Offas Dyke, Knighton, Powys

The end of the decade approaching, its time for another walk. This time the group headed off to the welsh border, to a town called Knighton. Those who came along where some of the usual suspects, Helen E, Paul and Antony. All of us running rather later!!

We stated walking from the long term car park at SO 28892 72218, the weather was lets say not particular pretty. Not raining but the cloud was hanging low on the edge of the hills. We began walking through the town of Knighton and following directions to the Offa's Dyke Centre which is on the edge of the town. We popped into the garage stroke supermarket stroke butchers for some food and a map!! Problem was I bought the wrong map. Doh! Oh well will have to plan another walk using that map sometime.

All the way through the town, we saw some  rather odd sculptures lying in front of this building. A giant spatula for example. Interestingly odd!! We walked into the Offa's Dyke Centre to buy the correct map! We had a little nosey around the displays which detailed some of the history and the nature in the area around the dyke.

Back out of the centre we walked northwards onto the long distance path which descended down to the River Teme. The river was very close to bursting its banks. There had been a rather lot of rain recently so it was no surprise. Carefully walking  around the meander in the river we got to the railway bridge, which the footpath crosses. Making sure there were no trains we ran across to the other side!

After we crossed the road and through a small wood we began climbed up and round a field with a few cars abandoned at the bottom! I wonder if they had driven from the top!! Looking back across the valley you could see the dyke clearly cutting down the side of the hill. At the top of the hill (quite sharp gradient), we followed the path by another wood, and followed the contour of the  hill. There were some great views along the Teme Valley, although visibility was limited! We continued along the path in a north westward direction. We passed an old cottage which had better days and eventually hit the top of Cwm-sanasham Hill (406m). We started  the walk a little late so time wasn’t really on our side so we began the descent off the hill down towards Selley Hall. To be honest the weather was getting a bit iffy.

After the steep decline we got to a place called Brynorgan (a couple of houses) and decided to take the path which skirted around the bottom of Cym-sanaham Hill. Although it was a path it certainly didn’t look like one.  Not maintained at all. Scuttling through a few trees we made it across a few fields to a farm, where according to the map there is a minor road down to the river. Problem was some very angry dogs came hurtling out. They were not at all happy and made a right racket. So instead of antagonising them any further, we had little option but to climb back up the hill.

The track circled up past a few more abandoned cars, up a little valley where it joined back up with the dyke. We then retraced our route back towards Knighton. Walking past another pointless stile and then down the hill in the darkness, we made it back where we found a curry house :)

 

 

 

Details:

Persons present: 4
Start and End: SO 28892 72218
Total Ascent: 360m
Total Distance: 12km
Time: 5 hours