The Monmouthshire Way continues to share Offa’s Dyke Path for most of this wonderful walk 10 mile walk on the top of  Hatterrall Ridge – great views!

Date walked:  17th November 2017 and 10th February 2022

Distance: about 10 miles

Map used: OS Explorer OL 13 – Brecon Beacons National Park – with the route downloaded onto my phone using the OS Maps app.

There isn’t a printed guide to this path but their website has the route and a lot of useful information about accommodation and public transport.

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The Monmouthshire Way takes the same route as The Offa’s Dyke Path until it reaches a pile of stones  high above The Vision Farm in the Vale of Ewyas. I had walked this Offa’s Dyke section in November 2017 on a lovely day on my own but it is such a superb walk that I have repeated it with my friend Paul so what follows is a hybrid of the two days. I hope this doesn’t disorientate!

The Way crosses the busy A465 at Pandy, a finger-post directed us away from the road across a field…..

Here’s Paul – all in grey

…. bringing us to a footbridge over The Monnow River.

From there we climbed a bank to reach the railway line. Pause for train to pass.

The path joins a small road passed a property called Treveddw – intriguing, my lane is called The Veddw! A dog rushed out to challenge me, which I hate. I was preparing to defend myself but it sloped off without further ado.

Paul and I stopped to admire a huge unconverted barn with impressive iron hinges on the doors….

…. and the roof supporting a dense colony of evergreen ferns.

The path leaves the road  at a super oak tree….

I’m reminded of a old tooth with receding gums, but then I’m rather preoccupied with teeth at the moment.

…..crosses a field, climbing quite steeply towards a phone mast…..

…. and then picks up the road again, still climbing. reaching a rather pretty Arts and Crafts House where there was a lovely view over the Honddu Valley towards Forest Coal Pit.

The outer wall of the property  wall has a very pretty door off the road…..

We concluded that the little mirror is to see any passing traffic

…. but what was really remarkable, that Paul pointed out, was a tiny outbuilding that has the hallmarks of a chapel.

See the cross above the door

Staying on the road, I “helloed” a field of resting sheep…..

This from November; they completely ignored me

… and cursed a BT Openreach Van that had been parked in this remote spot as an act of extreme provocation.

But now that we have superfast Fibre to the Premises Openreach vans don’t stress me anymore

The views continued to change but always to please.

View to the Skirrid.

The road became more of a track and I had my first people-sighting of the day.

They were very shy

Still climbing, but gently, we passed Three Wells –  the home of the writer Anthony Woodward . Anne and I  know him slightly and have been to supper once. Nice chap. He does not have a garden but on the back of his fantasy that he does, he wrote the book The Garden in the Clouds. He used to open for the National Gardens Scheme before it was realised that there wasn’t a garden there.

Garden or no, I think it is rather fun that he has put a poem on his barn.

From here there was another fab view ….

That’s the Skirrid again top right.

…. and it was just  half a mile to reach a Trig Point at 1522 feet (The Beacons Way also merges with the Offa’s Dyke Path around here)  ….

…..during which we were assaulted by three fighter jets flying low and making an extraordinary noise.

I think I did well to get it in the picture at all

At the Trig point there were a couple of guys we talked with about pubs for few minutes….,

Fab pic of Paul’s here

… before we saw them off so that we could to take a selfie.

This is the southernmost part of the Hatterall Ridge – the most easterly ridge of the Black Mountains.  

Being a ridge, it means that there was not too much more uphill to do.

The next few miles were punctuated by occasional sandstone marker stones.

Above Oldcastle the ridge is relatively narrow and there was hazy view to the little hamlet.

Anne and I once made love in that churchyard.

It felt wonderfully remote up there…..

This from 2017

…. the views on both visits being really beautiful.

And this from 2022

The path is wide and mostly firm underfoot…

… an opportunity for Paul to pick up speed as is his wont…..

Here the heathers and grasses are more grazed by wild horses than by sheep.

The sun came and went always creating magical light when it was out but the north wind was cold and constant and I wished that I had not left my gloves in the car.

Up ahead  a stone built circular enclosure just off the path caught our eye that I am sure was not there in 2017. The map refers to a disused quarry and grouse butts near here so I think that this is the work of a creative that has re-purposed some of the stone.

Impressive

From here it would be possible to take a path down to Llanthony Priory, lit up in the valley below. The Beacons Way peels off here to visit the Priory but at this time of year the hotel bar is shut so we weren’t tempted.

Not far from this monument is a second Trig point at 1,817 feet but it didn’t detain us long.

Here’s me in 2017 sans beard

And here’s Paul this year – laying hands on the lichen

For around three more miles we marched at pace along this near perfect path.

On a summers day the air would be filled with the song of skylarks but today I reckon they were sheltering in the heather. The openness of the landscape and the stiff wind were exhilarating and we were reminded of a walk we did above Llangorse Lake in early Covid days when we were nearly blown off the hill.

Marking our progress by piles of stones….

….and the occasional  marker …..

Several paths drop off the ridge for Llanthony

… the wind delivered the occasional brief shower of fine sleet reminding us that this was still winter.

We had just a couple of  encounters along this section with other people, exchanging the briefest of “hellos”; it was too cold to stop and chat.

In this kind of light the small ponds are almost Mediterranean in their vivid blueness.

Sometimes the sleet showers just missed us.

Paul spotted our third Trig point of the walk and sped off….

… claiming its stone skirt for our lunch spot.

This one at just over 2.000 feet

It was around half past 4 when we moved on, the low light adding a golden tint to the reedy grasses.

This (and the early morning of course but I am rarely up for that) is the best time of a winter’s day to be up in the hills.

Our turning off the path was about a mile after this last trig point, marked by another small pile of stones. The Offa’s Dyke path continues on the ridge for several more miles.

He’s cold now

We were beginning to tire and it was hard at first to have the cold wind blowing directly into our faces as we began to descend into the valley.

The path was very narrow but we we lucky that it was dry, so not especially slippery at first.

We zig-zagged down the valley side, admiring the wild horses….

… and the quite stunning light in the valley.

Half way down we paused for Paul to study an old marker stone.

A new one has been put in place but was hardly needed

A stile and row of Hawthorne hedge marked the area of land under management once more.

The path passes steeply down through a small wood above The Vision Farm and here the ground was sodden and very slippery and I went down on my side, sliding elegantly for about 6 feet before coming to a halt. Uninjured, I was slathered in wet mud.

I insisted on Paul taking this pic!

Unfortunately, so was my camera, which was making an ominous grating sound as the lens moved.  We were at this point just above The Vision Farm, which was hidden behind some trees. From here a track joined the road back to Llanthony Priory where we had left Pauls car. The camera managed one last picture before it gave up the ghost.

From Vision Farm we had a three mile road walk back to the car which, though not difficult was not welcome as we were both very tired by then. This stage of the walk would have had us cross the valley floor to Capel-y-ffin, then climb up the valley side back up to about 2,000 feet and walk on the hill top for a further 3 miles and then drop down to llanthony Priory. It was always my intention to split this into two. We were going to leave the car at Capel-y-ffin today but the road was closed between here and Llanthony due to a landslip.

At the start of the day I checked to see if it really was closed

So the plan is that we’ll return to Capel -y-ffin soon to do part 2 – it seems with a new camera!