12/03/22 - Heart of Wales Line - Stage 5 - Cilmeri to Llandrindod Wells

Distance - 11 Miles

Geocaches - 1

Pubs - 1
Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4

Six months have passed since the last stage on the Heart of Wales Line Trail. What has stopped me this time?  Just the usual.... named Storms... rail replacement buses.

An unexpectedly free weekend (of good weather) and a check to see if everything is running ok is confirmed.  And the single carriage train trundles into Llandrindod Wells 5 minutes early. The other passengers on the platform - a man with a wizard length beard and a 4 pack of Cornettos - the first of which he is busily slurping on.  I'm sure the other three are going to melt before he gets to the train's ultimate destination - Swansea.

I'm off well before there - my £2.90 ticket getting me 15 minutes down the track to the request stop of Cilmeri. I've told the guard, the guard has told the driver but there was no need to fear. Someone is waving the train to a stop from the platform. A technique I am no doubt going to have to perfect on the next stage.

Loneliness of a Request Stop in Mid Wales

Cilmeri does have a pub - The Prince Llewelyn will be utilised next time. A short walk across fields and woodland to pick up the main companion for today's walk... the River Wye, followed for four miles.

Easy route finding along the River Wye

Newbridge on Wye is both the mid point of the ramble and where we leave the river behind. It's an odd place showing little sign of life.  There are two pubs - both of which have Facebook Pages showing their campaigning for Ukraine.  Yet 1pm on a Saturday afternoon, both front doors are firmly shut. Not even any people to ask. 

Lunch?  Sandwiches on a bench.  Undisturbed.

The New Inn, Newbridge on Wye

Agricultural fields for the remainder of the walk.  Sheep for company, including the heart warming sights of this year's new editions.

Spring Sprung - with a Mother's watchful eye

Into Llandrindod Wells - slightly more people than Newbridge on Wye but still an air of quiet desperation.  The pubs and hotels that line the route in are closed or down at heel nursing homes hinting at the their former opulence.

Changes in the Good Beer Guide between 2021 and 2022.  Both entries were closed during the last walk in Sept 2021 - bizarrely, the Middleton Arms is in the 2022 guide, despite remaining permanently closed.

This leaves the Arvon Ales to carry the torch for Good Beer, even when rather cruelly excluded from the bible.

Now re-opened

The first micro-pub in Powys handles its shop conversion well.  Pubby bench seating around the exterior walls, some partitioning, a ceiling full of pump clips.

Real Ales, Ciders and Gins

There's four other punters - on a train journey from Swansea - which means with me - we can each have a dedicated beer each.  Five casks, surely too many for the footfall. Especially when Wye Valley Bitter, Hopfather and Purple Moose Snowdonia are not wildly different in style.

Not that there was anything wrong with my Hopfather... a tasty, lacing heavy hoppy bonanza of beer.

Walk the Wye Valley, Drink the Wye Valley

07/09/21 - Heart of Wales Line - Stage 4 - LLandrindod Wells to Llanbister Road

Distance - 15 Miles
Geocaches - 0

Pubs - 2
Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3

This leg of the Heart of Wales Line ramble promised to be a proper beery adventure.  A big blue cup of joy marked on the OS map at Penybont, which I should hit at lunch time.  The bible promising not one but two Good Beer Guide Pubs in  post walk Llandrindod Wells.

You can guess what happened.

The 08:45 is waiting at the Llandrindod Station to whisk me to Llanbister Road.  The conductor has been located and the request stop has been, er, requested.

Its a gorgeous day in Mid Wales.  The walking is going to be hilly and completed in solitude with just the beasts of the field for company.  The views, stunning.

Today's walking, mainly like this

And sometimes like this

A special shout out to the Wild Camp at Coco's farm.  What some people get up to on their holidays?

 

Entertainment?  The Holy Stone of Clonrichert

I hit Penybont at 12:10pm.   There's a football pitch - in the middle of race course and a pub.

Who do I call about false advertising?

Clearly says 11am opening.  Every Day.

I know that water supplies are dwindling, so I don't give up.  I sit on the bus stop bench opposite and phone up and ask if they are open at lunch time.  The lady says she will check with Ken, who is in the cellar "cleaning his pipes".  Never sure about local dialect but this does sound promising.  She offers to phone me back but I say just open the front door and shout me.

Laughingly, she does.  Ken is pipe cleaning until 3pm.

I head off.  Two GBG pubs at the end of the walk and I can conserve water like a Bedouin nomad.

The walking maintains it's morning promise, although if I was being picky, I could do with less hills.  I could bring you more photos of mid wales landscapes but the church at the lost village of Cefnllys provides a little variety.

Near Shaky Bridge

The water runs out on the final climb before Llandrindod Wells.

I had low expectations for the micro pub, the Avron Arms.  It being Tuesday afternoon and all.  True enough, its normally closed Mon/Tue but unfortunately, it's not re-opened since the plague.

A Micro for another day, perhaps?

Undeterred, I try the Middleton Arms - slightly out of town to the North.

The For Sale Sign did not stop a fruitless rattle of the door

What a shame.

Not for the first time on the Heart of Wales Line, England provided the must needed refreshment.

Leintwardine again - this time trying the Lion, as opposed to the much visited Sun Inn.

I have to say, the Ludlow Gold - taken in an exceptional beer garden - was possibly better than the Bathams I had at the Great Western in Wolverhampton the day before.

But then again, I had just spent 15 miles of walking trying to make a warm water bottle last the distance.

The only sides it touched were in the glass

31/07/21 - Heart of Wales Line - Stage 3 - Llanbister Road to Knighton

Distance - 13 Miles
Geocaches - 0
Pub - Watsons Ale House, Knighton, Conwy Brewery Clogwyn Gold
Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2

It wasn't just the plague that stopped progress on the Heart of Wales Line.  Wales were adopting different travel rules to England - so even when I was allowed to travel, I wasn't allowed to travel in Wales.  Then there was a landslide.  Then there was a massive derailment and fire (unless I dreamt this).  

All told, the railway line has been out of useful operation for me since February 2020.

At the end of July '21, it looks safe to resume.

And thank God I asked the conductor to stop at Llanbister Road.  Had I not remembered how request stops work, I would have been whisked off to Swansea.

Single track request stop that is Llanbister Road

It felt good to be back.  This is the first "hill walk" that I have completed for sometime.  In a 13 mile walk, I passed one pair of walkers coming in the opposite direction.  The possibility of a pub at Lloyney had long been dismissed as having changed into a private residence.  Not that the reviews were great.  Pouring supermarket cider from a 2l plastic bottle does not a good landlord make.

Once orientating myself at the platform (the path leads directly from it), it the first of what seemed like many climbs.  Nearly 2000ft of ascent today.  That's a mountain full.

Still, you get the views.

Cnwch Bank is proper wild - feint paths cutting through the ferns - the terrain improves when Glyndwr's way is picked up.

Looking down over the Teme Valley at Lloyney

Knucklas has three things of interest.  A station - should you want to bail out of the walk.  A pub - the Castle Inn - should you wish to slightly divert from the path and the viaduct.  Its only the latter that I walk past.

Engineering

How it happened

I've got just enough water to get me to Knighton.  The path in is superb - running high above the B4355 in shady woodlands but I'm not going to lie, I was delighted to reach civilisation.

Knigton Below

Having completed my homework, I was aware that there is one Good Beer Guide Tick in Town.  Yet according to Google Maps, Watsons Ale House kept the same sort of hours as the Red Lion.  This entry from yester-year only opened at 4pm on a Saturday.   Which is little use to the rambler.

With it being 2:45pm, I went to check out Watsons - more in hope than expectation.

Glad I did.  Good Beer Guide Tick #571 and the first in Wales for some time.

There's advertising!

The small print on the sign shows that Wales is still applying rules differently.  Masks on when moving around, table service only.  I see enough as a I walk past the small bar to a sun trap garden to know that Conwy Brewery Clogwyn Gold will be my tipple of choice.  Along with an iced water chaser.

Successful day back on the trail.

It was fantsatic

22/02/20 - Heart of Wales Line - Stage 2 - Knighton to Hopton Heath

Distance - 10 Miles
Geocaches - 1
Pub - Sun Inn, Leintwardine, Three Tuns
Previous Stages - Stage 1

Hopton Heath Railway Station is a lonely place to start a walk.   An electronic notice board that gives only a phone number to ring for train information.   A single track line, no other passengers.

Always Early

An encouraging toot is heard two minutes after its scheduled 9:38am arrival and as this is a request stop only, I have sufficient warning to get into position.  I have been practicing how to stop a moving train by watching the Railway Children and fashioning flags out of old Fullers London Pride T-Shirts.

13 minutes later, I am alighting at Knighton - still in England, even if the town the station serves is in Wales.  I am ready to re-conquer Panpunton Hill on Offa's Dyke Path in wind conditions that seemed perfectly wild enough to me to be a named Storm.   Maybe we have been spoiled this Winter.

It's worth the puffing and panting.  Having walked this twice now, its fast becoming one of my favourite UK Views.   One day, I will do it in decent conditions.

Flooded Teme Valley below - from last weeks Storm Dennis

Capturing the Wind by Go Pro

Head east for Five Turnings and then 2.5 miles of fine high level walking, thankfully free of mud and standing water to Bucknell Wood.   Here a decision needs to be made - by traveling to Knighton, I have missed out Bucknell Station.  I had planned on incorporating the official walk into today but its a four mile extension that can be missed out by 500ft of downhill walking past the farm named Vron.

Never before have a I missed out on a pub but today's 2032 ft of ascent has been strenuous enough.   I will return to the Sitwell Arms on another day.

Better than hoped for conditions

Vron Farms Bull

Hit the River Redlake valley floor for another climb through the fir trees of Hopton Titterhill.  No other ramblers, but the occasional mountain biker sharing the paths.

3.5 hours after setting off, I am back in Hopton Castle for the long walk back to the Station.

Wild Shropshire

For a closer look at the Castle found at Stage 1

There's no chance of post walk refreshment at Hopton but I am not far from Leintwardine, where there's a truly remarkable example of the a Parlour Pub.   I'd checked out Google Maps, which seemed to show it was up for sale.   I needed a repeat visit to confirm it has been left as I remember it.  See my previous blog for the text, but I will leave you with today's photos.

Sign a touch battered, but as I remember it

Room to the left

Room to the right.  A a very good three Tuns.  Nan told me to use the coaster.

18/01/20 - Heart of Wales Line - Stage 1 - Hopton Heath to Craven Arms

Distance - 9 Miles
Geocaches - 2
Pub - Craven Arms, Wadworth 6x

A perfect day to start my next long term challenge - the Heart of Wales Line Trail. This is a long distance path that follows the stations on the Heart of Wales Railway line - from Craven Arms to Llanelli, South Wales.

The third weekend in 2020 saw gorgeous blues skies and sub zero temperatures that nearly froze the mud. Perfect walking weather.

The trains are infrequent, just two services a day, so it made sense to catch the first train from Craven Arms to Hopton Heath and walk back. It may have been a long wait at Hopton Heath, if I had done it the other way around.

The 9:29am is bang on time and I find the guard to make the request stop at HH. There's a fair number of other Ramblers on the service but its only me getting off in the middle of nowhere.

A New Adventure Begins

The Approach Road to Hopton Castle

New Sign Markers to follow

The trail is picked up at Hopton Castle - a few farm houses and unsurprisingly, a castle - investigated by the Time Team TV Programme for its Civil War history, where no conclusion was reached as to whether a massacre took place in the cellars.

Hopton Castle

Road walking is left behind, as height is gained to Purslow Woods and the drop down to Clunbury.  Black Ice a road hazard for the rambler and the driver.

One less Heart of Wales Trail sign - but the kissing gate survived

Clunbury has little apart from a church and a crossing over the River Clun, which becomes the handrail into Aston on Clun.  Refreshment could be found in the form of the Kangaroo Inn but five miles after being dropped off at 9:40am, it's unlikely to be open for anyone doing the route in this direction.  Quick Internet based research has proved its the only pub of its name in the country (named after a boat, rather than the animal) and someone had the worst Sunday Lunch of their lives there.  I will never know.

First pub on the HOWL - the uniquely named Kangaroo Inn

It's from Aston on Clun that the walking turns spectacular.   A climb to Hopesay Hill under crystal clear blue skies, far reaching views and a classic Geocache container is good for the soul.

Walking away from Aston on Clun

Hopesay Hill Views

First Cache of the HOWL

From the hilltop, the meandering Shropshire Way is picked up, through Oldfield Wood and down to Craven Arms at the Valley Floor.

Valley Floor to Craven Arms

A very encouraging start to a new trail.

Craven Arms is an odd little place.   Seemingly expanding outwards, with new builds where my elderly OS Map shows fields.   Take away the Museum of Lost Content (Closed for the Winter) and the Shropshire Discovery Centre where  you can meet a woolly mammoth and you are left with entertainment options of just the one real pub.

The Craven Arms is an imposing former coaching house from 1805, that's valiantly trying to keep going.   A menu that contained just three items (fish, steak or gammon) was explained by the landlord as "limited, as its January".   A surprisingly decent Wadworth 6x.

Its OK - I would have had the Gammon anyway