Join
Enjoy access to more than 500 places with National Trust membership. Join today and help protect nature, beauty and history – for everyone, for ever.
Lanlay
A landscape untouched by a generation of progress
Peterston-super-Ely, Vale of Glamorgan, CF5 6LF
Opening times for 3 December 2023
Asset Opening time Countryside | Cefn gwlad Dawn - Dusk MTWTFSS2728293012345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031OpenPartially openClosedDogs
Dogs are welcome on leads.
Parking on adjacent residential streets, no toilets. Uneven walking along narrow footpaths and board walks. Not suitable for prams or wheelchair users.
Accessible route and/or map
Access to Lanlay is via kissing gates, stiles and unmade footpaths. There is no wheelchair access to Lanlay.
By road
From A48 take minor road at Sycamore cross signposted Peterstone super Ely after 600 metres take right fork and drive down the hill past the road on the left, continue on for approximately 500 metres Lanlay meadows is on the left just before the river bridge.
On foot
Lanlay links to several public footpaths. Ordnance Survey Landranger map 170 Vale of Glamorgan.
By train
Nearest station Waun Gron Park Fairwater Cardiff
By bus
Bus Service from Cardiff 320 Cardiff to Talbot Green/ Bridgend. The 322 runs from Barry.
By bicycle
View local cycle routes on the National Cycle Network website.
Highlights
Meadow
A largely untouched pre-war meadow, filled with mature and veteran trees, native plants and a haven for wildlife.
Things to see and do
Article
Visit Lanlay countryside
Discover a tranquil retreat at Lanlay in the Vale of Glamorgan with community orchard, hay meadows and an abundance of wildflowers and veteran trees. Lanlay is the perfect escape.
Places to stay
Summerhouse Cottage
On the Tyntesfield estate, this former hunting lodge has an octagonal summerhouse and farmland views.
Dinefwr Home Farm
A traditional farmhouse with wooden floors, and a log burner on the beautiful Dinefwr Park.
About Lanlay
A step into Lanlay Meadows is a step back in time, where sprawling, unkempt hedgerows meet gnarled, twisted old oak trees.
Farmed for centuries, this small fragment of land has lain unchanged for decades, avoiding the wrath of today's flail hedge trimmers and fertilisers and becoming a rare haven for a huge array of wildlife.
The River Ely, a playground for otters and kingfishers, meanders along the northern edge of the five fields which form this rambling, pre-war meadow; while scattered mature and veteran trees with their fallen boughs serve as feeding grounds and refuges for a variety of birds, bugs and bats.
You can explore this idyllic relic of pre-war farming on two footpaths that wind from east to west. Wander through meadows still cut for hay and which explode into a riot of colour in early summer, through Rhos pasture - a nationally rare habitat, and end your journey in a wild area of open scrubland slowing returning to woodland.