Offa’s Dyke Day 6: Buttington to Cwm
An account of walking the 177 mile long-distance trekking route between Prestatyn and Chepstow, along the Welsh-English border, in 12 days.
Day 5 of this walk can be found here.
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Last night finished with an unexpected visit to our room by the Sheriff of West Glamorgan (retired) and a thunderstorm. The Sheriff was as surprised to find us in ‘his’ room as we were to find him in ours, but it was all worked out very amicably. The thunderstorm was reported to be amazing, with lightning flashing across the sky. I wouldn’t know. I was oblivious and slept through the entire thing. I was very disappointed, as I love a good thunderstorm.
Today started with an excellent breakfast and then a hill. We were slightly ahead of the other three walkers after breakfast, meaning that we got the first lift back to the trail and set off up to Beacon Ring in the sunshine. After a pretty steep climb for the best part of a hour, we arrived at the edge of the hill fort.
There was an archeological dig going on and one of the archeologists was nice enough to stop and explain to us what was going on. Turns out that they have been excavating at the site every summer for a few years and things don’t really stack up.
They know that the earth that was dug out of the defensive ditch was used to build the mound, but that the ditch digging was a few feet ahead of the mound building, so soil was passed backward. There is a north entrance and a wider south entrance, which they have excavated and found an original stone ‘pavement,’ but they they then haven’t found any defences out beyond theses gates to protect them and there’s a pile of abandoned stones next to the south gate. There’s a burial mound in the middle, but finds of implements etc have been limited to a couple of flints. Their best guess at the moment is that someone started building a hill fort and then abandoned it before it was completed.
They’re waiting for the tree plantation in the centre to be cleared, so they can work on the central ground. That was planted to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and spells that out from the air. Apparently the couple who owned the land when the trees were planted, lost a son in WW2 and they wanted a monument that could be see from the air as a way of keeping his memory alive.
The rest of the day was down off the the hill and then had very small and gentle undulations. We must have crossed the border at least five times. Every time there was a sign welcoming us into Shropshire; but only once did we see anything to indicated that we were back in Wales.
Today we saw Suffolk sheep, and a field of oilseed rape, which we couldn’t identify, as it wasn’t the typical bright yellow colour. We also came across poppies in a wheat field, which looked lovely. I found a milestone telling me that I am only 118 miles from Cardiff too!
We met about ten or so walkers travelling South to North today; all of whom told us what a horrible day tomorrow is going to be as there is loads of up and down. We’re not looking forward to it, as it’s also supposed to be the hottest day of our walk so far, with temperatures of twenty-nine degrees! Lynne from the B&B settled our fears a little bit by telling us that the worst part was the switchback and as we are coming from the north, we’ll get that bit over first! Let’s hope she’s right. Only 13.7 miles today made it quite a light day for us!
We were also cheered to to have enthusiastic greetings from Marley, an older black lab, and Pippa a twelve week old golden labrador puppy. Marley made off with my boot and took quite some convincing to bring it back!
Day 7 of this walk can be found here.
We are raising money for The Teenage Cancer Trust during the walk. If you would like to donate, we’d be very grateful.
Our trip was organised by Celtic Trails Walking Holidays, who I have so far been very impressed by. I have received nothing from them for this endorsement. #celtictrails #shareyoursteps
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