On Thursday May 4th, we visited Ystrad Mynach.

We were lucky enough to find Holy Trinity Church open so went in for a look around and have a chat about some notable local inhabitants:

• Greville Wynne – Spy (Benedict Cumberbatch plays him in the film ‘The Courier’)
• Andy Fairweather Low – guitarist
• Artie Moore – the wireless operator who heard a distress signal from Titanic before news of the disaster arrived in the UK.
• Lauren Price – boxer

From the church we walked through the lovely churchyard and had a look at the unusual sculpture outside the church hall, then onto the oak leaf roundabout and then up into the town of Ystrad Mynach and a few more interesting sculptures.

We took a break with some eating their sandwiches and others visiting the nearby Cwm Bakery Café.  

You Pacers either lingered in Ystrad Mynach or up to Hengoed station and back from there.

The Sprinters walked from Ystrad Mynach up to Parc Penallta, via the remains of the Penallta colliery a distance of 4.5 miles for the day. The way back from Parc Penallta to Ystrad Mynach station was steep in parts but we made it back in one piece and most importantly before the rain set in later in the day.

We had our usual number of about thirty for the trip and eight went on the longer route up to Parc Penallta.

Click here to read about some of the things we learnt about on the day.