A Sunny Afternoon on Mam Tor

Tuesday 5th March 

Here's a quick photo from our sunny stroll up Mam Tor yesterday afternoon.  There were lots of paragliders out enjoying the weather and we watched several of them take off from Lord's Seat before flying past us on Mam Tor.

Paraglider above Mam Tor

N.B. 02/06/13 - Post date updated to actual date of walk, i.e. 05/03/13 (from 06/03/13) 

Offa's Dyke Path - Day 7: Mellington Hall Campsite to Knighton

Sunday 3rd March 2013

An early start for a tough day's walking crossing the many switchbacks in the Shropshire Hills

Distance: 24.5km; Ascent: 1250m; Overcast, cold with a bitter wind; Solo

See tracked route in new window

I woke up at 4am this morning due to the cold and looking in the porch, my thermometer read -1°C.  After opening the porch for an abortive attempt to make a cup of tea (I'd pretty much run out of gas!), the temperature in the porch dropped to -5°C!  Whilst I had planned to have an early start today due to the very limited choice of trains home from Knighton, 4am was somewhat earlier than I had planned!  Therefore after donning an extra layer, and spending 15 minutes or so by the warm heater in the toilet block, I went back to sleep for a little bit!

I packed my tent up just before dawn and set off walking around 6:40am. It was still bitterly cold with a hard frost on the ground as I continued southwards along Offa's Dyke. A short section of road walking followed before I returned to the fields for the first of many ascents today; this time up to the old drovers' road of the Kerry Ridgeway, which also marked the return to England and Shropshire (and the vast majority of today's lay on the English side of the border).

A frosty Offa's Dyke just south of Mellington Hall

Crossing the border back into England and Shropshire

After a descent, another ascent and a further descent I reached the small hamlet of Churchtown, which was very quiet at this early hour of the morning! On the south side of the valley I joined the Shropshire Way, which ran concurrently with the Offa's Dyke Path for a couple of kilometres. It was still quite cold, with frost still on the ground, due to the sun not having broken through the clouds; however despite occassional glimpses of blue sky it remained cold and overcast all day.

Junction with the Shropshire Way

After a further descent followed quickly by a re-ascent I reached a signpost that informed me I was now half-way along the Offa's Dyke Path :-) It had taken me 6.5 days walking to reach here from Prestatyn (over three seperate trips) and I was intending to take a further 6.5 days to reach Chepstow from here (although I don't currently know when I'm going to walk these sections!) Shortly after passing this signpost, I came to a handy water tap by the side of the path, provided by Severn Trent Water, so I stopped here for a bit of a rest.

The half-way point of the Offa's Dyke Path :-)

A handy water tap provided by Severn Trent Water

By now it had begun to warm up ever so slightly as most of the frost had melted, although it remained cold. I crossed the Clun valley before beginning the longest ascent of the day up Llanfair Hill to the south. The first kilometre or so was the steepest and, after passing some very excitable dogs at Springhill Farm, I then had a gentle road walk for the next kilometre with good views of the dyke.

Offa's Dyke on Llanfair Hill

I turned off the road onto a pleasant byway, and it made a nice change to be walking on a decent track for once (and it would certainly help with my aim of making it to Knighton by 2pm!) Following the dyke this track took me over Llanfair Hill, and I had a quick detour to visit the trigpoint nearby. On the exposed high ground, the wind chill was quite noticeable and, whilst the views were good, I was glad to drop down into more sheltered terrain!

Trigpoint on Llanfair Hill

Clearly this was sheep farming country as all the fields were full of them as I descended down towards Selley Cross. Just one more ascent lay before me, and after ascending some very steep ground I reached the trigpoint on the summit of Cwm-sanaham Hill, from where there were good views.

Trigpoint on Cwm-sanaham Hill

Looking SE from Cwm-sanaham Hill

After stopping for a quick lunch a short distance to the east of the trigpoint, I followed Offa's Dyke ESE towards Panpunton Hill with good views down to Knighton and the Teme valley.

Viewpoint over Knighton

A shortish steep descent brought me to the road, railway and the River Teme. The riverside walk into Knighton was pleasant and this time upon crossing the border there was actually a sign welcoming me to Wales!

Crossing the border into Wales on the way into Knighton

On the way into town I passed the Offa's Dyke Centre, which would have been nice to visit but unfortunately it is closed on Sundays at this time of year and anyway I didn't have long until my train. I walked through the centre of Knighton past the clock tower to arrive at the station around quarter past two, i.e. in plenty of time for my train at 14:22, which was just as well as the next one wasn't for 4 hours! It had been a good couple of days of walking and it was nice to be out backpacking again :-)

Knighton Clock Tower

N.B. 02/06/13 - Post date updated to actual date of walk, i.e. 03/03/13 (from 08/03/13).  Links to trigpoints visited have also been added.

Offa's Dyke Path - Day 6: Welshpool To Mellington Hall Campsite

Saturday 2nd March 2013

A pleasant ascent of Beacon Ring hill fort followed by a relatively flat walk south following Offa's Dyke across farmland

Distance: 24km; Ascent: 670m; Warm and sunny with little wind; Solo

See tracked route in new window

It had been a number of months since my last backpack so I was keen to get out on a weekend walk. As it had been pretty much exactly a year since my last walk on the Offa's Dyke Path I decided to return to it. Therefore this morning I jumped on a train to Shrewsbury, where I picked up a few provisions before taking another train on to Welshpool.

It was sunny and warm for the time of year as I set off walking from the station at around 10am. The footpath I had planned to follow seemed less than obvious from the road so I instead followed the B4381 & B4388 roads for an extra kilometre. Then I was able to cut a corner using a public footpath before eventually rejoining the Offa's Dyke Path.

Back on the Offa's Dyke Path

Welshpool from Long Mountain

A steep ascent through fields followed as I began to tackle the only significant ascent of the day. After a kilometre or so the angle eased and I soon entered the woods past a large radio mast. A few hundred metres further on I left the woods and found a sunny bench with a view down to Welshpool. It seemed rude not to stop here, so I had a slightly early lunch of wraps and Pyrenean mountain cheese!

A handy bench for lunch on the edge of Beacon Ring

After feeling suitably refreshed I headed deep into the woods, in the enclosure of the Beacon Ring Hill Fort, in search of the highest point of the hill. Soon I found the trigpoint and the nearby summit of Long Mountain - Beacon Ring (Marilyn).

Trigpoint on Beacon Ring

It seemed strange having a trigpoint completely surrounded by trees, but apparently they were planted in 1953 to celebrate the Queen's coronation, which would presumably have been some years after the trigpoint was built. This site is well worth looking at on satellite images as the beech and conifer trees were clearly planted in a specific pattern so that "ER" is spelt when viewed from above, as shown in the Google Maps image below:

View Larger Map

Heading southwards back out of the woods, I rejoined the Offa's Dyke Path and gently descended to the SW before heading into the woods of the Leighton Estate; here I met my first other walkers of the day.

Beacon Ring hill fort from the SW

Small lake in Leighton Woods

On the edge of the village of Forden I picked up the Offa's Dyke itself for a few hundred metres before returning to the road.  After almost a kilometre of road walking I turned off down a farm lane to pick up the dyke again for the remainder of the day's walking.

Handy sign!

Offa's Dyke near Forden

This was carved into several of the signposts

Tree just north of the Camlad

After crossing the Camlad river, the dyke marked the England/Wales border for the next few kilometres with the path often switching sides, and every time I crossed into England there was a sign welcoming me to Shropshire.

Crossing back into Shropshire

On the edge of Lymore Park

I choose not to detour from the Offa's Dyke Path to visit Montgomery due to lack of time, and instead continued southwards along the edge of Lymore Park to eventually reach Brompton Crossroads and The Blue Bell complete with some rusting old petrol pumps outside.

Old petrol pumps outside The Blue Bell

My overnight halt lay a further kilometre or so along the trail, so I continued southwards through the pleasant Mellington Wood, where there were carpets of snowdrops next to the dyke.

Snowdrops next to Offa's Dyke in Mellington Wood

Heading through Mellington Wood

Soon afterwards a track crossed the dyke, with a sign inviting walkers to visit the restaurant at Mellington Hall.  After detouring southwards for a few hundred metres to investigate the start of tomorrow's route, I returned to this track and followed it to the Mellington Hall campsite where I had arranged to pitch my tent for the night.  I arrived at the campsite around 5:15pm and found the reception closed, but I eventually managed to find the camping area and set up my tent in the last light of the day; I was the only person camping that night, presumably due to the time of year.  I had an early start planned for tomorrow so after dinner I left my camping fee outside reception, returned to my tent, had a wee dram and went to bed shortly after 9pm after a good day's walk.

N.B. 02/06/13 - Post date updated to actual date of walk, i.e. 02/03/13 (from 07/03/13) 

Back to the Offa's Dyke Path

It's been pretty much a year since my previous walk on the Offa's Dyke Path, so on Saturday morning I shall be catching a train to Welshpool with the intention of spending a couple of days walking southwards to Knighton.  My plan is to walk as far as the campsite at Mellington Hall on Saturday (22.5km, 580m), and then continue to Knighton on Sunday (22.5km, 1010m).

The following Social Hiking map shows my planned route (in pink), which should get overlaid with my progress (in orange) assuming that I remember to switch my SPOT on!  There'll also be a blog post for each day when I get round to it!

See map on Social Hiking site or full size in a new window
 

Aira Force

Sunday 24th February 

A short waterfall walk near Ullswater 

Distance: 2.5km; Ascent: 110m; Dry & cold; with Lynsey & Isabel

See tracked route in new window

Our planned ascent of Little Mell Fell was abandoned before we had even reached the bottom of the hill due to snow covered roads!  Therefore we instead went for a low level stroll near Ullswater to take a look at Aira Force.  After parking in the National Trust carpark we set off walking at around midday on a good path.  Soon we crossed to the east side of the beck and a few hundred metres later we reached the bridge at the bottom of the falls.

Aira Force

This spot was quite dramatic, with the very impressive waterfall and the spray having frozen on the the surrounding rocks.  After admiring the falls we continued along the path up the east side of the beck (as the steps up to the path on the west side were closed due to a landslide).  We ascended up to the top of the falls to reach another bridge, from where you could look directly down on the main fall.

Aira Force

Above Aira Force we continued following the rocky path on the east side of the beck, with good views down to the beck itself, to reach the bridge at High Force where the beck ran through a narrow gorge.

Aira Beck above Aira Force

After a quick break at High Force we crossed to the west side of the beck and followed the good path back southwards towards the carpark with good views down to Ullswater and the surrounding fells.  We returned to the car at around 1:30pm and after a picnic lunch we headed home after a good weekend in the Lakes; stopping at Tebay services on the way home for tea and cake :-)

Looking south over Ullswater

N.B. 02/06/13 - Post date updated to actual date of walk, i.e. 24/02/13 (from 27/02/13) 

A Pushchair Wander In Glenridding

Saturday 23rd February

A pleasant afternoon stroll in the wintry Glenridding valley

Distance: 7km; Ascent: 200m; Cold, overcast with snow showers; with Lynsey & Isabel

See tracked route in new window

We were away in the Lake District, staying at Helvellyn youth hostel in Glenridding, for a weekend of short strolls (well you can only walk so far with a toddler!) We woke to persistent falling snow, although not much of it appeared to be settling down in the valley; therefore we decided to head out for a bit of a wander with the ATP from the hostel.

After a bit of a late start we headed off west up the valley to see how far we could get. We passed a bunkhouse with several RAF Mountain Rescue vehicles outside (presumably they were training in the area) before reaching a bridge over the river a short distance beyond, with good views upstream to the wintry hills beyond.

Looking up Glenridding Beck

Looking back down Glenridding Beck towards the youth hostel

It would have been nice to continue further up the valley, but due to the amount of ice on the path this seemed a bit unwise. Therefore we returned to the hostel for lunch before following Greenside Road down the valley, with good views of the nearby hills.

Looking up Glenridding from Greenside Road

We continued down into Glenridding village, where we stopped for a break in the Ramblers' Bar complete with a welcome pint of ale :-) There were good views of Place Fell across the lake from the village.

Place Fell above Ullswater

After feeling suitably refreshed we briefly browsed the few shops (picking up essentials such as milk & beer!) Then we walked back up the steep road towards the hostel, where we arrived late afternoon after a pleasant day.

N.B. 02/06/13 - Post date updated to actual date of walk, i.e. 23/02/13 (from 24/02/13) 

Early Spring at Dunham Massey

Well after yesterday's snowy walk in the Coniston Fells, today we went for a wander around Dunham Massey's winter garden. There were plenty of snowdrops out, along with a few daffodils with plenty more on the way - so it looks like Spring is around the corner!