Best walks to or from Neath
Glamorgan · Wales | Walks by train
MapBeautiful walks starting or ending at Neath Station.
Neath Station to Port Talbot Parkway Station
you can see all the way around Swansea Bay and across the sea to Exmoor on a clear day. A scenic, very largely off-road walk on woodland and hill trails, climbing high onto Mynydd Dinas to the national coast path with sweeping views over Swansea Bay and the steelworks and across to Exmoor. A steep descent into Port Talbot with many wooden steps; trails are tree-rooty and muddy in short sections. Follows the Wales Coast Path along the top of Mynydd Dinas; picks up Baglan and Briton Ferry as jumping-on points.
Tough: steep ascents. 11km.
A steep descent with lots of wooden steps into Port Talbot; short tree-rooty and muddy sections hinder wheeling. Keep an eye out to get under the M4 and cross a busy road correctly near Port Talbot.
Lunch: Shops at Briton Ferry are a short detour off-route.
Documented by Slow Ways — download GPX route
Neath Station to Maesteg Station
A valley route whose second half from Pontrhydyfen to Maesteg is good, but whose first half is problematic: proposed detours to avoid the B4287 cross ground that is not a right of way and is in places impassable and the descent into Maesteg is across pathless scrubland.
Tough: steep ascents. 16km.
The first half is hard to follow and partly impassable; some detours cross land with no right of way. The descent into Maesteg has no obvious path. The B4287 has no pavement.
Documented by Slow Ways — download GPX route
Swansea Station to Neath Station
Easy and largely flat, with only one unpaved section along the canal between Jersey Marine and Port Tennant. The stretch from Briton Ferry to Jersey Marine is a dull flog alongside the dual carriageway and but the wide shared cyclepath is safe; the approach into Swansea over a suspension bridge is more scenic than the road route. The canal path continues all the way under the road bridge at Giant's Grave; well waymarked and frequently used though not shown as a right of way on OS maps.
14km. Moderate ascents.