Aberdare Parks and Rivers, 16 December 2023
This morning 12 of us met at the Dare Valley Country Park for a 7.5 mile circular walk led by John Holloway. Surprisingly, the car parks were heaving, due to a running / walking event which saw people taking on 34, 26 and 13 mile routes! Winter Celtic Trail races. We headed east on our much more modest route under grey skies but mild conditions towards Aberdare following the river, crossing the newly refurbished Iron Tram bridge. We then headed north towards the beautiful Aberdare Park where we admired the Coronation Fountain, donated by Lord Merthyr in 1911 and refurbished 5 years ago after 30 years out of action. The fountain is one of only two fountains of its type and period in the country and one of three in the world, the last one being in Singapore. From the park we continued in the direction of Robertstown, crossing the Aberdare Golf Club before passing through the Aberdare Canal Nature Reserve where we retraced our steps back to the still very busy car park.
