Ewyher one

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Ewyher here.

Nic Howes trialled this route over two days, Saturday March 11th 2023 for the northeast section from Didley to Hereford and Sunday March 12th 2023 for the southwest section from Ewyas Harold to Didley.

There are two long sections of road walking, but the lanes in question are quiet. Much of the rest of the route is across lowlands with clay soils, so there will be much mud to negotiate after heavy rain, particularly in arable fields. The upsides of the walk are some fine views and the highlight of visiting Kilpeck and its world famous church, which pulls the route up from three stars to four.

The starting point of the route is beside a magnificent old black poplar tree (photo one). Ewyas Harold is a large village with a well-stocked village shop and two pubs at its core. The route follows the Herefordshire Trail along the left bank of the Dulas Brook, passing an example of river dynamics, where an eddy current has eroded the bank, leaving a fence suspended in mid-air (photo two). Beyond the sewage works the route crosses the busy A465 to reach the B4347 bridge just downstream of the confluence of the Dulas Brook with the River Dore, which continues for another kilometre to its confluence with the River Monnow.

The route continues through the western edge of Pontrilas village (which is almost contiguous with Ewyas Harold), climbing the hill and simultaneously taking the left turn signed to Orcop and Garway Hill. The railway line is soon crossed, with a fine view of the former Pontrilas station (photo three), where there was once a junction for a branch line connecting the Hereford line here with Hay-on-Wye via Peterchurch, Dorstone and Clifford (photo four*).

Although the route follows a road for several miles, the traffic is light and some great views open up from the ridge crest, including the eastern edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park from near the summit trig point at 176 masl (photo five). A little further on, just before turning off the surfaced road and heading down to Upper Ridway Farm, there is a fine view south to prominent Garway Hill (photo six). Between Upper and Lower Ridway Farms the route follows the valley (photo seven) of a tributary of the Worm Brook , itself a tributary of the River Dore. At Lower Ridway Farm the route passes a couple of abandoned sports cars, a 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 fastback and a later Datsun 280ZX; these are what the TV car makeover shows might brand "barn finds" (photo eight).

After turning left off the drive beyond Lower Ridway Farm, it is possible to look WNW to catch a glimpse of the end of the Black Hill, the distinctive ridge of the Black Mountains that lies in England (photo nine). Joining the Herefordshire Trail at Marlas, the route continues to Kilpeck and passes Dippersmoor on the right. Dippermoor and the surrounding landscape was familiar to the great ghost story writer, M. R. James, who visited friends here; it seems that the landscape inspired at least one of his stories - "A View From a Hill" - and that elements of Hereford Cathedral appear in "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral". An antiquary such as Montague Rhodes James would surely have visited Kilpeck, with its internationally renowned "Romanesque" church (photo ten) and ruined castle; there is also an "eco pub", The Kilpeck Inn.

After Kilpeck, the route departs from the Herefordshire Trail and crosses fields, a tributary of the Worm Brook and the Hereford to Abergavenny railway line (photo eleven) to reach Didley, where there is a bus stop for the X3 service from Hereford to South Wales, passing Pontrilas (for those wanting to split Ewyher into two sections). Once across the A465, the route crosses what feels like former parkland to reach the edge of Thruxton; depending on the time of year, some of the fields on the route may be challenging to cross (photo twelve). After Pool Farm, the route follows quiet surfaced lanes to Goose Pool, beside the A465 again. From here the route goes back onto fields, with their associated potential difficulties for walkers (photo thirteen). Across the busy B4349 the route follows quiet Church Lane to Clehonger church (photo fourteen) before turning onto a well-trodden path across fields to pass north of Belmont Abbey and enter a modern housing estate on the western edge of Hereford. The estate was built on a former landfill site that itself had been a quarry dug into the glacial material deposited here as a terminal moraine at the eastern edge of the Wye Glacier during the Devensian Ice Age; look out for the flap-covered tubes that house landfill gas valves.

It is possible to walk on either side of a small brook that passes between the backs of houses, one of the paths is a wider, surfaced pedestrian and cycle path. Crossing a small brook brings the route onto Golden Post, a road that marked the western edge of Hereford until the new housing was built in the 1980s. The route completes its journey into central Hereford along the right bank of the River Wye, passing under a former railway bridge - Hunderton Bridge (photo fifteen) - that now carries Great Western Way, a popular pedestrian and cycle route.

*The Golden Valley Railway, W.H.Smith, pub. Wild Swan, 1993.

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