Sgwd yr Eira Waterfall Walk 8.7 miles - Pontneddfechan, Glynneath

It's been ages since I last posted a walk - sorry! Part of it is I haven't been doing much walking because I've been really busy with work and exhausted with being anaemic because of vitamin B12 and folate deficiency and part of it is every weekend since January has been spent on converting our van into a camper ready for our adventure to Scotland! Yesterday, my cousin Becky messaged me to ask if I fancied a hike today, so I agreed and said we'd go on a casual stroll in the afternoon.....here I am 24 hours later after a 9 mile epic trek through waterfall country in Pontneddfechan! It was pretty damn awesome though. If you haven't been to this area, get up THERE! But definitely don't do it in white trainers. I must have seen at least 4 girls today walking in white trainers...massive mistake, it is soooooooooooooooooooooo muddy, even when it hasn't been raining that much. Becky was also unprepared and came without her walking boots, albeit in black trainers.

There's toilets near the Waterfalls Information Centre and a map of the various routes. If you want to do something easier, turn left at the Angel Inn through the gate and follow these paths.

I forgot it was Easter because I'm not a joyous person who benefits from school holidays so we arrived and the road was choc-a block with cars. Luckily there was still plenty of room to park so we just parked up on the side of the road not far down from the Angel Inn.




I originally only planned to hike to Sgwd yr Eira today and back along the same path, which is around 4 miles although uphill to start and waymarked as "strenuous." Head straight on up the road past the Angel Inn and when you get to a fork in the road, head right past the Dinas Inn. The road to the left forks off and up to Ystradfellte (which is a lovely town with a nice pub and lots of other car parks to walk to the various waterfalls from, although the road can be narrow in places).

You carry on for around half a mile until you reach Dinas Rock. You end up walking through a residential area full of houses and start to question whether you're heading the right way - don't worry, you are. Hopefully the stream of walkers heading your way will reinforce this. This is a popular destination for climbers and there is a car park here, so you could park here if you wanted. It is a fairly small car park but it was pretty empty today, so it would have been a good shout.

Here's Becky admiring Dinas Rock - it's pretty impressive.

You carry on heading uphill, it's fairly steep and the path gets VERY muddy, especially if it's been raining. Becky was really regretting wearing trainers about now, but it was too late to go back.

Puggy is 12 years old and he really didn't sign up to this today, fair play to the old boy!

It's about 2 miles up to Sgwd yr Eira, which is a really impressive waterfall that you can walk behind. It is a super muddy path and can be fairly treacherous if it's been raining a lot, so do be careful. It's waymarked with yellow signposts all the way so easy to find the route.

We were only planning on going to Sgwd yr Eira and back today, which is 4 miles according to the information board at the start of the walk. Once we got to Sgwd yr Eira, we thought it'd be worth walking behind it and then we just felt like we couldn't turn back and had to keep on going.

Lots of warnings not to linger...but people still linger!

I'd come prepared and packed a waterproof but Becky just braved it in her jacket...fair dos! You get really wet walking behind the waterfall because of the spray and Gracie decided to slow down to almost a halt and it's really slippery, so I had to drag her out the other side!

Here we are emerging victorious and soaked the other side.

It's really popular with walkers and the other side is a bit more accessible so tends to be busier. It's a fairly steep climb back up with a lot of steps but the information boards on all the waterfalls are good and tend to give you a rough estimate of time and number of steps involved.

We turned left at the top and I was hoping we'd be able to make a circular loop somewhere back to where we started...it was now around 4pm and this was fairly wishful thinking as no path seemed to be turning out where we wanted it to! I've only really walked this area twice so I didn't let on to Becky that I was just blindly following my OS maps app and hoping for the best, although I vaguely remembered it from the last 15 mile walk we did with Fi and Tim when they were down visiting from North Wales!

Becky's trainers used to be black...

You keep climbing up and then end up on an undulating path for a while. Follow the signposts to Sgwd Clun-Gwyn. Rather than walking down this waterfall, we kept following the path around to the left and downhill and you end up crossing a bridge following the public footpath signpost.

Keep heading up and you pass Sgwd Clun-Gwyd on the left. There is a path to venture down if you want to get closer.

Sgwd Clun-Gwyn.

Keep following the road up and turn left and you reach the car park for Sgwd Clun-Gwyn. There are a few gates to go through and quite a few sheep about. Turn left when you're back on the road and follow it down. By this point, I was hoping we could divert back along a footpath but we didn't have much luck so ended up walking about 2 miles on the road. Further down there is a footstile which is signposted which brings you out onto a narrow footpath heading back in the right direction.

Keep heading downhill and you eventually come out at Glynneath golf course. Keep heading straight over where the path forks in several directions and follow this track all the way back to the road that leads to Ystradfellte. Cross over and turn left and head downhill. It loops back around to the right, keep heading straight on and you're back where you started! It was such a muddy killer trek it definitely felt like 10 miles but ended up being 8.67 according to OS maps!

My new Craghoppers walking trousers fared well and dried quickly even when soaked after walking behind the waterfall and falling into a huge pile of mud...suitably muddy!

Becky was starving and went home via Glynneath McDonalds, where Puggy was promised a burger - he definitely earned it!!!

There are loads of pubs in this area so you can enjoy a drink and some food afterwards. We just headed straight home as it was Sunday and about 6pm by the time we were done. The beagles slept all the way home and were absolutely knackered! Need to up the mileage ready for the munros in Scotland! T-7 weeks until we leave!

I'd definitely recommend this area for walking if you're visiting or nearby. If walking isn't your thing (not sure why you are on a walking blog if walking isn't your thing, but hey ho!), there are lots of short and easy walks starting from various car parks in the area just google Pontneddfechan or Glynneath Waterfalls walks to find them. This was a well spent Sunday afternoon!