Risca

Risca Welsh: Rhisga
A view of Risca
Risca Location within Caerphilly
Population	11,693 [1][2]
Language	English Cymraeg (Welsh)
OS grid reference	ST245905
Principal area	Caerphilly
Country	Wales
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	NEWPORT
Postcode district	NP11
Dialling code	01633
Police	Gwent
Fire	South Wales
Ambulance	Welsh
UK Parliament	Newport West and Islwyn
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament	Islwyn
List of places UK Wales Caerphilly 51°36′29″N 3°05′28″W / 51.608°N 3.091°W / 51.608; -3.091

Risca (Welsh: Rhisga) is a town in the Caerphilly County Borough and the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in south-east Wales. Risca has a railway station, re-opened on the Ebbw Valley Railway in February 2008, after a gap of 46 years. It is split into two communities; Risca East and Risca West. It has a population of 11,700. Cardiff the capital of Wales can be reached in under 28 minutes from the nearby railway station of Risca and Pontymister station which reopened in 2008 after a gap of nearly 60 years.

The town lies at the south-eastern edge of the South Wales Coalfield and the town has been shaped by mining, together with other heavy industries, for many centuries.^[3]

Risca is home to Ty-Sign, which is a large housing estate built in the early 1960s as a satellite village for the then new Llanwern steelworks. Risca has a rural aspect and is surrounded to the east and west by several extensively wooded hills including Mynydd Machen (1,188 ft; 362 m) and Twmbarlwm (1,375 ft; 419 m) which attract tourists for the hillwalking and mountain bikers to Cwmcarn Forest Drive.