At 7.4 miles long, the Golden Road is a spectacular routeway running along the ridge of the Mynydd Preseli. This is one of the finest walking trails in the area, offering stunning panoramic views. The route along the ridge crosses through rugged moorland shaped by ice and weathering processes. Although the highest points likely stayed free of ice during the peak of the last ice age, 25,000-20,000 years ago, previous ice ages and weathering processes have formed distinctive rocky outcrops called tors that rise above the gentler slopes.
This landscape attracted people to the ridge from the Neolithic period, about 4,500 years ago. The area has a strong agricultural tradition and is steeped in archaeology and history. The Golden Road is most famous for being the origin point of the bluestones at Stonehenge, while it also displays an array of Bronze Age burial monuments and some of the best Iron Age hillforts in South West Wales. The Golden Road is home to a wide variety of rare insects and birds, including curlew and lapwing, and herds of increasingly endangered semi-wild ponies that have roamed the hills for thousands of years.
Myths and legends have developed through the strong connections to the archaeology and nature in this region. The myth of King Arthur hunting the supernatural boar, Twch Trwyth, on the slopes of Mynydd Preseli is linked to Bedd Arthur, or Arthur’s grave, claimed locally as King Arthur’s gravesite.