Usk Valley Walk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Usk Valley Walk is a waymarked long distance footpath in south east Wales in the United Kingdom.
[edit] Distance
The route runs some 77 kilometres / 48 miles. The whole route can be walked in three to five days.
[edit] The route
It follows some of the course of the River Usk and runs from an official walk start point at Caerleon, (not far upstream from the river's actual mouth at Uskmouth, south of Newport) up the river valley, with a few interesting detours, to Brecon in the north.
It passes from Roman Caerleon uphill, climbing the Wentwood ridge, to descend into gentle dairy pastureland [1], visiting the riverside towns of Usk and Abergavenny, where it enters the Brecon Beacons National Park, follows the towpath of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal, bypassing Crickhowell where it climbs again providing views of the Black Mountains, Wales falling back to canal towpath again.Just after Llangynidr it climbs again towards Talybont Reservoir with fine views of the highest part of the Brecon Beacons on the way.Passing below the reservoir the route climbs towards Talybont Forest rejoining the canal at Pencelli. The waymarked route currently terminates at Brecon.
The route is waymarked using a symbol of an otter's head, an animal that any walker may well see on the river. A guidebook for the route is available from bookshops.
The River Usk itself of course rises in the Carmarthenshire Fans below Fan Brycheiniog in the far west of the National Park and the river can be followed to its source on the more mountainous uplands from Brecon.
