I thought I had completed Monmouthshire, but having scoured the map a bit more – and having walked 16 hills in the county and seeing a couple of hills that weren’t on my list I two more hills to it and this is the first one I have tackled.
Mynydd Garnclochdy is a flat-topped 448m hill that offers good views across Torfaen and the ridgeway edge of Blaenau Gwent in one direction and the much more well-trodden hills in Monmouthshire in the other. Parking for this track is in a wide layby that has room for several cars. I was planning on parking in Goytre Wharf and was on my way there when I spotted the layby which makes a better place to park (and it is free).
After parking you head along the road for a short distance before you can follow a footpath through the fields. This is well signposted and the path seems well-walked with a clear track through the field. If it is wet then you can choose to instead walk on the road a bit further, as this cuts left and will take you up the track that leads you to the summit as well.
I took a slightly different track on the way down because the left track on the route was a bit overgrown in places and has suffered at least one fallen tree across it. The route down, the right track, was much clearer and wider so is probably the recommended one.
This track takes you up until you get to a small road, you cross this and then follow a very sandy track that passes a nice little pond. Follow this track, with a slight diversion around a fallen tree, until you get to a gate that takes you onto the common land.
Here you can follow a few different tracks towards a very wide and flat summit, with the highest point marked on the map which you can find via GPS.
However, visually there is nothing that marks the highest point, but the views are pleasant and the wispy grass glowed golden in the evening sun making up for any lack of summit focal point.
There are a few different routes up this hill, and you can make it a lot longer ridgeway walk to the Blorenge North or Pontypool South – via the Folly if you wished. This is a hill well worth doing that is sure to be peaceful in comparison to some of the more popular hills in Monmouthshire.
