Bishop's Castle to Offa's Dyke and return

Today was our first planned walk on the Shropshire Way and I was absolutely clear that I wanted to use this to join up with the combined section of the Offa's Dyke Path/Shropshire Way that we had walked back in 2006. We decided to walk a circuit from the little town of Bishop's Castle, incorporating a section of Offa's Dyke to the north of Churchtown, which we remember clearly from our walk 16 years ago, and making use of the Kerry Ridgeway to complete the circuit.  The Kerry Ridgeway is a high-level ancient drovers' route which goes across the border from the Welsh village of Kerry (Ceri) to Bishop's Castle. The part of the Ridgeway we'd be walking today follows a minor road, so we decided to use this as our outward leg so as to get the road walking out of the way. 

It only took about 20 minutes to drive from our cottage to Bishop's Castle, and we found free parking at the Auction Yard (SO324886); there are even toilets here [though these were closed when we returned in 2023]. We cut down an alleyway next to the Kings Head pub and turned left onto High Street and followed this all the way down to St John the Baptist Church, with the colourful Six Bells Inn on the right.  As we turned right onto Kerry Lane, we passed an information board describing the Kerry Ridgeway and saw our first Shropshire Way sign, as this route headed off to the left. Meanwhile, the Kerry Ridgeway continued along Kerry Lane; we initially thought we might have chosen a bad route as we were passed by a number of cars, but these were mostly people driving to and from the outskirts of the town, so we had soon left them behind.

We climbed steadily and lovely views opened up to our left and right. We reached the crest of the ridge and turned left, notionally on a more major road, but there weren't many cars about, then at Bishop's Moat we turned onto a more minor route again, still on the crest of the ridge and still climbing. The views were glorious and very reminiscent of the countryside we remembered from the vicinity of Offa's Dyke. This shouldn't surprise us, as we were getting closer to Offa's Dyke, and if we'd turned right at Dog and Duck Cottage, we'd have been on the approach road to Drewin Farm (where we stayed back in 2006), less than a mile away. However, at this point we turned left onto a track, to cut a corner off to Offa's Dyke at Nut Wood. As we approached Nut Wood we had a view of a good section of the ancient  Offa's Dyke itself snaking up a hillside; we knew we'd be following it!

First of all we had to get down through Nut Wood to Offa's Dyke, and after joining Offa's Dyke Path the steep descent continued., with lovely views to the valley beyond. Ah yes, we 'd remembered this as a particularly up-and-down section of a generally up-and-down route, and our memory was accurate. We reached the valley bottom then climbed, slowly, alongside the section of Dyke that we'd seen earlier. Stunning views opened up behind us and, at a road crossing near the summit, the stiles had Offa's Dyke 50th anniversary markers on them (actually a year old; the path will be 51 tomorrow).

We reached the summit and immediately descended again, really steeply. When we were walking Offa's Dyke Path we were going the other way, so were climbing up the steep slope, and by the time we'd reached this point on the trail, over half way, we were getting quite well known on the path, partly because we were unusual to be walking it as a threesome (a couple and daughter). Coming back to today, it was therefore an amusing coincidence when halfway down the slope we stopped to talk to a young woman coming the other way with a dog, and realised that the couple slightly behind were her parents, and they had just set off to walk the northern section of the trail. 

At the bottom of the steep hill, there was Churchtown Church, as isolated and picturesque as we remembered it. We were now close to the point at which the Shropshire Way heads off to the east, but we needed to find it. We could see that we needed to cross the road and the stream and climb a short distance up the Offa's Dyke Path on the other side; we did that, and there was a track heading off into Churchtown Wood. There wasn't a Shropshire Way sign (OK, there wasn't a sign of any sort) but there was definitely a track, even if it was a little overgrown. We followed along the track for half a mile or so, until a tatty old caravan blocked the path; we managed to work our way around the caravan, but there was no way forward. Bother! I could almost convince myself that I could make out the signs of a track further up the hill, but after a halfhearted attempt to climb up through the wood I decided I was dreaming it, so we had no choice but to retrace our steps to the route of the Offa's Dyke Path.

At this point, we could easily have just used the road, but if the Shropshire Way doesn't exist here, does it exist anywhere? This was not the most auspicious of starts. I dispatched Richard on we one last attempt to find the Shropshire Way, by heading further up the hill (sorry, Richard). He reported that there was indeed another track, rather more promising than the one we'd been along, even though it again had no signposting. We took the risk and eventually, up above where we'd got to before, there was a Shropshire Way sign, and a continuing track. We emerged from the wood, though I slipped on a cow poo and fell over so I was in a bad mood as we reached a minor road and descended into the valley of the River Unk. But the landscape was gorgeous. We crossed a field and found a shady place to stop for lunch, just before Knuck Wood. 

We rejoined the road and meandered our way around Reilth Farm then climbed steeply, then more gradually towards Reilth Top, enjoying the rolling scenery and scattering the sheep that had been sheltering in the shade by the track we were following. After some more meandering we reached the delightful Henley Wood, and descended through it. I sat down to change my socks and suddenly went dizzy so had a lie down on a bed of leaves. Most odd, though I enjoyed the little rest. It was only later that I realised that my occasional light-headedness was probably a symptom of the Covid I was going down with.

We continued past Middle Woodbatch, where there seemed to be quite a lot of activity, with some women meeting up, then along a minor road to Wood House. Here we turned onto a path close to a stream, with higher land to the north (our left) . Before Colebatch we turned left and climbed, though we were lucky to spot the right place to turn. Soon enough we were back on the outskirts of Bishop's Castle.  We stopped  for an icecream at a Spa Shop at the petrol station on High Street;  this was much appreciated at the time, and even more so when our journey back to the cottage became rather exciting. We chose to go via Clun, and the drive to Clun was fine, but after that we were directed down increasingly narrow roads/tracks. Eventually the phone told us we'd arrived at our destination, but we were in the middle of nowhere miles from the cottage. Turned out we'd been directed to the middle of the SY7 postcode, not the specific location of the cottage. Hey ho!