Glyndŵr's Way: Comments on this Long Distance Walk through Mid Wales

Glyndŵr's Way is a 217 kilometre, 135 mile walk through Mid Wales, which I completed in 9 days. The start and finish are close the Offa's Dyke path, which offers a means of extending your hike or creating a circular walk. I began by walking from Abergavenny to Knighton on Offa's Dyke path before starting Glyndŵr's Way.

Beginning with the good points, Glyndŵr's Way passes through small towns, whose centres have a vaguely Victorian feel, with clock towers, old buildings and small shops lining their main streets; butchers and bakers, shoe makers and gift shops. Pubs with old wooden beams were in plentiful supply and evidently enjoyed by the locals. There was usually a pub in the larger villages, full of character, in part due to their clientele. Apart from one night in a camping pod, an upmarket shed with a mattress for your sleeping bag, I slept in a Bed & Breakfast, pub or hotel every night.

Outside of the towns the route consisted of hills, green fields of sheep or cows, moorland and some woods and commercial coniferous plantations. A few months earlier I walked the Cambrian Way, another long distance walk that passes through Mid Wales, so naturally I made comparisons. I found the Cambrian Way a more exciting route, climbing most of the Welsh Mountains, crossing some wild and rugged terrain. Some of it was tough walking as it crossed pathless moors of tussocky reeds, not easy walking. Every day was a bit different as one progressed from the rounded hills of South Wales, to the rugged peaks of Snowdonia via sights such as Devil's bridge and Strata Florida. Glyndŵr's Way is better waymarked and, being a National Trail, somewhat better maintained. Although it avoids the rougher ground found on the Cambrian Way and does not climb 1000 metre mountains it was surprisingly tiring. Every day it repeatedly went up and down hills, none of them that high, but the repetition accumulated large total ascents. My GPS claimed the daily ascents were consistently greater than reported in my guidebook, averaging over 900 metres a day. I was told many people give up or shorten their trip on finding the trail so hard. In terms of countryside, the trail does not really progress, one day could easily be substituted for another. There were a few sites of note outside of the towns: two reservoirs and the scant remains of an abbey.

Of course November was not the best time to complete the trail. Some days of wind and rain were inevitable and added to the mud and sodden ground. Daylight was short making it inadvisable to loiter, as otherwise a difficult walk in the dark to reach my lodgings was required. In spring or summer, the bare branches of the trees would have been replaced by green tunnels and I would have been trying to name all the wild flowers. So maybe I gained an unduly negative impression.

My blog of my trip starts here.

The start of the Glyndŵr's Way section is here.

For a GPX track of my route look in wikiloc.com