Parc Penallta

Park

Explorer Tom

Parc Penallta near Ystrad Mynach has a horse big enough to make your picnic look like a crumb: Sultan the Pit Pony is carved into a former coal tip. Climb toward his grass-covered outline and the South Wales Valleys spread around you; if he starts asking for oats, I shall be first over the gate. Sultan is an earth sculpture about 200 metres long and 15 metres high, named after a show pit pony associated with nearby Penallta Colliery. This park turns industrial spoil into paths, meadows, ponds and places to look out. The High Point Observatory gives broad views, while its six wings point toward local communities and carry images about heritage, wildlife and recreation. Follow the marked walks and you move between open plateau and sheltered lower ground, with the old mining landscape never far from the story. The tourism page jokes that Sultan may gallop about at night. I have investigated thoroughly by squinting at a hoof-shaped pond; the evidence is, regrettably, still pond-shaped. What you can really find are a willow tunnel, dragonflies by the water and seasonal wildflowers. Try looking at the huge horse from different heights: a sculpture you can walk into is a more entertaining puzzle than a statue on a plinth. Parc Penallta is a public country park with several waymarked trails starting at the main car park. Choose a route for your energy and the weather; paths across a former tip can be sloping, exposed or muddy. Leave plants and pond life alone, and use the signed paths when moving around Sultan. Finish at a viewpoint if you can, where the little human figures below make the pony's ridiculous scale plain.