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Kymer's Canal and Pwll y Llygoed Tramroad Bridge is a post-medieval industrial waterway and associated railway structure in Wales, protected by Cadw as a scheduled monument. The canal was engineered to exploit the coal and ironstone resources of the South Wales coalfield, where the Pennine and South Wales Lower Coal Measures formations—comprising mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal seams and ironstone—had been worked for centuries. The tramroad bridge represents the intersection of two transport technologies developed to move mineral extraction across difficult terrain.
The monument sits within the distinctive geology of the Welsh coalfield, where ferricrete deposits and iron-rich strata made both coal and iron ore economically valuable from the late eighteenth century onwards. The canal's construction and the tramroad's associated infrastructure reflect the industrial transformation of South Wales during the period when canal and early railway systems competed and then coexisted as transport solutions for heavy bulk goods.
Today the canal and bridge survive as physical evidence of the technical ingenuity required to move industrial products from mine to market in the pre-steam era and beyond. The monument is listed under Cadw reference CM261 and preserves an important record of Wales's industrial heritage.
Kymer's Canal and Pwll y Llygoed Tramroad Bridge is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference CM261. View the official record →
Kymer's Canal and Pwll y Llygoed Tramroad Bridge is a post-medieval industrial waterway and associated railway structure in Wales, protected by Cadw as a scheduled monument. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference CM261.
Kymer's Canal and Pwll y Llygoed Tramroad Bridge dates from the post medieval/modern period, and is classified as a canal. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Kymer's Canal and Pwll y Llygoed Tramroad Bridge is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Cadw — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Wales. The official designation reference is CM261.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Waun Twmpath Motte (4.7 km), Court Wood Enclosure 500m SSW of Pen-Llwyn-Isaf (5.1 km), Garreg Lwyd Enclosure 600m SE of Crosslane Cottages (5.2 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Kymer's Canal and Pwll y Llygoed Tramroad Bridge's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Kymer's Canal and Pwll y Llygoed Tramroad Bridge stands on Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation And South Wales Lower Coal Measures Formation (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.