Forget Pembrokeshire, this fascinating Welsh region has hardly any tourists

Rare arctic flora. Murmurations of migrant birds. Mountains crowned by lofty conifers. Where was I? The Patagonian Andes? The Lakes? Switzerland? No. Merthyr Tydfil: sometime boomtown, these days more liable to be disparagingly stereotyped or invoked as a symbol of decline – as well as swerved by tourists.
You don't need to name the nation when you say The Valleys. Everybody knows you mean Wales. Most people can roughly locate the region on a map, identify a few large towns – Merthyr, Ebbw Vale, Pontypridd – and famous locals like Tom Jones, Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton. Compared to other UK topographic zones – Wolds, Marches or Levels – the Valleys are seared into the national consciousness.
For all that, they remain unknown. Domestic as well as international visitors go to Snowdonia, Pembrokeshire, the beach. If they're aiming for the Brecon Beacons, they don't venture south to see the national park's urban fringes. I know this, because I holidayed in Wales as a child and lived in bucolic south-west Wales for three years – but I bypassed The Valleys and never stopped to look.
But we're all missing a trick – and heaps of heritage, adventure, history and culture. The Valleys have been a crucible of human enterprise as much as of iron ore and coal – and they deliver a rich and varied experience.
Radical and restive
By the early 1800s Merthyr Tydfil was the most populated town in Wales, drawing migrants from all corners of Wales, Ireland, England and Spain. Coal, iron and steel were the drivers of its exponential growth. Just outside the town is the grand, castellated hulk of Cyfarthfa Castle, the Grade I-listed former home of the Crawshay family that oversaw a massive ironworks. Today, it's a history museum, starting with the Roman era but dominated by the Industrial Age. Richard Trevithick brought his innovative steam-powered locomotive to the Penydarren ironworks; a monument on the high street says it was first operated in 1804.
Today the area is a target for Reform and Plaid Cymru, but The Valleys have a long, deep connection with radical politics. At the centre of Merthyr Tydfil is Penderyn Square, after Dic Penderyn, a labourer and coal miner who played a leading role in the Merthyr Rising of 1831. Workers took to the streets calling for reform, protesting against wage cuts and unemployment. The red flag they carried became the international symbol of left-wing activism. Troops were called in and 24 protesters were killed. Dic was arrested, found guilty of bayoneting a soldier, and hanged – becoming a national martyr. The local Wetherspoons is named after him.
The first bona fide Labour MP was Merthyr's Keir Hardie, who took one of the town's two seats in 1900, 1906 and 1910. But left-leaning politics has disparate roots here. Newport saw a Chartist uprising in 1839. The coal-mining village of Maerdy had associations with the Communist Party of Great Britain and was dubbed 'Little Moscow'. Aneurin Bevan, founder of the NHS, was MP for Ebbw Vale for 31 years; a monument stands at a site where the great orator held public meetings.
During the 1984-5 strike, Welsh miners were among the most steadfast; the pitmen and families of Dulais Valley were supported by Lesbian and Gay activists from London – as portrayed in the Bafta-winning 2014 film Pride.
Industrial wonders of Wales
The Cyfarthfa Works were surpassed by the even larger Dowlais Ironworks, two miles to the east. Under the management of the Guest family, the plant was in the vanguard of science – Michael Faraday was an honoured visitor in 1819 – and was for a time the largest steel-making operation in the world. All that remains is a handsome red-and-yellow-brick blast engine house built in 1906, with a classical cast-iron portico of paired columns. It's now a youth club.
Across The Valleys are other iconic industrial structures. Completed in 1756, Old Bridge in Pontypridd once had the longest span in Europe, nudging Venice's Rialto into second place. Commissioned to replace a dilapidated timber bridge, the design was the work of self-taught stonemason William Edwards. Turner painted it in 1798. The bridge was built to allow farmers to walk their livestock to market in Caerphilly. Its narrowness led to traffic congestion and the steep descent on either side was too extreme for horses and carriages. In 1857, a level bridge was built beside it.
If you know the name Pontrhydyfen, it's probably as the birthplace of Richard Burton. In 1827, ironmaster John Reynolds built what was at the time the largest aqueduct in Britain to supply the waterwheel powering the blast furnace at Cwmavon Ironworks. A tourist attraction even at the time, today it carries a path and cycleway. In the last decade of the 19th century, a 17-mile railway was built to transport coal from the upper valleys to Port Talbot. Pontrhydyfen was adorned with a magnificent ten-span viaduct across the River Afan. The five-mile Richard Burton Trail takes in both bridges as well as the street (Dan-y-Bont) where the actor was born.
The Nantgarw China Works made top-quality porcelain, noted for its pure white tones and translucency, which was all the rage in London. Today there's an excellent museum at the site, with artists in residence and workshops.
Conservation has transformed several centres into major tourist attractions. Blaenavon, a Unesco World Heritage Site since 2000, is a great place to absorb the whole story of the region. It's home to a pioneering 18th-century ironworks, with blast furnaces, water balance tower, lift and workers' cottages. Until 1980, the nearby Big Pit was a working colliery, employing some 1,300 people. Today it's an award-winning interactive museum with an underground tour. Given that so much of coal history has been razed, the museum is a vital window on this lost industry.
Getting active
Mountain biking has taken off in The Valleys. BikePark Wales, in the Gethin Woodland Park southwest of Merthyr, has the UK's most diverse selection of all-weather mountain bike trails, with lift services to carry riders to the top of trails, bike and equipment hire, coaching, guiding and a café.
Zip World Tower Colliery was developed on the site of a former pit; before its closure in 2008, Tower Colliery was the oldest continuously working deep coal mine in the UK, possibly the world. The fun park has four ziplines.
For those who prefer to get their adrenaline fix walking or running, Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park begins at the northern edge of The Valleys, with buses running through from Neath, Merthyr and Cardiff.
Nature is never far from towns and villages. Fabled rivers – the two Ebbws, two Rhonddas, Taff, Thaw, Tawe and Neath – fed by many tributaries, flow from the Brecon Beacons and Cambrian Mountains down to the valley bottoms. Framing these are dramatic uplands with steep hillsides, open moors and forests.
At Tonypandy, an information board declares that nearby are the UK's 'most southerly glacial cwms' (coombes or cirques), home to rare arctic plants, nesting peregrines and ravens, peat bogs and cottongrass. Former slagheaps have been grassed over and rewilded. Where once there were pit-brow lasses and toxic gases are now white Cladonia lichens, fruiting wimberries and sunning butterflies. Rhondda Cynon Taf council publishes a list of local walks, with OS maps and videos.
Croesi i Deep Wales
It's enlightening and enjoyable to drive or ride buses and trains around The Valleys. The main roads are the A470 and the A465, known here as the Heads of the Valleys Road – it crosses wide-open moorland.
Take the smaller sideroads and you soon find yourself in a very Welsh, historical townscape of terraced houses built along hillsides, nonconformist chapels (the seedbed of Welsh singing as well as politics), labour clubs and rugby pitches, including substantial local stadia in Ebbw Vale, Merthyr, Neath and Pontypool. The Welsh national anthem was composed by Evan James and James James of Pontypridd. The hymn Cwm Rhondda (aka Bread of Heaven) sings directly to The Valleys.
I spent a week travelling around the region – yes, I went on holiday there – because I wanted to know something of the reality as well as the generalities, misrememberings and myths. If The Valleys were north of London rather than economically puny Cardiff they'd be a mix of the Hamptons, the Hollywood Hills and Silicon Valley. It will take some luck, effort and willpower to make their future as extraordinary as their past, but there is resilience and aspiration here. Skip the queues on Snowdonia and Pen y Fan; head down rather than up and you'll discover something new and different about the UK's oldest nation.
Three essential stops
Newport
Sometimes called the 'gateway town' and overshadowed by Cardiff, Newport has a superb art gallery – with modern works evoking the boom and bust years of the Valleys, a wonderful cathedral, a lovely park on a sloping hill and a fascinating shop-cum-cultural centre on the high street dedicated to the history of the Chartists called Newport Rising.
Pontypridd
The local museum is in the Tabernacle Chapel, built in 1861, at the north end of the town. It still houses the original pipe organ and decorated interior, which was restored with Lottery Funding. The rocking stone on Coedpenmaen Common, a glacial erratic, was used for bardic gatherings.
Llantrisant
This pretty village is the home of the Royal Mint, which hosts tours and exhibitions. At the main crossroads is a statue of Dr William Price (1800-1893), 'surgeon, political activist, druid and pioneer of cremation'. Follow his gaze to the hill opposite, where Price tried to cremate his son, Iesu Grist, who had died when he was just five months old. He was arrested and charged, but later freed and cremation was legalised in 1902.

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