Setting off from Ogmore, (try to snatch a look at the castle first if you can fit it in) you will cross Ogmore Down on route to St Brides Major, a small village with a lovely atmosphere. You don’t need to enter the village unless you fancy exploring it, since the path heads north over Old Castle Down, a hillside flush with precious wildlife. This includes a variety of beetles and the High Brown Fritillary Butterfly, which are an endangered species.

After Old Castle Down, you can take a short path down to Cwm Alun where you will find stepping stones allowing you to ford a seasonal stream, which can grow deep and fast flowing in winter following heavy rain, making it challenging to cross with a bike. Climb up the wooded lane, crossing Wick Road before joining another bridleway.

You will come out on a stretch of road near Lampha, running for a kilometre before you turn off onto the trail again towards Colwinston, skirting the pleasant little town and guiding you up to the A48.

You will need to cross this busy road, but once across you can take a bridleway along the side of it for half a kilometre. The road itself is tied up with the legend of the Golden Mile, a story about the Norman invasion of Wales, and is built on the track of an ancient Roman Road. Follow this until the left turn that takes you diagonally north to Graig Penllyn, before threading between this village and its sister Penllyn. Next is a traffic free section between woodland and arable fields, until you reach another branch in the trail.

Go right here and you will arrive in Trerhyngyll along a restricted byway, and further into the village of Aberthin, a calm and gentle close to a long day’s ride. Turn left instead and you will return to lanes before reaching the close of the route at the edge of the M4, with the option to proceed under it into Llanharry, a town with transport links and plenty of parking places. Whichever end you choose, you can rest easy knowing you’ve just seen a great swathe of the landscape in the kind of detail missed by the drivers who speed through it on the motorway with barely a passing glance.