"Up The Dyke" Day 6 - July 18th 2002 Kington to Knighton "Fairway to Knighton"
Day	Date	Start	Finish	Approx. Miles	Hours	Accommodation
6	Thu. 18th July	Kington	Knighton	13½	6½	Jan Brehaut, Forest Vale, Knucklas Road, Knighton, Powys, LD7 1UP, Tel. 01547 520671

Click on any picture to go to a larger version or to go to the full set of Offa's Dyke photographs for this day.

The title for today's walk came because it virtually starts on one golf course and ends almost at another. Beside's that the LZ track is one of my all time favourites, so I just had to work it in somehow!

Alan did us proud with breakfast and the packed lunch was far too much for me so Noelene took half of it and then drove me to the start at the Kington war memorial. It was raining as we left Tan House and I thought that I was in for one of the dreaded waterproofs on and off and on and off and............ days. In fact I met Steph and Harry (who I christened the Not a Couple) near the start and they were sporting umbrellas! I had never, ever seen walkers with umbrellas before, especially not "professionals" like the Not a Couple, so I was rather bemused. I joined them and just behind were two ladies (Caroline from Leatherhead and Helen from Johannesburg) who looked as if they were one a Sunday stroll. The Sunday Strollers were finishing their walk at Knighton and then going home. The rain never materialised and the day turned out to be warm, if not sunny, throughout.

We walked up a steep lane to Kington Golf Course, reputedly the highest in England, and ducked and weaved over it to the shouts of "fore" and "get out of the b****y way"! We skirted Bradnor Hill and then joined up with our old friend, Offa's Dyke, once more. He looked in better condition that when we had seen him last, although only four or five feet high, and welcomed us. We and he continued to climb and we had views over Hergest Ridge and the East Radnor Hills. We walked to the east of Herrock Hill and the sun tried to put his hat on, but only temporarily! There was a view down to the Hindwell Valley ahead but it was spoilt by the poor weather. We walked downhill to Lower Harpton Farm, where I stopped for a gentleman's constitutional (I knew you'd want to know that) and the Not a Couple and Sunday Strollers passed me by (without looking, I hope!). The Path then followed a road for a while and turns up another one by a very old bridge (18th century) where I stopped to take photos south towards Herrock Hill and the Dyke following it down.

I went uphill, along a woodland track and up the side of Burfa Hill on a green track. I caught up with Caroline and Helen and walked with them for a while. We had a good old chat and then met Harry and Steph who had stopped for a drink. We took a ten minute breather and the three of us started off again. We continued to walk along the Dyke which alternated between a very unimpressive hump to quite a major earthwork and began a long descent into the Lugg Valley. Part way down the Dyke became a magnificent structure, towering about fifteen feet above us. We entered the Lugg valley, crossed some fields and reached the River Lugg, which I feared would be as big a disappointment as the Trothy some days earlier. In fact the Lugg is a beautiful, albeit small, river with deep pools where otters are reputed to live, although we didn't see any. It was cool, shaded, slow flowing and gurgled in the way of all good rivers. It was a magic experience to walk along it and I was sorry when we crossed over a footbridge and left it behind.

We walked over fields and to the outskirts of a village I swear is named after a Country and Western Singer (Dolley Green!), turned left and then began the longest and steepest climb of the walk so far (at least I thought so) to just beneath the peak of Hawthorne Hill where we stopped for butties (excellent salmon sandwiches, buttered malt loaf and an orange I'd been carrying since Chepstow!) with magnificent views (in good weather, anyway) of the village of Whitton. The whole feeling of the place was only mildly spoilt by yet another farmer's dump of unwanted machinery. But I mustn't complain because the farmers are the guardians of the countryside and they get subsidies from almost everyone to look after it for us! We each thought that we must be getting fitter because the climb, steep and long as it was, wasn't as exhausting as we'd expected. There was no sight of the Sunday Strollers, though and we kept looking back for them.

We began our walk down from Hawthorne Hill on the top of the Dyke which here was not as impressive as a few miles back, being merely a minor hump (but it is 1,200 years old!). We reached the memorial obelisk to Sir Richard Green Price who brought the railways to Radnorshire and was the local (Tory, no doubt!) MP in the late 19th century. After passing an evil smelling pond coming from a heap of manure we crossed the B4355 and a stile next to a 19th century stone sign with the legend "Offa's Dyke, made in the year AD 757". The date is probably wrong since, as the guide points out, that was only the first year of Offa's reign. We crossed a few fields and the Dyke began to assume massive proportions with a broad ditch (moat?) along its westerly base which we followed. We eventually crossed it and caught sight of the Knighton Golf Course, the edge of which we skirted. Harry couldn't figure out why we going along a woodland path when his OS map didn't show any woods. I eventually had to tell him that his map was the wrong way up! In his defence, he was quite right in saying that we didn't get lost!

We then walked down a couple of roads and through an arch into the main street of Knighton, "the home of the Offa's Dyke Path". We visited the Offa's Dyke Association information centre and I paid the £1 that I owed them for the accommodation guide. Noelene bought me a T shirt and sweatshirt and the lady in the centre recommended the George and Dragon for food later.

We checked in at our B&B for the night and received a very warm welcome from Jan Brehault and her friend, both from Guernsey. She has a lovely house and beautiful garden and Noelene spent a while looking around. The room and facilities were great too. We walked along the banks of the River Teme into the town, found the George and Dragon closed until 19:00 and had a drink in another pub (pretty grotty). The George and Dragon eventually opened and we had an excellent and well priced meal. Also in the pub were the Not a Couple and the Blister Boys, so all the five of us who were walking to Prestatyn on a similar schedule were there together. Even the lady from the Offa's Dyke Centre was in with her friends, celebrating the "special birthday" of one of them. We walked back to Forest Vale fairly early and I settled down to do my day's notes plus check out the photos. A very good day!

Day 6 Impressions

Day six was very good. We were reunited with Offa's bit of handiwork and I enjoyed the company of Harry and Steph. It certainly took the strain off me as far as navigating went. The Dyke was very impressive in many places and the views, even though they were spoilt by less than perfect visibility, were great. The short walk along the River Lugg was especially good. It's very beautiful and well worthy of a longer visit. I liked day six a lot.

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