Cefncarnau is a 272m high hill South of Caerphilly. It is actually just over a metre taller than nearby Caerphilly Common, but a lot less walked with no summit marker and a summit not accessible due to a barbed wire fence.
The route above is a 3.7m loop starting out at Caerphilly Mountain car park and heading through woodlands and old mine working areas before heading South and heading up to the top of Cefncarnau. The paths are easy to follow and well-walked and you can take many different turns to complete this circular.
As you progress further into the woodland you will, in the right season, see blankets of bluebells.
When you turn right to head South you’ll dip down and follow a road briefly before heading up towards the Rhymney Valley Ridgeway footpath. The walking is still easy and there are no really steep gradients on the walk, with any steeper sections being short.
You can get pretty close to the summit without hopping the barbed wire fence – which I had no desire to do. There might be a way in somewhere, but I didn’t walk the whole way around the fence to check. This is why I’ll not be doing the minor tumps in most counties as it is just not worth the hassle of accessing private land to find some indistinct hilltop.
Overall though the walk is well worth it as it is a nice loop, certainly not the worst hill I’ve done lately!