Commanding: St Catherine's church at Hoarwithy is an extraordinary building which looks more at home in Italy.

The river Wye makes a series of great meandering loops between Hereford and Ross, which is why you'll cross it as many as four times on this walk, using three different bridges.

Two of them, Sellack Bridge and Foy Bridge, are suspension footbridges: unusual, charming and a great source of pride locally. Sellack Bridge was built in 1895, replacing a ferry service.

It links Sellack Boat (where the ferry was based) with Sellack Common, which is access land where you can feel free to wander, exploring the riverbank or maybe enjoying a picnic. Foy Bridge was built in 1876, linking the small hamlet of Foy with the even smaller hamlet of Hole-in-the-Wall.

You will also pass five churches, each special in its own way.

St Tysilio's, for instance, at Sellack, is the only English church dedicated to this particular Welsh saint.

The name Sellack itself derives from Suliau or Suluc, which are both alternative forms of Tysilio.

St Catherine's church at Hoarwithy is an extraordinary building which would look more at home in Italy.

It was designed in the Romanesque style in the 1880s and occupies a commanding hilltop position.

St John's at King's Caple stands opposite Caple Tump, the probable site of a Norman castle.

Apart from the five churches on the route, there is also a chapel at Fawley, which requires a very short optional detour.

You might also be tempted to regard the church of St Andrew and St Mary at How Caple as optional, because it's uphill at a fairly late stage in the walk.

However, the short climb leads not only to the church but also to the nearby tearoom situated in a courtyard at How Caple Court.

The tearoom is open daily until around 5pm, and 11 acres of gardens are open to the public too.

Designed by Lennox Bertram Lee, a Manchester cotton magnate who bought How Caple Court in the early 20th century, the gardens include woodland, water features, shrubberies and an Italianate sunken garden.

FACT FILE

FACTFILE Start: Hoarwithy, which is a village by the River Wye a few miles south-east of Hereford, off the Ross road (A49); grid ref SO546290.

Length: 11 miles/18km.

Maps: OS Explorer 189, OS Landrangers 149/163.

Terrain: Farmland; mainly flat or gently undulating.

Footpaths: Mostly fine, but some are overgrown in places and some gates are locked.

Stiles: Seven, and you may have to climb over a few gates.

Parking: There is a roadside space about 200m south of the New Harp Inn.

Public transport: Bus 420 or train to Hereford, then George Young's 37 Hereford to Ross service stops at the New Harp Inn, Monday-Saturday only; on Sundays/bank holidays Stagecoach 38 (Hereford to Ross) stops at the Hoarwithy turn; www.herefordbus.info or Traveline 0871 200 2233.

Refreshments: New Harp Inn at Hoarwithy, tea room at How Caple Court.

1Walk north along the village street, with the New Harp Inn on your right. Turn right at a junction below the church and then immediately right again. Cross Hoarwithy Bridge and turn first right on a footpath. Ignore a path branching left and keep straight on at a road junction. At King's Caple take a footpath on the right, roughly opposite the church. Bear left across a grassy area with a corrugated-iron barn and a house on your right, Caple Tump on your left. Pass through a copse, cross a driveway and then a field. Turn right down a lane.

2 Take a footpath on the right, cross Sellack Bridge and go across Sellack Common to meet a lane. Turn left past St Tysilio's church. Turn left again at a T-junction, and then keep straight on at another junction at Baysham, towards Strangford. Keep straight on at Strangford, along a no though road' which is also a footpath. Reaching a farm, turn right where waymarked, just after a pool, cross a yard to a gate and continue along a track. When the track eventually curves left, go straight on through a gate and along a field edge for about 120m.

3 Go through a seriously overgrown gate on the right and follow a field edge, before turning left by a stone wall to join a lane. Turn right into Foy, then left through St Mary's churchyard. Pass to the left of the church to find a footpath into a field. Go diagonally left to the far corner. Follow the river for a while then cross it at Foy Bridge. Turn left, joining the Wye Valley Walk (WVW). This eventually moves to the riverbank but stay on the lane instead if you intend to visit How Caple.

4 Take a footpath on the right, where the lane bends left, and go diagonally left uphill through parkland to How Caple (church and/or court). Return through the park, going diagonally right downhill to the lane. Take a path opposite, which rejoins the WVW by a brook. Follow the WVW to a road, turn left and leave both road and WVW just before a phone box. Join a footpath on the left, going up a sloping field to a house. Turn right, go through the right-hand gate and walk straight on along field edges. Join a track at a farm and continue straight on along a farm lane/bridleway.

5 Meeting a lane at Ingsbury, go straight on here and at all subsequent junctions until you are back at St John's church in King's Caple. Take a footpath on the right and follow it to a road. Turn left, then soon left again at a road junction. Keep straight on at the next junction to cross Hoarwithy Bridge then turn left on a path which leads to the south end of the village.

10:36am Monday 23rd July 2007

Print

Email this