Pen March (535m) and Merthyr Common (531m) are boundary high points for Caerphilly, with Merthryr Common also being a boundary high point for Merthyr Tydfil as well. That means completing these two high points ticks off three hills on the list.
They are accessible from every direction via open moorland / grassland that is home to one of the Southernmost mountains in the Brecon Beacons range, Cefn yr Ystrad. I parked next to the road up, on a small, rough layby.
You could head up the road a little way and park next to the cattle grid as well, in fact this is probably a better parking place than the one I used.
You follow the road until it ends, and then you open the gate and you’re in the wilderness. You can follow a wide, at times very wet and muddy (I did this walk after a couple of weeks of heavy rain though) track that leads you towards a communication tower. You can follow smaller tracks from here and sheep tracks until you find an overgrown pond, that is now really nothing more than a deeper patch of grass.
Pen March is a bit to the right of this, Merthyr Common high point a little to the left. There is no indication for either of them, so I just walked a quick loop and snapped some photos and headed back to the car. It was a pleasant enough walk, with some sheep and horses for company and views of Cefn yr Ystrad to the North and many hills to the South – most of which I’ve now walked, so always good to have a moment contemplating that.
Probably not a place I’ll return to, unless I ever decide to walk Cefn yr Ystrad again, but if you are nearby and want a peaceful walk there are certainly worse places to have a and a wander and a ponder.
