The Radnor Forest

Sunday 28th August 2022

On my last day while staying in Kington I decided I would turn my attention briefly away from the Offa’s Dyke Path that I had been following on this holiday and my eye had turned west towards the hills of the old county of Radnorshire. The highest point lies within the Radnor Forest, which is an area of upland moorland rising to more than two thousand feet (a forest in this case, and often in England and Wales, denotes an ancient hunting ground). This was not far from where I was staying so I drove from Kington to the small village of New Radnor and parked near the monument. Setting off through the village I took a lane that climbed between a gorgeous line of trees until the gradient eased and I took a path that materialised on my left climbing steeply through fabulous woodland. Navigation was a little tricky as I crossed several forestry tracks, but by keeping a steady progress uphill I eventually found my way to the northern tip of the wood. Near the end I passed through an area that had been felled and provided wild flowers with the opportunity to dominate and gave me a colourful avenue to walk through. After that great start to the walk I emerged onto the moorland where I had hazy views south across the valley and as I continued to climb the views became more extensive, but just as hazy.

Eventually the path eased as I passed through the shallow col on the summit ridge of Bache Hill whose summit, which sports a trig point, lay to my right. I stayed on the track passing over the top and down to a col between Ystol Bach Brook and Cascob Brook whose northern slopes are covered in conifers. I ignored the plantation and took to a track that climbs up to the summit of Black Mixen, which is adorned with a trig point and unfortunately a large radio transmitter. I wisely avoided the transmitter, but made my way to the trig point. The top of this hill is so broad that there were no views possible aside from the heather moorland itself, which at least was in flower. Continuing along the path I came to the edge of Mynydd Ffoesidoes Nature Reserve where I could see an interpretation board inside, but no paths or any way into the reserve. It wasn’t too difficult to climb over the fence and making way through the dense heather I came to the board and read what it had to say. Returning to my path I followed it beside the edge of the conifer plantation and around the top of Harley Dingle with views down into the valley which houses a firing range.

On reaching a bridle path I moved away from the conifers, but soon branched off to head south to the trig point that sits in the middle of the broad top of Great Rhos, which is the highest point in Radnorshire at 660 metres above sea level. In my youth I had the idea that I would attempt to bag all the hills in Wales more than two thousand feet high. I didn’t complete the list, but myself of twenty years ago would have been very happy to have reached the top of Great Rhos as another peak was crossed off the list. There may be other peaks in Wales that I have still not done, but myself of now doesn’t care and it is immaterial that I had just reached the top of Great Rhos. I was just after a good walk. The views to the north and west were a little clearer than they had been south, and I was able to enjoy those views as I made my way across the top of Great Rhos and down the western slopes while the sunshine that I had enjoyed on Black Mixen became smothered in cloud. Soon, I reached a fence that barred my progress and warned of a live firing range ahead, so despite the path crossing the fence and my map indicating that it was safe to do so, I turned right keeping to the side of the fence.

At a fence junction I turned left heading south until I found a clear path that provided me with easier walking while ahead of me the views continued to improve and enabled me to see the Brecon Beacons in the distance. On reaching a bridleway I took that down into Davy Morgan’s Dingle, a narrow valley that was fun to cross, and the delights continued as I passed through an old quarry and along the side of Radnor Range where signs warned of danger. Finally I crossed the stream that comes out of Harley Dingle and around the side of a hill back into the village of New Radnor. This was quite a short walk and I was back at my car by lunch time, which left me with the whole afternoon and nothing to do. When I planned this walk I hadn’t realised it would only last me four hours, but it was an interesting walk up through woodland, across high moorland and down into the spectacular Harley Dingle valley. To fill my afternoon, I decided I would do an unplanned walk somewhere in the neighbourhood and discovered a car park not far away in the valley of Black Brook, so I headed there and parked at the end of a track where notices gave directions to a waterfall that is the main attraction of the area.

However, I wanted to listen to the Belgian Grand Prix on the radio and for that I needed a good DAB signal so I moved quickly away from the waymarked paths onto a track that climbed up a hill and into the grassy fields and broad top of Mynd. I now had a good signal on my radio, but I had no idea where I was. The Radnor Forest was right on the edge of my map and I had just moved off it, so I wandered around aimlessly until I realised I needed to go back down the hill and join a byway that headed north through Cwm Du. Quickly, I made my way back down the hill and, with patchy reception on my radio, along the track until I entered open moorland where I was able to turn off the byway and climb up to the top of Nyth-grug where I was rewarded with a clear radio signal and good views. At the trig point I surveyed my surroundings that included the Radnor Forest where I had walked earlier in the day. To keep high for as long as possible, or at least until the Grand Prix ended, I slowly headed north along the broad grassy ridge veering right to avoid steep ground until I reached a ford across the Mithil Brook at the head of Llan-Evan Dingle. This stream was dry but descended through a stunning rock-filled gorge and I couldn’t resist scrambling through the ravine that felt like an old quarry, but only because it was dry.

This was tremendous fun, but as water started to appear I eventually had to turn around and climb back up through the awesome surroundings to the ford where I took a path that heads towards the Black Brook valley, but this was very sketchy and I kept going the wrong way so I had to battle through thick bracken to reach the correct path. This took me into a conifer plantation where I went wrong again until finally I found the right path into the valley and to the Water-break-its-neck waterfall. This was a magical place filled with vegetation but no water, which enabled me to walk up the rocky ravine until I reached a delectable bowl where a trickle of water was running down the mossy rock face. However, pictures of Water-break-its-neck reveal that this was not the famed waterfall, which was probably downstream and so didn’t have any water. Nevertheless it was worth the effort if only for the walk through the gorge. This second walk required a lot of effort and I gained very little from it, mainly because it was unplanned, but at least I was able to have a walk while listening to the Grand Prix and it was enjoyable enough in that regard. What more could you ask?

Offa’s Dyke Path: Shropshire Hills

Saturday 27th August 2022

After my disappointment with the latter stage of my walk the day before along the Offa’s Dyke Path, I decided to change my plans for this day, which had been very ambitious with a walk of more than twenty miles. Looking at the route, I was afraid it might be through farmer’s fields the whole way, whose monoculture I find to be rather tedious unless the terrain is steep enough to excite me. The Harvey Map for the Offa’s Dyke Path has different colour coding for improved pasture, rough pasture and moorland, and this indicated that beyond the village of Newcastle the land was all farmers’ fields, but there seemed to be more appeal to the section immediately out of Knighton, a market town on the English border that I had reached on the trail the previous day. My change of plan involved catching a bus from Kington, where I was staying, but since this was not due until 10.10, so I had time for a short wander around the area, following the route of the Herefordshire Trail to the River Arrow and then back west, past the campsite and onto the Kingswood Road where the bus stop in the centre of Kington was a short distance away. Once in Knighton I made my way to the Offa’s Dyke Centre where I was able to see some information about the dyke and learn about the efforts being made to preserve the ancient earthwork.

Leaving the Offa’s Dyke Centre, I dropped down through parkland to the lovely valley of the River Teme and crossed into England and the Shropshire Hills, which are really just a continuation of the hills in the Welsh Marches. I was keen to do some walking in the Shropshire Hills so I was glad that I had elected to continue walking along the Offa’s Dyke Path into the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, at least for a while. After crossing the railway line and a campsite that at one time I had considered staying in, I started to climb steeply up the hill, which made me very hot as the sun chose that very moment to come out, though most of the morning it would remain overcast. When I mercifully reached the top, I walked through delightful scenery that looked over the Teme Valley and follows the Welsh border, though under overcast skies. The path I was following kept to the edge of the escarpment below Panpunton Hill and soon I was accompanied by the actual Offa’s Dyke as we headed north. After a brief period away from the escarpment, I came back to the edge around the dramatic gouge into the side of the hill that is Cwm Sanaham. Fortunately I didn’t have to descend by much before starting to climb up the other side to the trig point that sits at the top of Cwm-sanaham Hill.

On the descent I lost the path by keeping beside the fence so I had to retrace my steps back to the path, only to lose it again almost immediately afterwards as I followed a thin, sketchy path onto steep ground. Turning around I crossed the steep ground onto the correct, annoyingly clear path that took me down to a house, labelled on my Ordnance Survey map as Brynorgan. After crossing a road I climbed over a short ridge that was very tiring, even though it was small, so when I emerged into the field beyond I decided to stop and have my lunch while sitting on Offa’s Dyke and enjoying the sunshine. On the other side of the field I crossed a delectable wood-covered stream with hardly any water in it and soon crossed another, similar stream that had only slightly more water. It was distressing to see the efforts that sheep were making on this walk to avoid the hot sunshine, finding as much shade as they could even when this was sketchy at best. After passing Garbett Hall I joined a farmer’s track that steadily climbs the hill, which was a painful and exhausting climb in the hot weather. The track follows Offa’s Dyke but keeps away from it, running alongside, and several times crossed the dyke until eventually the gradient eased and I reached the trig point on Llanfair Hill where I decided I had had enough.

The view ahead seemed to be tedious as the trail crosses the broad top of Llanfair Hill, so I turned around and headed back along the Offa’s Dyke Path to Knighton. After many days of long, tiring walks I thought I needed a much shorter walk, so after just 4.7 miles on the trail I was heading back down the hill, but immediately I came off the trail and onto the dyke. The trail used to run along the top of the dyke, but to preserve the ancient earthwork it was moved off and onto the farmer’s track. However, there is still a right-of-way on the dyke so I followed that for the descent and enjoyed the airy feeling of walking along the top of the dyke with the tremendous scenery of the Welsh Marches to my right until eventually I returned to the Offa’s Dyke Path and completed the descent back to Garbett Hall. Normally you wouldn’t want to cover the same ground twice, but on this occasion it allowed me to see where I had gone wrong on the descent from Cwm-sanaham Hill, missing a totally blatant signpost, and also gave me an opportunity to enjoy the fabulous escarpment edge again and now in sunnier weather. It was quite hot on this walk, which didn’t help on the occasions when I was climbing and resulted in me sweating profusely on many occasions, but it was still very enjoyable.

I have not done much walking in the Shropshire Hills before and I wasn’t sure what to make of them after this walk. I like steep terrain and rock, so while, in places, there are steep gradients, unfortunately the Shropshire Hills are lacking in rock. Most of the hills are covered by farmer’s fields and their gradients are a little too gentle, but I did enjoy this short walk. I could have taken a complete rest on this day and not done any walking, but that is not in my nature, so instead I did a short walk of less than ten miles. The views may not have been overly dramatic, but they were lovely in their gentleness and perhaps that is what I needed.

Offa’s Dyke Path: Hergest Ridge to Knighton

Friday 26th August 2022

On the day before this walk I had reached the town of Hay-on-Wye, but to continue my trek along the Offa’s Dyke Path, I thought I’d start at the western end of the Hergest Ridge, so I made my way from the centre of Kington, where I was now staying, past the Church of St. Mary and Hergest Croft Gardens, along Ridgebourne Road and onto the open hillside. Rather than going straight up to the top of the ridge, I followed the wall across the southern slopes of the Hergest Ridge. After the good weather that I had enjoyed the day before on the Black Mountains, the weather had now reverted to the norm for Wales with light rain and overcast skies, which didn’t help with my enjoyment of a path that was tedious on a hill whose gradients were not steep enough to be exciting with the most interest being roused while crossing the stream in Rabber Dingle. With the hazy weather spoiling the views back to the Black Mountains I kept going along the path and by the time I reached the western end of the ridge the weather was slowly improving with the hills of the Radnor Forest further west attracting my eye. I had seen those hills the day before while coming off the Black Mountains so it was disappointing to realise that the Hergest Ridge was as close as the Offa’s Dyke Path would come to these hills.

Joining the trail I turned east to climb the ridge on a wide grassy track with bracken, gorse and sheep much in evidence across the hill. Since before Monmouth the Offa’s Dyke Path had stayed largely in Wales, but now it crossed the border to enter England and swung to the northern edge of the ridge while I headed across the top to reach the rocks at the highest point and the nearby trig point. Returning to the Offa’s Dyke Path I passed a clump of monkey puzzle trees and down the broad slopes back onto Ridgebourne Road and into Kington. I didn’t think a traverse of the Hergest Ridge would take me very long, so I was rather surprised to realise that several hours had already passed by the time I was back at the Church of St. Mary and I was beginning to worry that this walk may be overambitious. Therefore, I cut the corner in Kington down to the Gilwern Brook and steeply up past the edge of Kington Golf Club where direction finding was tricky. I came across an old man who was also confused about the path, so I checked our location and discovered that we had strayed too far west. Returning to the path we climbed up the hill, but soon I left the old man behind and on the fields around Bradnor Hill I repeatedly needed to check my location.

Eventually I reached the slopes of Rushock Hill where I could see a faint path was heading up the hill and a much clearer path crossed the slopes, so I took the easier option, but when I checked my location I found that I had left the Offa’s Dyke Path again, which climbs to the top of Rushock Hill. Since the trail soon comes back down I decided to stay on my easier route, but on Rushock Hill the Offa’s Dyke Path was reunited with something that has not been seen in more than fifty miles: Offa’s Dyke. On the edge of Knill Garroway Wood, I returned to the route of the trail and with the ancient earthwork behind me I descended to a bench near Herrock Hill where I stopped to have my lunch and gaze out across fabulous views into Wales. Ignoring the clear path up to the top of Herrock Hill I crossed the eastern slopes and continued along the Offa’s Dyke Path into the valley of Hindwell Brook where I crossed the border again back into Wales. After skirting the edge of Burfa Wood I came across Offa’s Dyke again but with dull arable fields to my right and the valley to my left. My interest was revived when I entered Granner Wood where harebells decorated the path, but soon it started to rain, which forced me to put my cagoule on as I passed through Hilltop Plantation and slowly down the hill.

By the time I reached the bottom of the hill, in the valley of the River Lugg, the sun had come out so I took my waterproofs off again and followed the path across the valley while enjoying the sunshine and blue skies that I had not seen all day. On the far side of the valley a gravelly track took me up the hill on an unrelenting climb that was exhausting in the hot weather. The hilly scenery of the Welsh Marches compensated for the strenuous climb as I passed over Furrow Hill, but after Hawthorn Hill the scenery deteriorated. I was now getting tired as the miles began to drag on dull, grassy fields while the sun disappeared behind clouds again and I was stuck on broad hilltops with little to see. It was just at that moment that I realised I had lost my walking pole, so looking back through my day I thought back to when I last had it, to the moment when I had taken my cagoule off after the rain, but that was two hours ago, so I couldn’t walk back for it. I hoped I would be able to look for it in the evening, after the walk, but for now I just had to keep going. Earlier in the day I had been very upbeat, but now, with little change in the views and flatter terrain underfoot while passing through farmer’s fields, I was rather depressed about the walk, so I was thankful when Knighton and the valley of the River Teme finally came into view.

The walk ended with a steep descent through Frydd Wood and into the market town of Knighton, but the field walking had already done too much. I was disappointed with this walk as it had started well, over the Hergest Ridge and the steep climb out of Kington was great leading me to a fabulous view beside Herrock Hill, but it seemed to deteriorate after that except for the brief lift of the bright sunshine in the Lugg Valley. The presence of the Offa’s Dyke itself did little to alleviate the tedium. I was deliberately not walking every mile of the Offa’s Dyke Path on this holiday, which was why I had missed out the section between Hay-on-Wye and the Hergest Ridge, but there were clearly other sections that also didn’t merit being walked. After getting some fish & chips in Knighton I caught a bus back to Kington and immediately drove to the spot where I had taken my waterproofs off earlier in the day. Despite a gap of five hours my walking pole was exactly where I had left it. Fortunately it was off the path where no one had seen it and I was able to retrieve it.

Offa’s Dyke Path: The Black Mountains to Hay-on-Wye

Thursday 25th August 2022

The first mountain that I climbed on my first mountain walk was Hay Bluff on the edge of the Black Mountains, however you could argue that I didn’t actually climb it then as I had started from the car park that is only two hundred metres below the summit. To correct that oversight on this walk I would now be starting from the bottom of the valley in the village of Hay-on-Wye from where the top of Hay Bluff cannot be seen due to the intervening low-lying hills. So, without my goal in sight, I set off from the car park, deliberately avoiding the route of the Offa’s Dyke Path that will be my descent route and followed footpaths that ran alongside quiet country lanes until eventually I completely lost the path. After great difficulty passing through a band of trees I reached a road that I decided to stay on and having already climbed quite a way the gradient now eased to give me a gentle stroll that let me catch my breath and cool down. With the Black Mountains now in view ahead of me, I crossed a cattle grid and with the gradient steepening I climbed up to the car park that I had used in 1999 on my first walk in the area. Beyond the car par, the path steepened cruelly for a tortuous climb before eventually I reached the summit plateau not far from the trig point at the top of Hay Bluff.

The day before I had walked along the Offa’s Dyke Path on the eastern edge of the Black Mountains as far as the crossroads between Capel-y-Ffin and the Olcon Valley and I could have taken a roundabout route to either of those places and then climbed up to the crossroads, but it was much easier to just walk along the Offa’s Dyke Path. Hay Bluff is really just the northern tip of an escarpment with vast moorland behind that soon rises again to a point that is more than seven hundred metres above sea level and was the highest point on that seminal walk in 1999, even though it doesn’t have a name. The path leading away from Hay Bluff soon comes alongside the English border and, not long after, the Offa’s Dyke Path, to climb this mountain whose top is so broad the actual summit is impossible to accurately place, though a small pile of stones have been placed at one point that could arbitrarily be considered the summit. It was overcast and not particularly warm during my ascent, but by this time the sun had come out which was affording me with fabulous views east across the many trees of Herefordshire and west across the glorious Black Mountains.

When I eventually reached the crossing there were gorgeous blue skies overhead, so I was happy to stop and have my lunch while admiring the views all around me. Heading back along the ridge I climbed back through the stony ground that I remember with fondness from my previous visits and make me feel as though as I really am walking through mountainous terrain, even though the gradient is gentle. I had not been over this unnamed hill since 2014 so I was more than happy to now go over it twice passing over the 703 metre top that is the highest point on the whole of the Offa’s Dyke Path. With a cold, northerly wind blowing I made my way across the fabulous terrain with spellbinding views to my left across the Black Mountains that is the location of some of my earliest mountain walks which is why I have a lot of affection for the area. The whole area was looking gorgeous in the sunshine and I couldn’t get enough of the experience as it is good weather days like this that keep you going through many days of bad weather. After passing the thief’s stone, Llech y Lladron, I branched off the direct route to Hay Bluff to bypass the top and contour around the eastern slopes of the hill on a route that I had never taken before and I was impressed.

In contrast to the steep climb directly up Hay Bluff, this is a gradual descent that allowed me to enjoy the views ahead across the broad Wye Valley and towards hills in the distance that I hoped would be on the Offa’s Dyke Path, but sadly they are not. When I reached the Gospel Pass Road I followed that for a time before branching off through a meadow full of sheep and covered in their dung where I should have paid more attention to my map as I veered too far to the left and had to correct myself so I could continue following the route of the Offa’s Dyke Path slowly descending into Hay-on-Wye. This was a much better route than the one I had taken up in the morning as it took me along grassy lanes, down steep embankments and beside narrow streams in glorious warm, sunshine to eventually return to Hay-on-Wye mid-afternoon. I had originally planned this walk a year ago to be done at Christmas to also spend some time in the second-hand bookshops in Hay-on-Wye, but it wasn’t possible then and later I realised that I would be doing that walk as part of the Offa’s Dyke Path. I was happy to do it now and loved extending it along the edge of the wonderful Black Mountains all the way to the Capel-y-Ffin crossroads so I could make the most of the fabulous sunshine.