Castleton – Marshfield – Coedkernew – Castleton

Harri Roberts

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Castleton – Marshfield – Coedkernew – Pen-y-lan – Castleton

From Castleton, the walk descends gradually through fields to Marshfield's parish church, St Mary's. On the way, you will probably wonder at the distinctive bear sculptures in the grounds of Gelli-bêr. The commissioner of these animals is clearly not a Welsh speaker: 'Gelli-bêr' refers to an orchard of pears, not bears!

From St Mary's you head across the Gwent Levels, initially through fields (may be muddy) and then a lane running alongside Drenewydd Reen. The word 'reen' occurs on both sides of the Severn Estuary and refers to artificial drainage ditches that keep the levels from returning to marshland.

After a there-and-back detour to Coedkernew Church, the walk heads towards more elevated ground, crossing the A48 by an impressive, spiralling footbridge. The climb to Pen-y-lan is rewarded with fine views over the Bristol Channel.

Descending more gradually, the walk returns to Castleton through fields; some sections may be muddy. Two further footbridges and an underpass are used to cross major roads.

Wales - South Wales - Gwent - Countryside

Features

Cafe, Church, Great Views, Pub, Public Transport, Restaurant

4/5/2013 - Thomas Williams

A fair walk but but very interesting for a lot of it. Once you leave the pretty church in Marshfield you go through some ugly fields onto a lane. This Carries, on for about a mile and is not very walker friendly -lots of traffic, blind bends and nowhere to get off the road safely. The views on the top of Penylan hill over the Severn Estuary are quite spectacular though. You reach this in the second half of the walk. One real word of warning though. When passing the farm on the last section of the walk, New Park I think it is called, just north of the M4, beware of nasty loose dogs. We were surrounded by 6 or 7 real nasty things that rushed out of the farm yard and chased us down the path. Quite frightening when they surrounded my wife who ended up waving her walking pole at them to try to shift them. These were big nasty things and spoiled the whole walk. Eventually the farmer appeared and called them off with a casual whistle. Not on really - glad we did not have any little ones with us. I will be reporting it to Newport council as this was part of the Newport trail walk. As a result we would not attempt this walk again.