Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
OFFA'S DYKE PATH
They say that good fences make good neighbours, but King Offa may have taken the idea a bit far. The 8th-cen-
tury Mercian king built Offa's Dyke, Britain's longest archaeological monument, to mark the boundary between
his kingdom and that of the Welsh princes, and even today, though only 80 miles of the dyke remains, the modern
Wales-England border roughly follows the line it defined.
The Offa's Dyke Path National Trail criss-crosses that border around 30 times in its journey from the Severn
Estuary near Chepstow, through the beautiful Wye Valley and Shropshire Hills, to the coast at Prestatyn in North
Wales. The dyke itself usually takes the form of a bank next to a ditch, although it's overgrown in some places
and built over in others. The trail often strays from the dyke, covering an astonishing range of scenery and veget-
ation, including river valleys, hill country, oak forests, heathland and bracken, conifer forest, green fields, high
moors and the mountainous terrain of the Clwydian Ranges in the north.
While it can be walked in either direction, it's best done south to north, with the wind and sun mainly on your
back. Most people take 12 days to complete the 177-mile walk, though it's wise to allow at least two rest days,
bringing your adventure to an even two weeks.
The Offa's Dyke Centre (
Click here
) in Knighton is the best source of information about the route, stocking
maps, guidebooks and pamphlets.
Becky Ohlsen
TOP OF CHAPTER
Knighton (Tref-Y-Clawdd)
POP 3000
Hilly Knighton (the town on the dyke) is a lively, handsome town of winding streets and
half-timbered houses midway along the Offa's Dyke Path National Trail and at one end of
the Glyndŵr's Way National Trail. A popular stopover for walkers, it is so close to the
border that its train station is actually in England.
The coming of the railway in 1861 and the growth of livestock farming saw Knighton's
fortunes rise, but they fell again with the decline in population post WWII and failed at-
tempts to turn it into a spa town. One disturbing piece of local folklore suggests that it was
possible for a man to obtain a divorce by 'selling' his wife at the square where the 1872
clock tower now stands. Husbands would bring their spouse to the square at the end of a
rope; the last wife was sold in 1842.
Sights & Activities
St Edward's Church
CHURCH
