This route is about 7 miles and really isn’t too taxing, AND it’s mostly on designated cycle paths.
We start at Barry Castle ruins and proceed up the hill and down into Porthkerry Park.
Cycle down the tree shrouded hill, can you spot the camouflaged dragon just past the car park?
Go under the railway bridge and past the rather lovely ranger’s cottage.
You’ll pass a few buildings, a café, a toilet and a wooden cabin (which can be rented out for community activities).
We’ll keep on this road until it becomes a gravel path which takes you under the viaduct.
Follow and pass through a gate but be mindful of pedestrians if there are any.
Look out for Edgerton Grey Country House on your right Wiki Link, a great place to set a horror story or have a wedding reception!
Pedal, or walk up the hill and you’ll meet the cycle way that straddles Cardiff International Airport, bear left.
You’ll enter Rhoose, take a left at the roundabout and follow the cycle-way down the hill.
At the next roundabout take another left towards the sea.
In front of you, you’ll see lots of houses and the stone quarry. The landscape is quite strange here, a housing estate built on the site of a cement works and lots of green undergrowth dotted with ponds and paths; a broken wall of laminated rock shrouds the whole place from the sea beyond, it’s quite unique. Rhoose is the most southerly settlement in Wales.
The Vale of Glamorgan site states that: Rhoose Point has been designated as a ‘Site of Importance for Nature Conservation’. The scenic lakes, grassland areas and dramatic cliffs at Rhoose make it an important site for ecology and biodiversity.
If you’re on sturdy bikes, you can take any path you like into the undulating landscape which is at times like some sort of natural skateboard park, but on our Bromptons, we’ll go up the hill a bit to a more defined straight path and take that.
Follow the path and you’ll quite quickly come upon a stone circle and slate obelisk which marks it as Wales’ most southerly point.
Venture between the gaps in the rocky walls to see views across the Bristol Channel.
After exploring this strange and beautiful place, either follow your route back home or go up the hill following the cycle path past the train station and up onto Rhoose’s main road.
Bearing right will take you back to the roundabout we saw when we entered Rhoose.