Day 2 - The Marcher Marilyns, Shobdon and Wapley Hill (Presteigne).

Updated: Oct 3, 2020

Shobdon 326m and Wapley Hill 329m

This was the second day in the middle England border area to get another two Marilyns.

Parking was in the community centre of Lower Kinsham. Nice and peaceful and being a bank holiday it was quiet in the village.

Heading off East on a road you follow it round South to Byton village (2km). Here you find the Mortimer trail behind a row of houses and follow it steadily uphill (South) until you get to a gate (1km). Now the footpath is just before (50m) the gate but we missed it and headed NE along the field boundary. However we soon rejoined the path proper and carried on until we hit a forestry track (1.5km) that headed South again. Shortly after you hang a left and carry on to the slight rise in the track. The unmarked top was on the right in the woods amongst a swathe of bluebells. This was about 5kms from the start. There is a trig point just down from the summit in a field which you can easily see from a bench at the edge of the forest. Normally I would go to the TP to bag it but the fence was rickety, electrified and the field was private so I didn’t go over but I consider it bagged!

Retracing our steps we ended back in Byton village and then turned left (South) on the road and carried on for 1.5kms until we hit the B4362. Here you turn right and immediately left. Shortly after you will see some steps on the right hand side. You have been on the Mortimer trail since Byton and you carry on it now for a couple of kms alongside Brandhill Wood.

You get to a track junction and we headed off right to make a bit of a loop of the trail as we entered the National Trust area of Wapley hill. It was about another 1.5kms before we got to the small gate at the entrance of the impressive hilltop fort of Wapley. The fort is large and defined but overgrown but the huge ramparts are easily visible. There is no summit marker on the hill.

After having a look around we headed off down the hill this time following the Mortimer trail which is a wide forestry track. In less than half an hour we were down at the road junction of the B4362. Now here dead opposite the road is a house and the path is directly and immediately to the right of the house. The sign is overgrown but the path is there.

From here you are heading North following the Herefordshire trail through signposted fields. You will see the gpx track deviate around the edge of one field to avoid cows but otherwise just follow this trail all the way (2km) back to the road that is just below Lower Kinsham. From there it is a short hop to the finish.

Route Summary: Beautiful hilly border countryside, woods and forest along good paths and roads.

Route Statistics: 14.75kms, 505m of height gain done in 4hrs 10mins.

GPX files: For gpx files go to the Peakbagger website by following this link and go to the bottom right hand of the page and click ‘Download this GPS track as a GPX file.’

Ascent Entry: Hargest Ridge and Bradnor Hill