talking point - Rhondda Cynon Taf

Midway up the Valley, Mountain Ash is chiefly famous for its
annual Nos Galan or “New Year’s Eve” Races which are run around
the streets of the town during the evening to commemorate the
career of legendary runner Guto Nyth Brân. Guto is buried three
miles away in Llanwynno Churchyard (see Route 3) and so the
races are inaugurated by a group of athletes who run from his
grave to Mountain Ash by the light of flaring torches, an
unforgettable sight on a cold December night.
30
From Pontypridd - we join the A470
north to the roundabout where the
A4059 branches off into the Cynon
Valley. A detour just before the A4059
roundabout allows access via the
B4273 to Abercynon, terminus of the
first ever steamtrain journey: in
February 1804 Richard Trevithick, an
engineer at the Penydarren Ironworks
in Merthyr Tydfil, ran his steam
engine and wagons on rails between
Penydarren and the canal basin at
Abercynon, covering the 9 miles in 4
hours and 5 minutes, twenty years
before Stevenson’s “Rocket”
performed a similar feat in England.