1 to 3 March 2025 - Around St Briavels

                                                St Briavels Castle courtyard

This was supposed to be a Ramsoc weekend (Sue's old Nottingham University hiking club) in the Wye Valley at what used to be Welsh Bicknor Youth Hostel. We visited it in 2014 (see here) and many years before that I visited with my UMIST hiking club (TDHHC) when our misbehaviour led to the then warden's 'You are the leaders of tomorrow' speech.

Unfortunately the road to the Wye Valley hostel has been washed away, so the YHA kindly re-located us to St Briavels hostel, which is a rather ancient castle.

En route on 28 February I'd enjoyed two nice walks up Walton Hill and May Hill, and on 1 March ten of our contingent of 32 visited the Severn Bridge parkrun.

So this entry starts after we had driven from the Chatterbox Cafe after the parkrun to the car park at Beacon Ash, from where we walked back to St Briavels.

Note that my camera seems to have switched from the usual 4:3 format to 16:9. I didn't notice at the time. Some pictures may benefit, others will not have done. [ToDo: learn camera settings.]

There are lots of photos in this posting; click on any image for a better version and access to a slideshow. 

A woodland walk took us high above the Wye Valley, with views from the Devil's Pulpit down to Tintern Abbey.

Sue and Paul

Sue and Phil

Good paths led down and over a bridge to Tintern, where entry to the abbey was free of charge for the day as it was St David's Day.

We found various benches on which to enjoy lunch in the sun.

After lunch we wandered past St Michael's Church and enjoyed a riverside stroll before re-crossing the river and heading up quiet lanes and tracks to St Briavels.

Eventually we paused for a final tea break before enjoying more tea and cake back at the hostel.

Here's our route - 16km with 450 metres ascent, taking five and a half hours.

Later - great food at the hostel, thanks to several of those attending, including Sal's lovely sponge cake. It didn't last very long!

On Sunday 2 March, we admired the entrance to the castle, while 23 of our group of 32 readied themselves for a walk on which various folk fell by the wayside, so only 13 finished together.

The path led down from St Briavels, past a heron, to yesterday's bridge over the River Wye.

We crossed the bridge and took the Wye Valley Walk path through Coed Beddick woods to a good spot for lunch.

There were good views down the valley.

Our path took us through Bargain Wood, then Cuckoo Wood, to Llandogo and Bigsweir Bridge.

Then it was mainly uphill, with our depleted party of 13, back to the castle for more tea and cake.

Here's our route - 17km with 600 metres ascent, taking five and a half hours.

The evening was spent at the local pub, who produced a nice meal for the 25 of us who were staying a third night.

Monday morning, and a few photos from around the castle before we departed. Sue may provide some more images later.

There's a skeleton in the dungeon!

Some went home, and about 13 of us went to Kymin for another mainly woodland walk.

We started at a Naval Temple dating from 1800.

There were splendid views into Wales, with both the Black Mountains and the Brecon Beacons clearly visible on yet another sunny day.

We reached a trig point at the top of Buck Stone, where I took some final pictures of the group before realising they were heading further away from Kymin, whereas I returned to my car so as to get home at a reasonable hour. (Sue was traveling separately so as to stay with her mother in Solihull.)

My paths could be described generically thus:

My route today was about 10km, with 350 metres ascent, taking three and a half hours.

If you've made it this far, you might be amused by these pictures of a previous visit to St Briavels castle, when I was with the UMIST (TDHHC) hiking club and a local paper wanted some photos. Ann Moseley, on the right and Pete Watson's girlfriend on the left, duly obliged. My notes refer to it being November 1970. It was in the days of miniskirts and short shorts!

Well, that was another splendid weekend.