Parking

Park at the Beaufort Arms, Monkswood, on the A472 between Usk and Little Mill. SO 341 026.

The Beaufort Arms is unused at present (May 2016), so there’s no one to phone for permission.

Directions

1. Look for the stile opposite the car park, cross to it and climb uphill along the hedge line to the next stile. Go straight over and follow the path in front of you (ignoring the path to the right), until you come to a T-junction of paths. Bear left, and at the next T-junction go left again.
2. After about 150m, take the path on your right. Follow this to the next T-junction and go right again. Follow this path until it emerges from the woods opposite a house, and go left to meet Rumble Street.
3. Turn right up the lane, and at the crossroads at the top go straight across into Llan Lane. Carry on down the lane, and just after the last house on the right, go over the stile on that side. Follow the track across a field and through a gate downhill until you reach an abandoned pump house near the river. Follow the track around to the right, then take the waymarked footpath uphill on the right.
4. Cross the stile at the top of the climb, then cross the next field bearing to your right (away from the hedge line) to reach another stile. Cross this and the next two stiles, keeping the fence on your left. Now cross the next field diagonally upward to your right - head for the tree in the middle of the skyline. You will see the stile in front of you as you breast the ridge.
5. Cross the stile and turn right into Estavarney Lane. Follow the lane to the T-junction with Cefn Mawr Lane, then take the stile directly opposite you. Follow the path between two fences with chicken houses on the left. When it opens out, bear uphill slightly right into the woods.
6. Follow the path, avoiding turns to the right, until you meet the path you started on. Turn left, over the stile and back down the field to the Beaufort Arms.

Points of interest

Monkswood was established by monks from Tintern Abbey who establishes an iron works here. The ponds that you can see in the wood and on Rumble Street provided water for the works. Eventually better sources of iron ore were found in Pontypool and the monks moved there. Rumble Street is supposedly named after the noise of the carts carrying the iron away.

Map