good views of the valleys and cardiff..............

you can also have a good run around the eglisywlyn mountain which ie the one between Ponty and the rhymney valley and for an extra climb there is a  hidden valley inbetween...........

with the local OS maps you can do most of the running off road with just some small links on the minor roads........

the taff trail around the pontypridd area is the worst part of it to run .......you need to go north of abercynon and especially merthyr before it gets really nice running

thanks seren nos. do you have a grid coordinate for somewhere to start running, where it's reasonably obvious where i should run from, or even a link from google maps? thing is, i don't want to drive out somewhere and then not find anywhere sorta thing.

i'd really appreciate that. when you run, how far and fast do you go?

thanks again in advance, it's really appreciated. have you been to caerphilly woods?

i've run up from treforrest to hopkinstown, and then on the left is the gewillion, which is a bugger of a climb but the terrain and surroundings (i.e. feeling of being in the middle of nowhere) are exactly what i want.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=51.604798,-3.37409&num=1&sll=51.616667,-3.233333&sspn=0.013857,0.032015&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=51.603732,-3.345251&spn=0.02836,0.077162&z=14

that's part of the main trail i stick too, it's absolutely lovely but it's a long old climb. my garmin 205 has it at a climb of just under 300m to the top.

thanks if you can give me any more advice.

Ross.

when I go off road i slow right down..i run from about 7 to 20 odd  miles and take a long time as I walk up all the up hills and then run the flats and down........

I'm not sure where you means exactly by the caerphilly woods..but if you park at the carpark on top of caerphilly mountain...you can do one loop that will take you along the ridgeway over craigY allt and down to the upper taff trail...then past castellcoch and up through forrest fawr and back on one of many routes to caerphilly  mountain................

Or you can go out eastward following the ridegway path acorss the ridge.......

this is really embarrassing....where is the caerphilly mountain car park. did a quick google of it, but it brings up things like snack bar etc. you might've guessed, i'm not from around this area. i'm from southampton but am at uni at glamorgan. so don't know the surrounding area too well.

sorry to be a pain! if you could put a google maps link up with it, i can go there next weekend, park up and go off running and exploring

thanks again

just got back from a steady 5 miler, after doing 12.5 yesterday.

cheers mate,

Ross

there is a snack bar there

ramblers map

this map doesn't include the ridgeway walk.....will have alook for one

usually site

if you have a look at this site it can give you some ideas and maps of the area around caerphilly

you sir are a legend. around those areas i've found "cwncarn mountain drive" some of the images showing up are lovely, might take a trip there next weekend if i get chance take the trusty garmin watch so i don't get lost!

that website with the trails could prove very useful!

thanks mate.