This guidebook - which includes both a guide to the route and a separate OS map booklet - describes Offa's Dyke Path National Trail from south to north, following the longest linear earthwork in Britain, running 177 miles along the English-Welsh border between Sedbury (near Chepstow) and Prestatyn on the north Wales Coast.
The book splits one of Britain's classic trails into 12 stages suitable for walkers of all abilities. Step-by-step route descriptions are accompanied by 1:100,000 OS map extracts. Also included with this guidebook is a booklet of 1:25,000 OS maps, which provides all the mapping needed to complete the trail in a compact form. A trek planner gives at a glance information about facilities, public transport and accommodation available along the route.
The walk is astonishingly varied, taking in the lower Wye gorge, the Severn and the Dee rift valley, the pastures and woodlands of the border country, the remote moorland of the Black Mountains and the Clwydian range, and the dramatic limestone escarpments of Eglwyseg mountain. What makes it even more special is over 60 miles walking alongside the Saxon earthwork of Offa's Dyke.
Seasons - This walk is exceptional in all seasons, though the Black Mountains and Clwydian range deserve respect in winter conditions, and especially in mist, since there are few landmarks on the Black Mountain ridge
Centres - Chepstow, Hay-on-Wye, Kington, Bishops Castle, Montgomery, Welshpool, Oswestry, Llangollen, Denbigh, Prestatyn
Difficulty - The trail includes a couple of unavoidably long stages and there are some mountain and moorland stages, but the route poses no special difficulties and caters for walkers of all levels of ability provided that sensible advance planning is undertaken
Must See - Geology - limestone gorge of the lower Wye, igneous intrusions around Hergest ridge, Breidden Hills dolerite, limestone escarpments north of Llangollen Uplands - Black Mountain moorlands, remote Clun Forest, Clwydian ridge Lowlands - orchards and meadows, Montgomery canal, broad Severn valley Historical attractions - Tintern abbey and Llanthony priory, border castles, Pontcysyllte aqueduct
Review
5.0 out of 5 stars
"This new long distance guidebook series from Cicerone has a unique selling point: each copy comes with a pocket-sized booklet providing 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey mapping for the whole of the route it covers. Guidebooks have of course included map sections in the past, but the difference here is that if you stick to the route outlined in each book you shouldn't need to carry an extra map with you. So for those of you who like saving weight (and money for that matter) on your long distance adventures, then this could be the ideal navigation tool....
The guidebooks are impeccably researched and written by Cicerone's expert pool of outdoor authors... Our only criticism is that they haven't been doing it for years!"
Oli Reed, Trail Magazine
About the Author
Mike Dunn was born and bred in Leicester but has now lived in Penarth in the Vale of Glamorgan for over 30 years. He worked for the Welsh Assembly Government, latterly specialising in environmental and conservation issues, and has also written widely on landscape, walking, pubs and real ale. His books include The Penguin Guide to Real Draught Beer, Walking through the Lake District, Walking Ancient Trackways and Real Heritage Pubs of Wales (with Mick Slaughter). He is married and has two daughters, and his interests include playing and organising tennis (he is a Board Member of Tennis Wales), birdwatching, cricket and real ale. Mike's favourite locations for walking are the Welsh borders, the Hebridean Islands and the Lake District.
Bibliographic information
ISBN - 9781852847760
Published -14 Mar 2016
Reprinted -15 May 2019
Edition - First
Pages - 192
Size - 17.2 x 11.6 x 2.0cm
Weight - 340g