This is an easy route with no steep hills but it does involve walking 1½ miles on a fairly busy road without any pavement. The Flood Route could more appropriately be called the Flood Avoidance Route as the narrow lane from Llanllowell provides a route to Usk when the main road is occasionally flooded about a mile south of Usk centre. (Note that in the first half mile of this walk there is a small number of private gardens which usually have spectacular floral displays in summer.)

Leave the town square on Priory Street (signposted "Llantrisant 4") and follow the road round the corner, passing the entrance to the churchyard.

Turn left at the next corner (by the OneStop supermarket) on to Maryport Street. Continue past the Sessions House (completed in 1878 and now the town's Civic Centre) and the prison and then out of town.

Follow this road for about 1½ miles, cross the Olway Brook and reach the hamlet of Llanllowell.

Opposite St Llywel's Church, take the lane on the left signposted "Usk Flood Route". (The church is first mentioned in records in 1254; St. Llywel was a Celtic saint about whom little is known. He probably lived during the sixth century.)

St. Llywel's Church, Llanllowell

Looking towards Usk from Llanllowell

Looking south-east from Llanllowell