Before street lighting, the road from Llantrisant to Pontypridd was a dark ride. The Great British Ghost Tour, summarising a story from Richard Holland's Haunted Wales, tells what happened to four men who rode it one night.
As they went along, a fifth man joined them. Nobody saw where he came from. He had, in the words of the account, "a dark disagreeable aspect", and he said nothing at all, simply riding alongside them in silence.
He stayed with them until they reached a place called the Rhiw, a common Welsh name meaning a steep hill or slope. There the road passed through a gate, and the four riders noticed something that chilled them: as the stranger's horse went through, its hooves made no sound at all on the ground. The mysterious rider then rode off and left them to ponder what they had seen.
The account gives no date, names or explanation. The Rhiw cannot be identified with confidence; the point used here is near Treforest on the approach to Pontypridd.
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