Last wa
lked April 2012
King Offa ruled Mercia from 757 to 796 AD, a huge area from Merseyside to the Thames Valley, from the Welsh border to the Fens, as such an early King of England. He established the use of the penny as the standard monetary unit in England.
Offa’s Dyke is an earthwork which roughly follows the Welsh/English boundary. It consists of a ditch and rampart constructed with the ditch on the Welsh-facing side, and appears to have been carefully aligned to present an open view into Wales from along its length. As originally constructed, it must have been about 27 metres wide and 8 metres from the ditch bottom to the bank top.
TO KEEP THE WELSH OUT…..
Get lots more information from the Offa’s Dyke Association website.
The Kerry Ridgeway is an ancient trade/drovers route from Wales to the lowland English markets. It follows a ridge overlooking Wales on the one side and England on the other, apparently it never dips below 1000 ft asl so the views are great. More about this ancient track here
Todays walk: Park along the B489 at Brompton in a lay by just up from the Bluebell Pub. Follow Offa’s Dyke from Mellington up, up and up til it crosses the Ridgeway. Follow this to then drop back down via Pentrenant and Bacheldre. The GPS said 9 miles and there is a fair bit if climbing involved to get onto the ridge.
As it ha
d been dry for so long the ground was dusty and hard (it can be muddy and poached). There are a few ponds and streams along the route (even at the top of the ridge) so doggie water need not be brought. The route has a number of stiles but most have dog gates. As part of this route is a bridleway, you get the benefit of gates.
As these are two well established routes, signposting is good. We got lost just the once; when turning off the Ridgeway to head back down via a bridle way, remember to bear right and cross above and stay to the right of the wood. 
All in all a nice walk, great views, lovely area, ancient lanes and hedges. Only one ‘bad’ spot where the bridleway down crosses the road (at Hopton Bank), you will find a cattlegrid and two gates tied together in front of eachother and almost impossible to open. We had to shove the dogs under the sheepnetting fence in the end. If on a horse it would be a right (night)mare 🙂
Here is the route on a map (have a look for the mistake we made in the bottom left corner where we missed the bridle way – very obvious) and below a few more pictures, keep an eye out for the wind-swept tree, rather nice I think.
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