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?