Despite the threatening-looking weather, we decided to take a walk down the valley. We took a footpath from the Craig-y-nos Country Park that soon had us climbing up the side of the valley to a large mothballed limestone quarry. Next to the quarry is a South West Wales Caving Club building and in a disused part of the quarry, now part of Ogof Ffynnon Ddu Nature Park, is the entrance to the deepest cave system in Britain known in Welsh as 'The Cave of the Black Spring'.
A railway used to service the quarry and the trackbed provided an excellent, easy footpath towards our goal of the Henrhyd Waterfall. We followed the railway for some time until we were able to join another footpath that took us to another Nature Park that had a trail leading to the falls. The Nant Llech valley is very steep and we were told on one of the combined bench and audio information points that is is like a Welsh tropical forest. This is apparently because the deep, dark valley forces the trees to grow quickly towards the light resulting in thin trees and a canopy above. It didn't feel especially tropical when we were there although there were lots of biting flies around.
The path took us to the bottom of the valley and then back up to the impressive waterfall, the highest in South Wales. We then followed the path down the valley, often high above the stream that was spilling over a series of mini waterfalls. We reached the ruins of a small waterwheel and soon left the valley to start the return leg up the Tawe valley. This route took us close to the river, high on a cliff overlooking the Tawe and then back to Craig-y-nos and the campsite.
This is an excellent walk with a huge variety of scenery – thoroughly recommended.
Photos: Wern Quarry – there are three potholes and two caves in this photograph; Nant Llech valley – one of the talking benches; Henrhyd Waterfall.
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