OS Explorer map 216, Welshpool & Montgomery: Bishop’s Castle – I do not own this map, and had not visited it before starting this blog. Visited for this post 4th October 2023. This is the last of three posts about my walking trip in Wales and Shropshire from 3rd-5th October 2023.
Google Maps location links: Newcastle-on-Clun, Edenhope Hill, Corndon Hill, Hemford
I left you at the end of my previous post as I was walking north out of Newcastle-on-Clun, a few hours into the first day of my day-and-a-half walk north from Knighton. My day would see me walking through the sparsely-populated Clun Forest – not a tree forest, rather an old royal hunting forest, i.e. area reserved for hunting that may or may not have been wooded – following the Offa’s Dyke Path for most of the day, before turning off to the northeast to head towards a farm where I’d booked to stay for the night.
A mile or two north of Newcastle, I think as I was passing the hamlet of Mardu, I passed a house where a chap asked whether I’d like a cup of tea. I’d seen a sign in the road offering the same; I accepted and enjoyed a nice mug of tea and had a chat with the man for a while. I enjoyed what he’s got set up there: he happens to have the Offa’s Dyke Path passing right by his front door, and has started offering teas, coffees and water refills as a charity thing – if you’d like a hot drink, he’ll make you one in his kitchen and bring it out, you can sit on one of the benches outside the front of the house to drink it, and then you put a donation in the box for a charity (I forget which charity it was). It just seemed like a great idea to me – it raises money for charity, he gets to chat to passers-by, and I’m sure the walkers appreciate it a lot: when you’re out walking all day expecting only to get the food and drink you’ve been carrying with you, a cup of tea is very welcome!
As I walked on from there through the hills, I spent a long time building up a little fantasy shop in my mind that I could run if I ever lived next to a walking trail like that. I was imagining that I live in the countryside and work remotely – I wouldn’t want to have to make the hot drinks myself, but it could be nice to run a little “honesty shop” type thing. Like a little shed, garage, or outbuilding; left unlocked during the day, where I could have a stock of snacks, a fridge with cold drinks, a self-service coffee machine like they have in workplaces, a tap for water refills and so on; and a little contactless “donate what you want” point. Hopefully I’d only have to restock it once a day or so, and unlock it in the morning and lock it at night. I’m sure it wouldn’t make enough to be worthwhile in a purely financial sense of being worth my time, but I think I’d enjoy running it, and hopefully it could bring in a little stream of money for the charity!
I stopped for a lunch a couple of miles further on, at about half past twelve, sitting down on a log with a good view out over the hills. Lunch was a couple of pitta breads with some squeezy cheese and a tin of smoked oysters – which regular readers might recognise as the same thing I had on my Armine Forest walk in 2019. It’s not the most appetising-sounding, I know; but I’ve learned that this set of things works well for me when I have to carry my lunch for a multi-day walk: I like it well enough, it’s light, cheap, lasts fine with no fridge for a couple of days, and once I add in some fruit for dessert seems reasonably nutritionally balanced. If it works, it works! I did unfortunately manage to spill a substantial amount of oil from the oyster tin on my shorts though; which of course didn’t dry off so made me look for the rest of the day like I’d had an unfortunate accident…
The last few miles of the Offa’s Dyke Path that I’d be following were rather exerting, due to the Path steeply ascending a hill then near-immediately going down into a valley again, twice consecutively. The first of these valleys contains the hamlet of Churchtown, after which it goes over Edenhope Hill, before descend into the valley of the River Unk.
From around Edenhope Hill there were some really great views northwards. There was just one more ridge – which carries the ancient path the Kerry Ridgeway – standing between me and the wide Vale of Montgomery. I could see a really wide view past the ridge and Vale to the hills beyond, including to Corndon Hill, where I’d be walking the next day and, further east, the distinctively-shaped Stiperstones and the Long Mynd.
Offa’s Dyke itself was also particularly good in this area, tall of dyke and deep of ditch. If you’re ever looking to visit the Dyke, I think this is a good bit to pick!
From Edenhope Hill, I went down into the Unk valley, which was very quiet, there being only about two farms in the whole valley; and also very pretty, with the river itself a maybe 10-foot-wide channel meandering around in the fields. It was at this point that I left the Offa’s Dyke Path, never to return on this trip. The Path and Dyke continue in a north-northwest direction, going over that one last ridge, and then arrow-straight across the Vale of Montgomery towards Welshpool. I instead headed northeast, towards the At this point, I left the Offa’s Dyke path, heading northeast towards my night’s accommodation, and my next day’s walk over Corndon Hill. I had a great day walking on the Path, and would really enjoy coming back!
After being chased off one of the Unk valley farms by an enthusiastic dog, I had another three miles or so of path and small-road walking before I’d get to my accommodation. At this point, it started raining a bit.
I’ve talked before on this blog about my longtime problems with finding rain gear I like. One issue is that it’s really hard to find mens’ raincoats that are at all long: high-quality raincoats, suitable for going out on the mountains, are usually just waist-length – meaning that they just dump all the water on one’s bum and crotch, which is one of the least nice areas to get wet, and the hardest area to get dry. Longer ones that exist tend to be either more formal hoodless ones, or heavy insulated farmer-y ones – and I get hot really easily, so I want something light and breathable. On hikes, waterproof trousers are an option, of course, and I have used them plenty, but they’re often very hot, and are a big faff to put on and take off, requiring taking off one’s boots.
I therefore usually settled on, for normal going out-and-about, wearing my longer, hoodless, city-type raincoat with my separate hood – so at least I’d stay dry from the mid-thigh upwards. And on hikes, wearing my better, shorter raincoat, with waterpoof trousers over my shorts, but keeping the trousers rolled up above my knees to keep cooler. If I was still too hot, I’d take the raincoat off, let my upper body get wet (not too bad if I’m in a quick-drying sporty top like I’ll wear on serious hikes), but keep on my waterproof hood and trousers so my hair and pants-region would stay dry.
Now, though, I’m happy to report, I finally found a better setup! After making a long Reddit post, someone pointed me to a reasonably long high-performing rain jacket by the Danish brand Houdini, and I also bought their rain overskirt, which is a really exciting alternative to waterproof trousers, because it’s a wrap skirt – basically just a rectangle of fabric that you can wrap around yourself and fasten, without having to get it up over your boots. They were seriously not cheap, but, given how much trouble I’ve had with this, I went with it, and I’m really happy with them! They’re really good at keeping me dry; and the skirt is so convenient to put on and off that I even carry it around when not on hikes. It being open at the bottom also makes it a lot less hot and sweaty than waterproof trousers.
And, back to this trip, it started raining but was still fairly warm so, for the first time, I tried out my new “hiking in rain but it’s hot” arrangement of the rain skirt with my separate hood, and no jacket. It worked well, even if I looked very silly…
I arrived at my accommodation at a very reasonable 4pm or so, and it was very nice! It was a studio flat sort of thing, on the first floor above a garage on a little farm, and the host had thoughtfully left me some bread rolls, milk, eggs and muffins – which made my planned dinner of a just-add-water ultra-long-life “veggie lasagne” camping meal, and planned breakfast of more pitta bread and squeezy cheese, a lot more pleasant!
The next day saw me set off at about ten to eight – a much more reasonable time than my ridiculously early start the previous morning – for my final half-day’s walk. I entered Wales again almost immediately, and the first couple of miles of my walk were through flattish farmland.
I passed, but decided not to climb, Roundton Hill and its Iron Age hillfort, before ascending Corndon Hill, deciding to go right to the summit. I’m glad I did that, since there were more great views – southwards I could see back to the Kerry Ridgeway and Edenhope Hill where I was the day before, and closer at hand the dramatic shape of Roundton Hill; eastwards were still Stiperstones and the Long Mynd. On a clearer day I expect I would’ve been able to see Shrewsbury pretty clearly, but it was a little hazy in that direction.
I went down from the summit of Corndon Hill, back to the little col where the main path ran, via a different route, which proved to be a mistake: I was following a track, but it clearly hadn’t been used in years, and was thickly blocked by gorse in a lot of places. I did push through, paying in many scratches for my passage, but was at least rewarded with some nice blackberries.
I then passed back into Shropshire and, still high up, reached the Mitchell’s Fold stone circle – which was okay. Not particularly impressive as stone circles go, being about five stones pretty far apart from each other, but still I do always like a stone circle.
From there, I descended to the northeast – and greatly enjoyed meeting a collection of little goats, which were very cute – before reaching the endpoint of my walk, a bus stop near the village of Hemford.
I got a bus into Shrewsbury, where I met friend Erithacus briefly, she having recovered from her illness, before getting on the train back home, changing at Hereford. It was of course sad that this trip couldn’t go ahead with friends as planned, but I’m glad I went with my alternative plan rather than staying at home – I really enjoyed my walk!
Visiting all the maps! 