Kerry Ridgeway

THE KERRY RIDGE or FFORDDLAS KERRY or Cefbffirdd Ceri

W. T. Barber asserts that “The Kerry Ridgeway claims to be the oldest footpath in Wales, there are many prehistoric sights along its route.  All the way it is crossed by ancient dykes and runs close to the ancient caers (forts) and tumuli built by our ancestors.  About seven miles before reaching Bishop’s Castle the Ridgeway breaches the great dyke built by the Mercian King, Offa, as a boundary between his kingdom and Wales.  (The Visitors’ Guide to the Historic Places of Wales Moorland Publishing Co. Ltd. 1984)

Kerry Ridgeway

Richard Colyer writes that the route starts at Llanbadarn Fynydd “that old road into Montgomeryshire follows the modern ‘B’ road northwards along a tributary of the River Ithon and, after a mile or so, runs into wild, open hill of cotton grass, rushes and bracken.  This is elemental country of cairns and tumuli, curlew and sheep.  On a warm day in late spring the views from the road are quite glorious, although a seventeenth-century horseman, travelling in mid-January may have thought otherwise!”  “Past the group of tumuli on Garn Bryn-Llwyd the earlier road continues to follow the B4355 as far as Cider House Farm.  Here it turns abruptly east to leave the metalled road and take up the Kerry Hill Ridgeway which runs along a fence line immediately opposite the farm.  Of great antiquity, the Ridgeway had been used for several centuries by cattle drovers from west Wales as they plodded steadily on towards Herefordshire and the lush grazings of the Midland counties.  It is even possible that the Ridgeway as in use as a drove route when the pre-Offa boundary dykes, clearly visible at its western end, were constructed.  By the seventeenth century, the ridgeway road was an important route to Kerry and thence to Newtown and the roads for North Wales.  From the early maps it seems that the way to Kerry left the Ridgeway at Radnorshire Gate, past a tumulus on the left and thence by Black Hall and Pentre into the village.” Roads and Trackways of Wales - Moorland Publishing 1984.

The route leaves the B4355 at Cider House Farm, in the last few years a car park has been provided just down the hill from the beginning of the route.  At the gate there is a Kerry Ridgeway waymark which is best described as a chicken shed with a fox on a weathervane on top.  Go through the gate and follow the track uphill with a fence on the right.  Follow the track through three fields where the track expires, keep following the fence, the fence changes from being on the right to the left and there are faint remains of a track.  At the corner of the fence there is the first of the ancient remains, this is Cross Dyke, the first of four ditches, probably built to defend the route.  Also here is Two Tumps, said to be Bronze Age burial mounds.  There is also a pond and a track off to the left which leads to Kerry.

View on Kerry Ridgeway

At the corner of the fence go straight across to the corner of the next fence.  Just keep going in an easterly direction, through the next gate, the fence is on the left and you start to go downhill.  On our original walk of this route the latch to this gate was unusually as it was a horseshoe!  Go downhill to Short Ditch, pick up a very good track and continue on it, there are sheep pens on the right and you then enter a conifer forest. 

Follow the track along the edge of the conifers, you have just passed a place known as Radnorshire Gate, just before the edge of the forest on the right is a tumuli, go through the gate keep following the forest on the left.  Over to the right, off the track and in open pasture, is a stone circle, which stands only about two feet above ground.  Continue to a T junction, go straight ahead, the house here is known as Kerry Pole.  There used to be a fox on the weathervane attached to a telegraph pole here but the weathervane has gone last time I was here (May 2008).  Follow the minor road, with the forest on your right to a cross ways, keep straight ahead on the forest track.  On the edge of the Long Plantation you will see Upper Short Ditch on the right and if you are lucky you will see the Cantlin Stone off the track to your right.

Cantlin Stone on the Kerry Ridgeway

We had a strange encounter with a red kite walking through Long Plantation.  It was in May and we think it was trying to divert us away from its nest.  It kept flying away in front of us, along the line of the track and very low.  It would fly may 50 yards up the track and perch in a tree.  As we got closer to it, it would fly off again, low and along the track.  This happened several times until it decided we were far enough away from its nest not to be threat and it just flew off.  I have never been that close to a red kite before.

The track comes out into open ground with a pond to the right, stay on the track which goes past Pant Glas, just before this you come to small lake or big pond with islands in it, probably built for fishing.  The track meets a metalled road, keep straight on, do not turn right.  At the triangle of grass at Pant Glas keep straight ahead to not turn left.  Go uphill, do not take the turning for Cwm, keep straight on along the road.  After this junction and before the Dog and Duck Cottage, Offa’s Dyke crosses the road.  At the crossroads at the Dog and Duck go straight across, in a little while you will spot Caer Din in a field to the left.  Continue along the road to Bishop’s Moat and then go down Moat Hill into Bishop’s Castle.  There is no “official” end or beginning to the Ridgeway in the town – you merely “arrive”.               

The Kerry Ridgeway is an ancient 15 mile path from Kerry to Bishops Castle. Ronnie and Chris completed this walk in 2008.