Friday Aug 16 2024

After another scrumptious breakfast and loaded up with our generous lunch we once again set off. Today we would be doing the section up to Chirk. Today would also be the day that we would spend the most distance walking either on or beside the actual dyke.

The day started beautifully as we climbed up through the delightful Candy Woods back to the dyke and then walked at times along side, at times on top and at times cutting through it as we made our way to Racecourse Common, the site of an abandoned racecourse. 

There were the customary (and frequent) farmer’s fields to walk through (and styles to climb over) after the racecourse and, owing to yesterday’s rain, wet (and sometimes muddy) feet ensued.

We were very glad we were not like other walkers who were pressing onto Chirk yesterday as it would have made for a very unhappy and soggy afternoon.

In the environs of Selattyn I had been hoping to make a short detour to Shropshire’s largest standing stone. However I had not noticed we had missed the detour until we had progressed quite a ways past it. And Lori was giving me a “We’re not doubling back” look.

Instead we took a different detour to the thoroughly disappointing ruin of the Selattyn tower. The book said, “erected inside a Bronze Age ring cairn in Victorian times but collapsed in the early 20th century and has recently been restored”

Restored doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.

Thus doubly unsatisfied (and with wetter feet) we doubled back and continued on down into Craignant. Here we were greeted with the unfortunate information that a section of the path here was closed for repair of a culvert. This meant a long and at times dangerous detour up a narrow road. Normally a stroll along a Welsh country lane would be quite pleasing but when one has to almost leap into the bushes to avoid vehicles careering down the narrow road, not so.

We were very glad to eventually rejoin the trail and the dyke. Thus reunited we crested the hill to spy Chirk castle ahead (surprisingly below us) as well as the aqueduct and viaduct in the distance. Here Rob and Judy Greaves had walked up to meet us and thus together we descended to their place at Bronygarth to remove our wet and muddy shoes and enjoy some warming tea.

15.5km