Stepping Back 6,000 Years: Exploring St Lythans & Tinkinswood with Outstanding Walks Wales

There are some walks where the scenery steals the show. Others where it’s the history beneath your boots that lingers long after you’ve gone home. The St Lythans and Tinkinswood burial chambers walk in the Vale of Glamorgan manages to do both.

Piper and I headed out to explore this route from Outstanding Walks Wales by Ordnance Survey, a beautifully produced guidebook featuring 60 walks across Wales, from rugged mountain hikes and dramatic coastal paths to woodland strolls and heritage-rich routes like this one.

What immediately stood out to me about the book is how approachable it feels. Whether you’re a seasoned hiker or someone simply looking for a new Sunday afternoon walk, each route is clearly laid out with practical information including distance, terrain, difficulty grading, parking information and estimated walking times. Each walk also includes a QR code linking directly into OS Maps, making navigation incredibly straightforward without needing to carry the book with you on the trail.

For this outing, I chose the St Lythans and Tinkinswood circular route, a six-mile walk beginning in the quiet village of St Nicholas. At first glance, the landscape feels gentle and familiar. Rolling fields stretch across the Vale of Glamorgan, country lanes wind between hedgerows, and woodland paths provide pockets of shade along the route. It’s peaceful walking, the kind where skylarks provide the soundtrack and every now and then you stop simply because the countryside feels impossibly calm.

Then you arrive at St Lythans burial chamber.

Suddenly, the landscape changes character entirely. Standing in the middle of a field is an enormous Neolithic burial chamber dating back around 6,000 years. Three upright stones support a huge capstone, creating a monument large enough to walk into without stooping. It’s staggering to think this structure was already ancient before Stonehenge was even completed.

There’s something deeply atmospheric about these places. Even with the occasional hum of modern life drifting across the Vale, the burial chamber feels rooted in another world entirely.

The route then continues onwards towards Tinkinswood burial chamber, and while both sites were built during the Neolithic period, they feel remarkably different from one another. Tinkinswood is particularly striking because much of its long cairn still survives. Surrounded by trees and approached along a quiet path, it has an altogether more enclosed and mysterious atmosphere. It’s also home to the largest capstone in Wales, weighing an estimated 40 tonnes.

Archaeological excavations here uncovered the remains of around 50 people, alongside evidence that the site continued to be used for rituals long after it was first constructed. Standing beside it now, it’s difficult not to wonder about the people who gathered here thousands of years ago and what these monuments truly meant to them.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this walk is how accessible it feels. You don’t need to climb a mountain summit or tackle huge distances to experience something memorable. Wales is filled with extraordinary places hidden quietly within its landscapes, and this route is proof of that.

Outstanding Walks Wales does a brilliant job of showcasing that variety. The guide includes everything from short family-friendly walks to challenging full-day adventures, spread across every region of the country. It feels just as much like a coffee table book as it does a practical walking guide, packed with photography, local insights and inspiration for future adventures.

If you’re looking to discover more of Wales on foot, especially beyond the obvious bucket-list routes, this is a genuinely lovely addition to your bookshelf.

And if ancient history, peaceful countryside and enormous prehistoric stones sound like your kind of day out, the St Lythans and Tinkinswood walk is absolutely worth adding to your list.