travel
Offa’s Dyke Path, day 14: Clwyd Gate to Bodfari
This was the day we were not looking forward to. For a while the weather forecast was adamant: heavy rain in the morning, lighter rain for the rest of the day. But the heavy rain cleared early, and it was just spitting when I went out into the streets of Ruthin in search of a […]
Offa’s Dyke Path, day 13: Castell Dinas Brân to Clwyd Gate
Our host takes the four of us in his car to the start of the path that leads to Castell Dinas Brân, and we add to our day’s total of miles by climbing the steep hill to the Welsh castle. Scattered and stark stone remnants are all that survive of the fortified court of the […]
Offa’s Dyke Path, day 12: Trefonen to Castell Dinas Brân
Today was due to be rain-free, and it is. This fact alone lends us a lightness of spirit that lasts all day, another long one. We’re joined by our guestwalker and friend A., fit after his holiday in the Italian mountains. A taxi returns us from Oswestry to Trefonen. We’re immediately unable to find the […]
Offa’s Dyke Path, day 11: Buttington to Trefonen
At nearly seventeen miles this is going to be our longest day, so C, M and I set out early from Buttington Bridge. It’s already raining steadily. The path takes us along the towpath of the Montgomery Canal, no longer navigable and the preserve of great sheets of algae rather than narrow boats. We pass […]
Offa’s Dyke Path, day 10: Cwm to Buttington
We start out early, with a spring in our step: no rain’s forecast, the wind’s slackened, and the day’s climbing is limited. After a short walk along lanes we rejoin the Dyke, and follow it, still tall and well-ditched, downhill and northwards, through trees. The tree roots need constant watching, to avoid a fall. On […]
Offa’s Dyke Path, day 9: Knighton to Cwm
Four months have passed and we’re back in Knighton. In another seven days we’ll have finished a project started six and a half years ago to walk round the edges of Wales. This time, C. and I are joined by M., who walked the southern half of Offa’s Dyke 39 years ago, but has never […]
Poets and rebels at Llyn Llech Owain
At the ‘six ways’ junction in Gorslas, at the head of the Gwendraeth Fawr, I’ve driven past the sign to Llyn Llech Owain hundreds of times without ever taking up its invitation – to follow the minor road up the hill, past the church and chapel, to the lake and the country park that surrounds […]
North from Cwmgïedd
Some of the solo days out I remember best are the result of fleeing from some ‘unmissable’ public event. The marriage of Charles Windsor and Diana Spencer on 29 July 1981 was the excuse for a blissful day-long bike ride, from Hereford to Cardiff via the Wye valley, when the lanes were emptied of cars […]
Offa’s Dyke Path, day 7: Hay-on-Wye to Kington
Yet another sunny, warm day. This will be a three-water-bottle day, since it’s fifteen miles to Kington and there won’t be anywhere to eat or buy food en route. C and I pick up supplies from a shop and cross the Wye. Instead of carrying on along the road to Clyro, the Path turns immediately […]
Offa’s Dyke Path, day 6: Longtown to Hay-on-Wye
Another sunny morning. We pick up some sandwiches from Hopes, Longtown’s village shop. This must surely be the best village shop in the UK. It’s like a mini department store, and stocks almost everything you’d ever want; it even has micro-bookshop, and it acts as a post office, with a sorting office in a metal […]