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This twelfth cache of the “Caerphilly Collection” involves a walk of about two miles mainly on good tracks, with about 300' of ascent. Two virtual caches lead to an old and remote burial place with views. The final regular cache is a small plastic box. The trail will take you along part of the Rhymney Valley Ridgeway Footpath. If your map suggests that you can drive most of the way, don't believe it!
The Caerphilly Collection is distinguished with a unique CC number and is made up of 50 caches. The caches vary in difficulty and type and usually have other “C” word connections – castle, cheese, coal, canal, etc. There may even be Cryptic Clues for Clever Clogs! The current Caerphilly unitary authority grew out of the former Rhymney Valley and Islwyn Councils and stretches from the outskirts of Cardiff and Newport in the south to the Brecon Beacons, north of Rhymney. Despite a past dominated by coal and heavy industry, it has a diverse history and varied and dramatic scenery. We hope you will enjoy exploring it with us.
Towards the end of the Collection is CC48 The Accumulator, the location of which is given in coded form. The translation details of the code are distributed around the whole Collection, but only about a third of the caches will contain a piece of the code, which is on the back of the Log Book. To do the Accumulator, you will need to keep a note of each piece of code that you find. Unless you are very lucky, you will need to find the majority of the Collection in order to do the Accumulator. The Accumulator cache is hidden in an area of difficult terrain and demanding navigation, with a 5, 4½ rating.
CC12 is also the twelfth of a subset of the main series around the Rhymney Valley Ridgeway (RVR) Footpath. In this case, CC could also stand for combined commemoration to cairn committal.
Limited parking is available at N51 35.477 W003 17.401. (Customers of the Rose and Crown will find more ample parking there.) Just north of the church, the drystone wall was being re-built when we set up the cache – the uploaded image shows the work under way.
In the following, VC stands for Virtual Cache and RC for Regular Cache.
VC1 is at the coordinates given above for the cache - it seems quite tragic that the combined ages of the four sons is less than that of the parents. Indeed, none outlived his mother and only one survived his father. To find VC2, convert the name of the place where Bert is buried into a set of numbers, using the corresponding digits on the keys of a mobile phone (e.g. A, B or C become 2). St Ilian’s Church dates from the 13th century.
VC2 is at N51 3W.XY7 W003 17.WZ2, where:
W = the third number of the set derived at VC1
X = the sum of the second, fourth and fifth numbers divided by the sixth number
Y = the first number
Z = the fifth number divided by the seventh number
There are letters on opposite sides of the marker at VC2. You need to note those facing the road and, as before, convert them to a set of numbers, using the keys of a mobile phone. (The first letter is a little damaged, but it is what it most looks like!) The marker can be dated to 1893 or 1894, the lifespan of the body denoted on the back.
RC3 is at N51 3P.QR0 W003 1S.TR5, where:
P = the sum of the first two of the set of numbers derived at VC2 divided by the third
Q = the difference between the last two numbers
R = the third number
S = the first number
T = P - R
About 15m south of the cache are the scattered remains of Carnedd Lwyd, a Bronze Age round cairn burial chamber. A little more easily recognised is the line of the Senghenydd Dyke, here running roughly parallel to the ridge track and about 20-30m to the west of it. The dyke was originally the boundary of the deer park owned by Caerphilly Castle. In keeping with our intention to encourage exploration of the RVR Footpath, we would recommend continuing north to Carneddi Llwydion, then circling anticlockwise around Cefn Eglwysilan back to the start, a round trip of about 5 miles which doubles the total ascent. This route would be suitable for a mountain bike. Carneddi Llwydion are a pair of round cairns near the track junction at N51 37.178 W003 17.639 (WP4) and more easily found. It will be noted that they were constructed of rounded stones, which suggests that they were collected from the bed of the River Taff and carried up here! However you do the cache, enjoy the views of the Rhymney, Aber and Taff valleys.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)