The purpose of this cache is to take you to an area that illustrates how man's changing use of the environment can affect the landscape and indeed how the landscape is represented on a map.
I suggest parking at N51°41.377 W4° 01.889 on Station Road (what station?!). This will take you on a short walk to the cache where you will see several man made features that have since either changed their use or have fallen into ruin.
From where you have parked you'll see a fenced off area with some strange looking posts. This was once an electricity sub-station which provided electricity to local mines and industry. It's no longer needed as much of this industry has now died.
Carry on towards the cache. The track will drop slightly into a little dip. To your right you'll see a relatively recent cycle path lead off towards Gorseinon. To the left, is the very new (2022) cycle path that leads all the way to Pontarddulais. When the cache was first placed in 2008 this area was very overgrown, and one had to exercise considerable imagination to realise this was in fact the remnant of the railway line that used to run from Pontarddulais to Victoria Station in Swansea (all now gone).
You're actually standing in the location of Mynydd Lliw station which closed long before the railway line closed to public and then eventually goods traffic. If you venture down the newest section (about 30m) you'll see a (very) small piece of railway line that has been re-instated, and there are helpful information boards that describe the station, and the colliery.
Returning to the intersection, and carrying on, the track dog-legs to the right. Until the 1970s, it also carried on straight forward and we'll be following the course of this now abandoned track to the cache.
Use the kissing gate on your left to enter what appears to be a large open field. This was once the location of Mynydd Lliw colliery and this whole area was once filled with colliery buildings and spoil tips. Examine the ground closely as you walk towards the cache - especially where the track reveals the 'soil'.
You are in fact walking on an enormous flattened spoil tip and the entire field consists of this. In the 1990s, this area was a real problem because the combustible material in the spoil caught fire underground and for years could be seen smoking and releasing poisonous chemicals, especially when it was cold. Indeed, the nearby M4 motorway was closed many times because of this.
Today, the fire is out so you can walk to the cache. At the cache location, the trackway used to go on through where the motorway is today and join another track, still in existence, on the other side. Most modern maps seem to suggest you can still cross here - and there is another similar vestige about 400m south east east on modern OS maps where a public footpath appears to cross the motorway via a footbridge. Neither the footpath nor the footbridge actually exist since the motorway was built.
