Coed Gwilym Park

Great park with lots of activities, great walks along the river or canal.. so much to do in a safe area.. definitely recommend to families

Makes for a great walk by the canal in both directions. You can pretty much walk all the way from Ystradgynlais to Swansea passing through this park. The whole walk which ever part you join is lovely at any time of the year.

Just a lovely place to spend time, walking the dog, in the field, along the canal. It has a bowling green for members, a couple of sports pitches, a MUGA (football and basketball) and two tennis courts. Oh, and it has two playgrounds too. All with parking that does get full when the park is busy. Great place.

Fantastic as usual, the girls decided to leave parc gwernfadog this morning around 10 o'clock. They pushed their scooters (not the electric variety I may add)the 2.2 miles to the parc.
We soaked up the sunshine and marvelled at some of the wildlife along the canal path.
We played around for an hour or so before we decided to crack out the mini picnic.
Feeling fully charged it was soon time to make our return journey via ynystawe parc.
Parc coed gwilym certainly delivered again 👏.
Two tired little ladles this evening, nos da.

fantastic park football, tennis, bowls etc, playground for the children and nice people😁

Thanks to the volunteers there for running the kyak and canoe hire, you're doing a fab job guys!

Good fun, two play grounds, two tennis courts, a field for sports (or anything else you want to do on a field), a basket ball/ football court, there is also toilets and a place to sit.

An urban Park has become an outstanding exquisite go-to place for everyone of all ages and abilities; because of the presence of historic Swansea Canal, Swansea Canal Society and Clydach Heritage Centre. Swansea Canal Towpath is now a very popular walking Trail for everyone of all ages - visitors, explorers ♒, joggers 🚶, runners 🏃, Cyclists 🚴 and it is also included in the National Cycle Route 43.

Walking Trails in the park is made of concrete and hence easily accessible for all including those with mobility impairments! Some parts of trail are prone to flooding! 😔! The park has many facilities including with green space, woodland, bowling green, football pitch, tennis courts, multiuse games area, BMX Track in the woodland, trim trail with fitness equipments, changing facilities, car parks, and Children's play area! There is an AED - Artificial External Defibrillator outside the changing facilities building!

In the summer, Swansea Canal Society runs the Kayak 🛶 and boat 🚣 hire service from the Coed Gwilym Park. And there is a photographic bench to take a breather and take pictures with the local heroes memorialised in steel cut-outs! Clydach Heritage Centre has taken a very intelligent, strategic, and effective plan by creating an Outdoor Display Area and Notice Boards displaying historic information ℹ and historic artefacts - even if it is closed, you wouldn't be disappointed!

Swansea Canal is undergoing restoration and preservation works led by the volunteers at the Swansea Canal Society. No doubt, this park is very important for the preservation of the historic Swansea Canal. Hopefully, The restoration will bring in more features to the park and to the canal itself!

It could be a thoughtful action to add public toilets 🚻 including radar-key-enabled disabled toilets ♿ 🚽 along the Clydach Heritage Centre. While the park is in good condition, the display boards and maps are in very poor state and almost not readable at all! Maintenance is now required for these - may be it's time to upgrade/uplift the information display boards/Signages.

A small car park by the Main Entrance on the Pontardawe Road is very useful for accessing the facilities and visit the park for recreation/relaxation/leisure/sports. Added bonus is that car park is free to use - hope it stays free all the time! 🙏! There is no markings for parking bays, most importantly, no dedicated disabled bays! It would be very useful and accessible, at least, disabled bays are being marked so that Disabled ♿ users can use these facilities more easily and stress-free parking!

Importance of Swansea Canal for the Swansea Valley and surrounding areas:
Swansea Canal (fully operational from 1798) was of great importance for the Copperworks industries in Swansea Valley in 18th & 19th Centuries. Because of the canal, towns around Swansea came to existence and rose to global prominence as an industrial nation & copper smelting capital of the world - for which Swansea was known as "Copperopolis"

Due to the decades of neglect, the disused canal has fallen into disrepair Many parts of Swansea Canal are no longer a canal anymore - these were reclaimed by the nature and development of infrastructure! Only about 5 miles out of original 16 miles long canal can be identified as Swansea Canal - between Clydach to Godre’r-Graig is the only section with navigational water.