Offa’s Dyke Path: Sedbury to Brockweir

Saturday 20th August 2022

I have enjoyed doing several long distance trails in recent years, so at the beginning of this year I was idly looking through some maps wondering if I could do a trail across Wales, but the resulting walk was highly ambitious and I don’t think I have enough experience to accomplish it. I was mindful of the fact that I have never done a long distance trail that takes more than a week, so I started looking for something that would be relatively easy, but would take me more than a week and my eye strayed east on the map to the Offa’s Dyke Path. I have walked parts of this trail before, principally in the Black Mountains, and at 177 miles it is the right length. However, as I started planning I came across the problem I often get with long distance trails and that is having to book all my accommodation, which I find to be very tedious and difficult, and also very frustrating as it locks me into a schedule that I can’t change. The distance that I would be walking each day would be fixed and I hate that lack of freedom. In Scotland I am able to wild camp wherever I like so each day I can keep going until I want to stop, whether that is a long way or to cut the day short if that is how I feel, but in England and Wales I don’t have that freedom.

However a part of me really wanted to backpack the full trail so I battled with myself on how to do the Offa’s Dyke Path until a problem with the trains solved my dilemma. Engineering work was planned for over the summer that would prevent me from getting to the start and then strikes by railway workers made me realise that I couldn’t rely on the trains, so in the end I decided to take my car. I spent a very enjoyable holiday three years ago traversing Wales using my car and I was hopeful of recapturing some of that magic on this holiday. I would not be doing every mile of the Offa’s Dyke Path, but instead I would complete most of the trail as a series of round walks or with the aid of buses. Therefore, I drove to the village of Sedbury near the mouth of the River Wye and set off in the rain, which was rather ironic as we had just been through the hottest and driest summer in almost fifty years. Ignoring the route of the Offa’s Dyke Path, I took a track down to the River Severn and crossed the saltmarsh to as close to the estuary as I safely could without getting sucked into the mudflats. Across the river I could the Severn bridges through the misty weather and I was reminded of walking beside the River Forth a year ago. Even though the saltmarshes were very muddy, there were relatively dry paths further inland that I followed along the foot of Sedbury Cliffs.

At the southern end of the cliffs I climbed up to a good vantage point with views across the river and where a rock marks the start of the Offa’s Dyke Path, so turning my back on the River Severn I set off along the trail and across the stream, Slimeroad Pill, where I immediately discovered the remains of the actual medieval earthwork known as Offa’s Dyke. Offa was an eighth century king of Mercia, who is reputed to have built this dyke to defend his lands from the Welsh. There is little hard evidence about the Dyke except for the fact that it exists, so no one really know how long it originally stretched or how it was used. This brief section of Offa’s Dyke was short-lived and soon disappeared as I skirted the edge of Sedbury while the weather slowly improved so that by the time I stopped for my lunch the sun had come out. Eventually I reached the River Wye whose valley is widely acclaimed and I was looking forward to walking through it, but first I had to get out of Sedbury and even then I was frustrated at not being able to get a view of the valley as I passed through narrow enclosed lanes until eventually I started getting glimpses into a disused quarry, now part of Lancaut Nature Reserve.

Soon after passing there I emerged onto an opening above the cliffs known as Wintour’s Leap that gave me fabulous, vertiginous views across a sharp turn in the Wye Valley. It was great to finally get a view of the Wye but this was soon gone as I turned my back on it and followed the trail for a spell of alternating between crossing some fields and walking along a road until finally I left the road behind and entered a wood. There I found Offa’s Dyke again and followed it for a relaxing and enjoyable walk through the woodland, though with hardly any views out of the trees towards the valley. The footpath was well-made and tried to keep away from the dyke so the ancient earthwork can be preserved as much as possible. At the Devil’s Pulpit, I had a view from the rock pillar into the valley with the ruins of Tintern Abbey far below. When the Offa’s Dyke Path finally emerged from the trees, above the side valley of Brockweir, I finally had clear views and when I reached a junction I took the track down into Brockweir on the route of the riverside alternative. At the River Wye, I left the trail and after crossing the bridge I followed the course of an old railway into the old Tintern station.

The Old Station was very busy, so I just made my way past the crowds until I reached the river and followed it on the route of the Wye Valley Walk to the road and into Tintern. I had planned to follow the Wye Valley Walk all the way to Chepstow, but I was very tired and it was much later in the day that I’d originally planned, so I decided to have a look around Tintern, including the abbey, and wait for a bus to take me to Chepstow where Sedbury is a short distance away across the river. When I started this walk in the rain I didn’t think most of the walk would be under glorious sunshine, but that is how the day developed and it was greatly appreciated. I really needed this holiday to get away from the pressures of work and home, so I was glad to finally leave all that behind and not have to worry about it for two weeks. I had just walked eight miles along the Offa’s Dyke Path and I was looking forward to many miles to come.

Skye Trail: To Quiraing and Rubha Hunish

Friday 3rd June 2022

The night before this walk I had camped at the northern end of the Trotternish Ridge on the Isle of Skye above the escarpment near the prominent peak of Cleat, which with hindsight was rather an exposed location. It hadn’t seemed to be a windy spot when I had camped but my tent kept shaking violently with the wind blowing off the sea and kept me awake all through the night. Perhaps my tent had not been tethered as securely as it should have been, though I must have got some sleep as I was woken very early by the sound of people nearby come to view the dawn and when I gave up trying to get back off to sleep I got out of my tent to discover clear blue skies overhead and the last traces of fog lifting from the valleys, which made me wonder where was the bad weather that had kept me awake all night. Eventually I set off, though earlier than I would usually do, on the last stage of my walk along the Skye Trail, descending steeply to the road, but with a lot of pain in my big toe of my right foot, which had been a problem for me throughout the Skye Trail due to a poorly fitting inner sole.

However the view ahead towards the ancient landslip known as the Quiraing diverted my attention and is thankfully my abiding memory of this part of the walk. On crossing the road I headed off along the clear path that took me eagerly towards the Quiraing that was looking fantastic in the early morning sunshine, but I was frustrated by my difficulty in getting a good photo of the area with the rock formation known as the Prison hidden in shadow. When I previously visited the Quiraing, in 2011, the weather was much worse and I had been short of time so I hadn’t lingered as long as I would have wanted and I didn’t spend much time in the area now as I kept to the footpath that skirts the foot of the cliffs. There is a grassy plain known as the Table high amongst the rocky ground, but I have never been there partly because I don’t know how to get there, so I want to come back when I have the time to wander around climbing up and down the steep ground as much as I would like and really explore and absorb the tremendous surroundings.

Nevertheless I enjoyed the walk along the clear path that runs below the fabulous cliffs and past the stunning rock formations. The usual route for the Skye Trail turns right at the Quiraing towards Flodigarry, though I was not sure where that junction was, but fortunately I had already decided not to go that way. In order to get to Rubha Hunish as quickly as possible I decided to take the more direct alternative rather than the coastal route, so I kept to the high ground following a clear path through rocky ground up to the cliff edge and kept to the edge along the top of Sròn Vourlinn. At the end of the promontory I had fabulous views across the northern end of the Trotternish with the Outer Hebrides clearly visible across the Little Minch, but with no more high ground I had to make a steep descent through the heather down the hill where many spotted-orchids enlivened my way.

At the bottom I joined the stream, Lòn Horro that comes out of the corrie, but there is no path so it was difficult for me to force a way through the vegetation and boggy ground, though as difficult as the ground was to walk through it was delightfully decorated with wildflowers. Eventually I came to a footbridge over the River Kilmaluag, but as soon as I stepped foot onto the bridge I discovered that there was a large bird’s nest in the middle so I hastily retreated and crossed the river downstream before climbing through a field covered in wildflowers including many spotted-orchids. On reaching a road I changed my socks as my right boot was letting in water and walked along the road all the way to the coast at Port Gobhlaig where I rejoined the main path for the Skye Trail and followed a well-signposted path that took me across open heathland. Eventually I reached the Lookout Bothy that sits upon Meall Tuath above the cliffs that look over the small peninsula of Hunish.

Some say the Skye Trail starts or ends at Rubha Hunish, the northern tip of the peninsula, and I saw a few people crossing Hunish to reach the end, but in my mind I had completed the Skye Trail so I was more than happy to stop there, eat my lunch and have a rest while gazing out across the Little Minch towards the Isle of Harris in the distance. According to my Harvey Map the actual start/end of the Skye Trail is not at Rubha Hinush but on the road a mile and a half away, so after a long lunch that is where I went to finish the trail and await a bus to take me back to Portree. It was great being back on the Isle of Skye again and especially as I had such good weather particularly later in the week when the views were simply amazing and I relished the chance to do the Trotternish Ridge and revisit the Quiraing. I feel I did the Skye Trail in the right direction even though it is not the usual direction as the Trotternish Ridge should be the goal and highlight of the trail and as such it should be towards the end with this last day to Hunish as the finale of a fabulous walk through the Isle of Skye.