View towards a farm just outside
Gladestry, from below Cefn-hir on Offas Dyke. |
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From Kington, England along
Hergest Ridge via Gladestry, Wales - view the track. |
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After breakfast on Saturday 13th
November, we wandered up Victoria Street into the High Street and then
around the corner and up the hillside into Church Street towards St Mary's
Church. Crossing the grounds of the church, we headed up Ridgebourne Road
past Hergest Croft Gardens. The road eventually peters out into a dirt
track, reaching Hergest Ridge, where glorious views of the surrounding
countryside greeted us. As mentioned
elsewhere on this website on an earlier
trip, Hergest
Ridge was also the title of Mike Oldfield's second album. The walk then
crossed the English-Welsh border, descending into the Welsh town of
Gladestry. The village, in the heart of the Welsh Marches, lies on the
Offa's Dyke Path between Hay-on-Wye and Kington, at the centre of one of the
few remaining unspoilt areas of outstanding natural beauty
left in Britain.
Offa's Dyke (Welsh:
Clawdd Offa) is a massive linear earthwork, roughly following
some of the current border between England and Wales. In places, it is up to
20 metres wide (including its flanking ditch) and 2.5 metres high. In the
8th century it formed some kind of delineation between the Anglian kingdom of
Mercia and the Welsh kingdom of Powys.
Just outside the town a sign
marks the Offas Dyke walk, so we ascended the hillside once more past a farm
near Wain Wen, stopping for lunch, whilst taking in the splendid views back
towards Gladestry and Hergest Ridge beyond. From here the group split up,
one led by Gordon heading back toward Kington, whilst the rest of us, led by
Tim, headed towards a hill covered in heather, known as Cefn-hir, close to
Colva Hill. Though paths had been shorn in the heather, none led to the
summit of the hill and we found ourselves bounding across the heather and
the uneven terrain beneath our feet. Concious of the fact that the daylight
hours were fast drawing to a close and that we still had Hergest Ridge to
cross on our return to Kington, we knew we had to increase our stride
substantially. The way down from the hillside took a different route to that
of our ascent and this led to some uncertainty on the part of our
navigators. On the ascent of the ridge, we head the sound of bugles and
barking beagles and a fox hunt was spotted in the distance. The air grew
distinctly chillier a dusk fast approached whilst on the ridge, though I
found myself engaged in conversation with Ruth, whose work involves raising
money for charities outside the United Kingdom from large corporate
organisations. Back at the Old School bunkhouse, I downed a refreshing
Magners cider before showering and heading off early to the Oxford Arms once
again for dinner, returning to the hostel well before ten for a tea in the
cosy lounge. |
Views at lunch, from below Cefn-hir
on Offas Dyke, towards Gladestry and Hergest Ridge. |
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View from the heather slopes of
Cefn-hir below Colva Hill. |
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Views from Cefn-hir on our descent,
possibly towards Llanfihangel Hill. |
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The parish church of St Mary,
Kington, dates to the 12th century. The oldest part of the building is the
nave, while the chancel was added in the 13th century, and the chapel and
south aisle a century later. In the churchyard is an 18th century preaching
cross. The font is 12th century, in tub style, with rope moulding. The most
interesting feature of the interior is probably the 15th century effigies of
Sir Thomas Vaughan of Hergest Croft and his wife, Ellen Gethin. Sir
Thomas was killed at the Battle of Banbury in 1469, at the height of the
Wars of the Roses. He was known as 'Black Vaughan', and the legend of a
'Black Dog of Hergest' provided the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's
Hound of the Baskervilles. Lady Ellen
was the daughter of Dafydd ap Cadwgan ap Phylip Dorddu, and is known as
'Ellen the Terrible', which may be a mistranslation of her Welsh name. A
much kindlier translation of Gethin is 'dark skinned'. The Hergest Estate
covers over 1000 acres, at the core of which stands the historic manor house
of Hergest Court. The manor dates back to 1267, when it was built by Hwyel
ap Meurig. The current house was built in 1895 by Richard Drew. It served
for a time as a school, and a repository for the Herefordshite Archives. It
has since been converted into flats. An old legend tells that the house is
haunted by a spectral black hound, called The Black Dog of Hergest. A 70
acre garden in the Welsh Marches, with views west to the Black Mountains.
Hergest is a creation of three generations of keen gardeners from the Banks
family. Between them, the Banks's have created a pleasing garden featuring
over 5,000 rare and unusual trees and shrubs. |
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Views on the descent from the
heather slopes of Cefn-hir below Colva Hill towards Hergest Ridge. |
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The countryside of the Welsh
Marches, described as bucolic by some. |
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Debating the way down from Cefn-hir
towards Gladestry, conscious of the fact that daylight will soon draw to
an end. |
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View of Lane House Farm on the
descent from Cefn-hir on Offas Dyke. |
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Woodland along the Welsh Marches. |
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View of Gladestry on the descent
from Cefn-hir on Offas Dyke. |
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A section of woodland in the Welsh
Marches countryside. |
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Not just our stride but the shadows
too draw longer, on our return through the town Gladestry in the Welsh
Marches, with Hergest Ridge between us and Kington. |
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The church of St Mary the Virgin in
Gladestry, Wales, |
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Elm Villa, Gladestry, on the way
back up towards Hergest Ridge |
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View towards Huntington, on the
ascent towards Hergest Ridge, late afternoon. |
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At the end of the day and a hugely
satisfying walk - just outside Kington. |
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