Glyndŵr's Way - Day 15, Wednesday 26th April, 2017

Wednesday 26th April - Meifod to Welshpool

We had spent a lovely evening on Tuesday with a tasty evening meal at Tan y Graig and good company chatting to Eleri so following an excellent breakfast, Eleri took us back to the village to set off on the final day!

Passing through the village we could see the lovely buildings and from their names guess what they had been in the past - quite a few more pubs in fact! - we crossed the now quite wide river as the Banwy and Efyrnwy are now joined.

And so of course we began our climb out of the valley along the edge of a wood around Broniarth Hill.  It was a pleasant if steep walk with views across the valley opening up between trees. We could see where we had stayed last night at the foot of the hill - and were there one of two hill forts up there - I believe so.

We crossed many fields again today - still plenty of lambs to see, now a bit bigger than on the last walk - thankfully still not many cows! But also more pretty spring flowers...

Once on top we followed little lanes and here was the pretty little lake, Llyn Du, really picturesque.

And from here we could of course see Cadair Idris once more - today with no snow on top - and the Rhinogs and we could just make out Yr Wyddfa - Snowdon. Marvellous!

Today's walk was a typical Glyndŵr's Way walk - many ups and downs but once on the tops giving such wonderful vistas. It was also typical especially today in the way it constantly seems to change direction. First heading directly towards the Breiddens at Welshpool, our destination for so long now....

.but then swinging to head North with the northern hills looking over us. We decided that if Glyndŵr himself had been here, he would have taken a more direct route....Although with the maze of amazing mid Wales' ancient tracks, he may also have meandered his way around enjoying the views in this truly beautiful part of the world,

We also passed many big properties today - some with great manor houses and obviously lots of land. One such big farmstead was at Hidden Valley/Pant where the farm which certainly had horses - a lovely little foal was galloping around his mother - had also many caravans and holiday homes to extend its diversity. A very pretty little valley.

Lunch today was after about 6 miles. The book had said we should climb gently through Frigy wood - whereas in fact we climbed really steeply through a wood which we renamed slightly! Lunch was the more enjoyable for the steepness and now from the top we could see Corndon Hill back at Churchstoke and Long Mountain above Welshpool. Than we headed for the hill Y Golfa which we knew was at the end of the walk before we dropped into town.

To reach it we had to pass through some more bogginess - we had to laugh at a boardwalk which was not quite long enough - in fact it led into the boggiest bit! To be avoided...

And Golfa by name and by nature - it does have its golf course. On walking around one of the tees, there were a couple of black grouse. (It is there just near the tee- honest!)

Pheasants have accompanied us as well today, now and then making us jump when we surprised them and they made their ungainly flapping flight at our feet! In fact the climb up the hill was not too bad as it was diagonal rather than vertical. It was really windy and quite cold on the top but once again - and for the last time on this walk - we had the amazing panorama, taking in a large part of the distance we have covered and at the horizon the special hills.

And we had to have a phot shoot at the trig point looking in each direction...

So now it remained just to make our descent, as we went down the track we paid our respects to the old fort on Long Mountain ahead of us now where we lunched on the Offa's Dyke path, remember?

It's hard to believe that was 2 years ago now! And here we saw a cute little black lamb, with his friends!

We passed through the parkland of Llanerchydol as we approached the town. This site is very ancient too and was probably where the lords of Powys came having left the old site of Mathrafal behind. More recently it had a Tudor house here which burned down before a Gothic house was built in the 19th century.

Welshpool/ Y Trallwng is a small market town but has some lovely old buildings and of course just outside the town is Powis Castle, now a National Trust owned property. Y Trallwng incidentally means "boggy land". We passed the station at Raven Square where the light railway goes from to Llanfair Caereinion, popular in the summer as we walked into town.

We passed our hotel for the night - we felt the need to have a little celebration having completed the Way so had booked in!! (The meal we had later was really good by the way). We made our way to the official end/start of the walk by the side of the Montgomery canal.

Today was 11 miles completed with a height gain of 1800 feet - and there was I yesterday imagining an easy last day walking on the flat along the river valley! Glyndŵr's Way was a wonderful experience!

Quite a strange feeling to have finally finished. Chris felt a bit sad but I feel satisfied that we have finally completed our challenge of 2016! I will sign off next time with a Postscript of miles done and money raised - this was after all motivated by raising some money for our Velindre charity... If you would like to make a final donation, it would be really appreciated - and a big thank you to those who have helped to raise a good amount!

In the meantime, we have a Hebridean adventure to look forward to.....

Glyndŵr's Way - Day 14, Tuesday 25th April, 2017

Tuesday 25^th April, 2017 – Pont Llogel to Meifod

So….nearly there now! Final lap….these last 2 days of the walk had been planned for a while but we have been wondering if we would make it still as Chris’s leg has been a problem…not good when you are planning a long walk. But we made it…..

The weather forecast when we booked these days had looked fine but over the last few days it changed and snow and low temperatures were now the order of the day. Following a lovely, sunny and hot lead up to Easter, it was a bit of a shock to be hit by winds from the Arctic. Thank goodness for warm coats. There was a dusting of snow on the hills as we drove up to Welshpool, leaving the car at the Royal Oak hotel and the taxi taking us back to Pont Llogel. I had to buy gloves in Welshpool.

It was a lovely start walking alongside and sometimes above the river Efyrnwy, so pretty and so peaceful. This is also the beginning of the Ann Griffiths walk which I mentioned in the last blog and we kept meeting up and crossing her walk all the way to Pontrobert.

Bluebells were plentiful and so lovely, trees are all bursting forth in all the shades of green imaginable, wood anemones in profusion in the many woodlands along with wood sorrel, violets and in the boggy areas marsh marigolds – enchanting! I love walking in spring.

 

.....and always the ubiquitous daisies and dandelions!

We followed fields and old tracks and little lanes all day with no sign of other walkers, now and again we caught sight of Cadair Idris – with snow atop – what a magnificent mountain.

Soon we could see ahead the common land of Allt Dolanog with its fort atop, quite an impressive sight.

In fact the hills just here are almost like an escarpment all with rocky outcrops on top and the apparent “gateway” of the fort is in fact rocky tops to the hill. They seem sculptured by nature – and man no doubt. If indeed theis was a fort, then they had neighbours very close by I think. It was VERY windy on top here but we had fantastic views to Cadair Idris and the Rhinogs past Barmouth

to the north and of course now to the Breiddens at Welshpool.

We dropped down to Dolanog from the hills, a pretty small village with sadly with no café but we enjoyed lunch on a bench near the old bridge.

We followed the river then, sometimes leaving the valley way below us,

almost like the coastal path! It was really pretty here, the trees silhouetted in the water…..did I see a kingfisher?

Maybe not but bet there are some and apparently this is a good brown trout river. Once we left the riverside, we crossed fields (only a few cows out so far, luckily it’s still a bit early for them-they were mostly dairy here though and no bulls so not so scarey!) We then followed lanes into Pontrobert, another small village with its now obligatory CLOSED pub, so no coffee here then. As we climbed out of the village the sky became really black and we felt sure we were about to be wet through but it just passed over with a small hail shower so no problem. As we were approaching the end of the walk, we managed yet again to miss a sign – it was really well hidden. It looked as though the owners of a really lovely Georgian manor house didn’t approve of walkers as there was a wire across the lane – whereas in fact we had missed a sign, luckily only a short walk back! A lot of fields we crossed today had been with really long grass – in readiness for the cows when they are set out but it made it quite hard going so our legs were tiring. And in the woods, the anemones looked amazing...

As we headed towards Meifod though, the gorse was looking and smelling gorgeous.

We kept looking out for  Mathrafal on the way and think we maybe caught sight of the palace location…the palace replaced an earlier motte or hillfort – dating from who knows when originally, It was the seat of the Kings of Powys remaining important until the 13^th century when the capital of the kingdom moved to Welshpool. We finally hit the road into the village of our destination for today. We awaited our lovely hostess from Tan y Graig bed and breakfast at their CLOSED village pub, the Kings Head. Apparently it very recently closed mainly because it is unsafe with ivy eating into its every nook and cranny. Such a shame but some people are looking at buying it so hope they do.. Eleri took us back to her lovely home as it is about 1 and a half miles outside the village along a busy road so we were very grateful for the lift. 11½ more miles…..