A decent days walk on the highest point of Offa’s Dyke Path, finishing with tea but no teacake

Date walked:  4th May 2018

Distance: around  11 miles

Map used: OS Explorer OL 13 – Brecon Beacons National Park

Guide used: Offa’s Dyke Path by Mike Dunn. Published by Cicerone  in 2016

****************

Although I am mostly going to “do” Offa’s Dyke on my own. Neil and I have history on this stretch (and the last day), so he was keen to join me. Nearly 40 years ago we had walked the whole of the Hatterrall ridge, and down to Hay  in one blistering August day – that’s around 20 miles.  I remember being completely exhausted at the end and little else.

So here we are in the car park at Llanthony Priory.

Selfie courtesy of Neil

From the car park we returned to where I had left off, though now some sheep and their lambs were sitting amongst the fallen trees.

It was a gentle climb to the stile and finger-post which directed us to Hatterall Ridge.

Looking back, the priory was obscured by  the fresh yellow/green leaves of an oak.

I was not long back from a 5 day walk in the Vosges hills and Vineyards (much more to come from there soon) and so was relatively fit; Neil’s chest was struggling with what quickly became a much steeper ascent.

Several rests were taken as we slowly made our way to the top of the hill; good opportunities to enjoy the widening views over the Vale of Ewyas.

At about half way up our notes refer to passing a prominent Bronze Age Burial mound, though I failed to notice it. I was struck by a clump of Box that had somehow established itself in this seemingly  inhospitable location.

Planted, surely?

Walk on.

Regaining the ridge was marked by another of the marker stones that I had come across on the first day of the ridge walk.

That climb of around 1200 feet had taken us about three-quarters of an hour – I bet we’d have done it in half that time all those years ago. But that was the hard work done for the day. A mile or so further on was a Trig Point at 1985 feet. I failed to work out how to set up this new camera’s (A Lumix  DMC- TZ100 with a much better zoom than my previous Canon)  self-timer but one of couple of women at the point  who were taking a break kindly offered to do the honours.

There is very little to say about the next few miles.  The ridge has a wide top and so our views were really just of the brown clumps of heather.The path has been laid with coarse gravel and some solid slabs of limestone. There are those that might object to this artificial surface but were just grateful that we had a firm path in what otherwise would have been very spongy ground.

One section was remarkable  for the sheer number of cairns; perhaps winter visibility is notorious in this stretch.

Around here we also saw many netted bags of sheep’s  wool alongside the path; we reckoned that they were to hold back the flow of water and so restrict erosion.

The terrain, though, was fairly dull; as were the results of the recent council elections that appeared to bring no comfort to either Labour or Conservative voters (though spokespeople for both sides had declared themselves well pleased), so this conversation did not occupy us much as we walked and talked.

Cutting through such tedious politics, above us (and for most of the day) we were serenaded by Skylarks. A real joy.

The highest point of the ridge (and indeed the whole of the Offa’s Dyke Path at 2306 feet) was passed without us really noticing; the author of my guide concurs that this is, “frankly a disappointing anticlimax”. Not far beyond that there was  series of steps down the face of a small escarpment dropping to a point called Llech y Lladron.

Here we had a choice to veer over to the left and make for the summit of Hay Bluff. The Path Proper takes a right and makes a more gentle descent. We opted for knee preservation and took the right as the marker stone indicated.

Suddenly we had things to look at once more than scrubby heather.

Far below us at a property marked on the map as Coed Major, some smoking was going on.

Ahead , the wide Wye Valley began to emerge.

Wild horses were grazing on these lower slopes of the ridge, though several looked painfully thin.

Neil remembered that the first time round we had taken the route off Hay Bluff and in a state of extreme dehydration and had practically run down its face to an ice cream van that was parked up by the roadside. The day was not warm enough for the van to have come up today , though Anne and I have also found it there before now.

The path crosses the road and heads across the common. Ahead a threesome were pausing for the bloke to pick up his dog’s poo; the women had been walking on the path from Chepstow for several days – he joining them just for the day.

The last three miles or so took us though  some farm tracks and crossed the road that comes up to Hay Bluff from the town.

Ahead, the sight of Hay and the thought of tea (coffee in Neils case) and cake quickened our pace.

Coincidentally Anne was in Hay that afternoon – shopping with her friend Sue. I rang to find that they were having their tea and cake already so abandoned the idea of a meet up.

The fields on the lower slopes of the hills were lush and full of dandelions.

On the outskirts of the town the path passes by a property called Lower House. I have photographed the garden there – (made by Nicky and Pete Daw). An article was published in Country Life magazine nearly 10 years ago and we had included the garden in the  book that I did called Discovering Welsh Gardens.

Nicky  was a vivacious woman with a wicked sense of humour; she died a few years ago from breast cancer.

We crossed the Dulas Brook (Which runs through Lower House) by a Kissing Bridge……

…. and from there we had one more field to cross before arriving at Hay’s main car park, where we had deposited Neils car earlier.

Hay is a place with as many cafes these days as book shops. We went to the nearest where I was excited to see tea cakes on offer. But it was just after 4pm and was told that they couldn’t toast a tea cake so late in the day. What is the world coming to? Still, the tea was nice (leaf, in a pot) and the coffee cake was ok, too.