Lodge Cwm & Llethryd Walk

Directions from the hotel:

Just ask any of us and we will set you on your way and no doubt give you some personal recommendations of things to look out for and the best places to stop for a coffee and bite to eat.

Begin your walk from the end of the house, walk up the gardens towards the trout ponds where you will meet a well-kept gravel track. Bear left and follow the track straight across the fields following the hedgerow until you meet the woodland where the track will bear to the right. At the woodlands end you will cross a style next to a gate – here the main track will veer to the left but you need to take the small stony path which heads up the hill in a “2 o’clock” direction. (Do not take the path immediately on your right which follows the wood boundary.)

When you meet the un-surfaced road at the top of the rise follow it to the right. You will see Cefn Bryn (a name which translates to Hill or ridge) rising up in front of you.

Follow the road for about half a mile. You will pass the track which leads up the hill and the road will begin to drop downhill gently.

When you see a fork in the road in front of you, look to your right and you will find a kissing gate which you can cross back over the park boundary. A short footpath takes you to a wide forestry track which you can follow downhill for about a mile.

Continue following the track downhill until you will arrive at an open valley stretching off to your left called Green Cwm, you will also see the old gamekeepers cottage on the opposite side of the valley. Turn left. In another 200m you will see a track forking off to your left, follow this track, it takes you to Lodge Cwm:

Its name comes from the old Lodge farm which was once situated at the head of the valley. All that remains of the farm are some ruined walls in the wood. Also near the top of the wooded part of the valley is an old lime kiln on the right-hand side of the path. Behind the kiln there used to be an old lunch house, used by the gentlemen who shot game in the woods in the days when the Vivian family owned the estate. If you look carefully at the rock face behind the kiln you will just make out the black soot still staining the face where the chimney was built into the rocks.

When you reach the Cwm you will cross a style into the farm land. Follow the field boundary down the right-hand side of the field, keeping the strip of woodland on your right until you meet a farm track which crosses the wooded strip. Follow the track to the opposite side of the wooded strip and turn left again, keeping alongside the boundary of the wood until you emerge onto Cefn Bryn common.

Walk out to the road and follow it to the right. Turn right at the road junction and follow the road all the way back until it drops down around Llethryd barns to the narrow river bridge. Immediately after the bridge, turn right through the wooden gate and follow the forestry track through the fields and back into the woods.

In the first clearing you come to you will see off on your left is the entrance to Tooth Cave. It’s the longest of Gower’s caves and was occupied during the bronze age, the remains of six adults and two children were found here during excavations. Unfortunately, the cave is gated and locked, it’s dangerous to visit due to flooded sections and some really tight squeezes. If you are a keen caver you will need to get in touch with South Wales Caving Club for more information.

Keep following the main track now for about one and a half miles, through a crossroads where you will see the old head gamekeepers cottage nestled in the woodland at the edge of the cwm. Continue down the wide gravel track past Giants Grave on your right.

Giant’s Grave is a Neolithic tomb (4000-3000 B.C.) belonging to the so-called Severn-Cotswold group. The burial site was first located in 1869 when it was plundered for stone and re-excavated in 1960-61 by R J C Atkinson. Bone fragments belonging to 40 individuals have been recovered. All were adults except for three. Also discovered were two rims of Neolithic pottery. Take a look at the rounded stones on the southern corner of the tomb, it is thought the stones were washed by a river that once ran alongside the tomb but which has found its way underground into the limestone rocks below.

When you meet the tarmac lane at the end of the Cwm, turn right and continue up the drive to the house.