DEFYING the rain, the Vale of Glamorgan Walking Festival had great success over the weekend, with enthusiastic support from nearly 300 people.

In spite of downpours, groups of up to 30 people, often accompanied by umbrellas, joined guided walks around the Vale, following over 90 miles of pathways.

Jane Hutt AM, set a brisk pace at the inaugural walk on Barry Island, on Thursday morning, enjoying one of the weekend’s bright spells.

“This year again, the most popular walks were those with a specialist guide or destination” said Valeways’ chair, Phil Gibbins.

History was a favourite. Festival walkers scoured the beaches of Lavernock for geological traces; some scaled Llancarfan’s ancient hill fort, and heard about its thousands of years of history, after detouring to see the village’s medieval wall paintings. Others visited the ancient church of St Illtuds and the sailors’ church of St Donats. Wet wanderers in Cosmeston and Garnllwyd Woods had a chance to explore birds and wildlife.

“We like to say every trail tells a tale, and that was certainly true this year” said Phil.

And there were unexpected surprises. Those trekking along Cardiff Barrage had the thrill of the tall ship, Stavros Niarchos, breezing past.

And in a real highlight moment, people following in the footsteps of Welsh poet/politician Saunders Lewis, in a special walk on Saturday, were amazed to be welcomed into his former Penarth house, muddy boots and all, to be shown his home and garden.

Throngs joined the Sunday afternoon walks, up the Salmon Leaps in Dinas Powys; and the Barry Island finale, the annual sun-downer.

Talking about the whole festival Phil said: “Whilst the rain was bit of an unwelcome fellow traveller this year, we were delighted to attract many new people. We look forward to seeing a good number of them, again, over the summer months.”