Glyndwr's Way, Page 1

Glyndwr's Way starts in the town of Knighton, near the border of Wales with England. We arrived about 4pm, having flown into Manchester Airport that morning and taken several trains. Our plan was to walk the 7 miles to the village of Llangunllo. Because of slow and cancelled trains we were later than we had expected, so we telephoned the B&B to say we'd be there about 7:00. Jenny, our hostess, offered to come pick us up, but we thanked her and said we'd rather walk -- and set off. The official start is at the clock tower. We had been here in 2000, because the Offa's Dyke Path also goes through Knighton. We had used that phone box for a bunch of calls then, as now!

We soon came to the set of signs that would appear just when we needed them, many times over the next ten days. The dragon was Glyndwr's emblem, the yellow arrow says "The footpath goes this way", and the acorn is the sign for a National Trail in the UK.

This stile again has our useful indicators, the yellow arrow here saying that we should go diagonally right toward the bottom corner of the field.

We were warmly welcomed at our B&B, the Old Vicarage. Jenny and Keith had bought it several years ago, and had been working hard renovating it. We had a delicious salmon dinner with them and a friend of theirs. After several glasses of wine, followed by Jenny's scrumptious cheesecake with strawberries, we finally fell into bed and slept soundly.

The next morning, after visiting the church which the Old Vicarage had been associated with, we were back in the fields. Look familiar?

An hour or so later we were in a protected area called Beacon Common. It's a large tract, almost 5,000 acres, cared for by a wildlife trust. Soon after we entered the area we came to "Short Ditch", a rampart of unknown origins. It may have been part of Edmund Mortimer's defences again Glyndwr, or it may date back to the time of Offa's Dyke, in the 8th century.

We walked for mile after beautiful mile through the common, overwhelmed by the heather.

Three hours later, after a pleasant lunch while sitting in the heather, we emerged from the common,

We had figured that we'd be tired for the first few days, so had scheduled short walks. We got to Brandy House Farm about 4:00, in time for tea. Richard kindly brought us tea and cake, and we enjoyed it in the pleasant afternoon sunshine.

Richard then drove us to the nearest pub, a mile or so away, for dinner. The Radnorshire Arms served delicious meals, and was a friendly, traditional pub.

The next morning it was back up into the hills. This morning, as at many other times, we were momentarily startled by airplanes practicing flying in the valleys below us. I never managed a picture of a jet -- they were always out of sight by the time my heart started beating again!

The farmer who owns this grazing area kindly put a sign to keep us going in the right direction. We could see the sign from far away, reinforcing our compass readings. Occasionally other farmers did the same.

The mound on top this hill is assumed to be the ramparts which enclosed a 13th century castle. Maybe the castle wasn't completed -- no one knows.

While we ate lunch, the cows in the next field showed their interest		and gathered to watch us


but when, after lunch, we went through the gate		they decided we weren't all that interesting!

We arrived in Llanbadarn Fynydd in mid-afternoon, and stopped at the village shop (the first shop we'd seen for three days). We didn't actually need anything, but enjoyed looking around and chatting with the women there. We bought ice cream, and sat at their picnic table to rest and enjoy the ice cream. We stopped in at the nearby New Inn (quite old, of course) to see whether we had to book for dinner. (We didn't have to, but did, anyway.) We then walked the couple of miles to our B&B. Since it wasn't on Glyndwr's Way and the directions given to us were sketchy, we weren't at all certain which way to go. We walked along a little road in the general direction, but it petered out. By good fortune, we came across an old shepherd walking his dogs.

He gave us rough directions involving paths over hills and a red house somewhere and a chapel farther along. We managed somehow, and went over hills, and down into valleys, and after a while to our relief passed a red house. Soon after that was a chapel. One of us remembered that he said to turn right at the chapel, the other remembered it as left. Fortunately we tried going right, and in another half-mile we found the B&B. We showered and rested and watched the news on TV, and then our hostess kindly drove us back to the New Inn for our dinner.