Castell Coch riding

apple eater

I here about trails up at th castle quite often and people tend to night ride aswell. I don't as yet night ride but at present i have daytimes free so i want to make the most of them and ride new places.

can someone describe where these trails are in relation to the castle itself? I have been looking there before but i failed to find anything other than fireroad up past the golf club

jimothy78

My local patch - I live in Tongwynlais. It's pretty hard to describe how to get to the best trails, as there are so many paths criss-crossing through the woods. It would be best to meet up and I can show you the lay of the land, from which you can just explore for yourself. If you're approaching the area up the road from Ton, then the best way to climb is to ignore the main entrance to the castle drive and carry on a little way up the road until you see a path on the right, accessed by a little bridge (or the water splash, depending on how cold it is ) this climbs parallel to the road for a bit, then switches back on itself and takes you to another well-surfaced path that will eventually lead you to the Fforest Fawr car park (crossing the road again just at the entrance) - there's also some nice singletrack, plus some bomb-holes that have been turned into a rough-and ready pump-track-type area to mix it up a bit if you know where to look.

From the Fforest Fawr car park, I generally follow the Golf Course fence-line (keeping it on your right) and then from there, there are a few choices of routes to follow down the hill, all of which end either at the Taff Trail or back on the road, ready to climb back up and start again. Give me a pm if you want to try and arrange a meet-up sometime.

apple eater

A meet up to show me the trails would be good. I tend to be a reactive rider, i look out of the window and if it's not raining i go out but i'm not a girly wuss i just don't have a waterproof coat yet!

I went up for a little reccy today. Is the entrance just passed the quarry entrance, a little wooden bridge?

jimothy78

apple eater wrote:

I went up for a little reccy today. Is the entrance just passed the quarry entrance, a little wooden bridge?

That's it - cross the bridge and follow the very muddy path - it get's stonier (and steeper, although that's short-lived) around the point of the first switchback, and after the second switchback it's more-or-less level and runs across the hillside back to the road, just opposite the entrance to the Fforest fawr carpark.

Where are you riding from, BTW?

The Northern Monkey

Some nice riding over Castle Coch... gets a bit boggy in the wet though!!

The Northern Monkey

Heres a route I did last summer, figure of 8 around Castle Coch and then over to the Travellers Rest on Caerphilly Mountain and back through what I assume is the Wenalt.



Pretty much every time I'm up there I take a different route, you can't get lost!

apple eater

J78 I'm riding over from m4 jct 34 ish


NM Roughly how long is that route and how long were you there on that ride?

I've just been looking on google maps and i see there is an old quarry up near where Heol Y Forest meets Rhiwbina Hill. Is this rideable / accessible?

welshkev

apple eater wrote:

J78 I'm riding over from m4 jct 34 ish


NM Roughly how long is that route and how long were you there on that ride?

I've just been looking on google maps and i see there is an old quarry up near where Heol Y Forest meets Rhiwbina Hill. Is this rideable / accessible?

If you ride the 'ridgeway' route you ride around the top of it. I'm not sure there's any riding actually inside the quarry. It's a long way down in a vertical line from the top!! :shock:

jimothy78

apple eater wrote:

J78 I'm riding over from m4 jct 34 ish

That's quite a way - on road or off-road? Whilst there's some interesting little sections around Castell Coch, I'd have thought you'd find just as good closer to home - in fact, i've often wondered myself if there was any decent riding around Llantrisant common?

If you haven't already, try heading up to Pentyrch, too - there's a nice bit of natural downhill in the Tyn-y-Coed woods, and the Garth mountain itself is quite a nice route - you can drop down the North-Eastern corner of the hill then there's some nice rider-built stuff in the forestry areas that that leads you to.

apple eater

There is smilo woods but i haven't found anything there that i like it's incredibly rooty without much in the way of flowing good riding stuff to compensate for it. Dare i say it but the fire roads are more fun that the forest.

I ride over with the "road" tyres on when i am doing an on road ride but i would have to drive over with my mud tyres on. I used to ride up the garth years ago but never went much in the way off road. The pentyrch area has been suggested by one of the guys in my LBS but i've never looked into it.

Looks like 2014m will be a year of discovery for me

jimothy78

Right, the Garth ride is definitely one to show you - there's some really nice bits of rider-built singletrack, and the climb is tough but rideable. There's also another nice route that heads up from here over the Rymney Ridgeway and then through some forestry before climbing up and over Caerphilly Mountain and back to Castell Coch - that's a bit easier on the legs, but still has some really nice sections. Once the weather sorts itself out a bit let me know some dates that suit you and I'll get some of the other local lads involved, too.