Powys – geoffspages.blog

From the Shropshire hills, a great flat-topped dome dominates the southern distance – Radnor Forest (not a forest, though the hill’s northern slopes are well-covered with conifers). Prominent, with good eyesight or binoculars, is the (TV?) mast on Black Mixen. It follows that, given good weather, its views should be extensive and panoramic. We’d better go and find out.

It looks like one big hill – in fact it’s very nearly two – the deep and forbidden Harley Dingle (ammunition testing ranges!) almost bisects Radnor Forest. Great Rhos is the highest point (that’s the wrong word to use), at 660m (2166′), on the western side. It connects to the eastern Black Mixen (650m) by a narrow neck of land on the fringe of the forest. From the sleepy streets of New Radnor, the route is thus a high-level horseshoe, providing an excellent day out in this very quiet hill country (one other walker, and a distant horse-and-rider). There are more red kites than people. The views? Yes, as we imagined – a 360° panorama – hills in all directions. Wonderful!

View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=319679&Y=262054&A=Y&Z=120

We’re in Wales today – lunch at the Cain Valley Hotel, Llanfyllin, followed by a walk in the attractive hills to the east, just across the river Cain. There is a river Abel here too – it joins the Cain at Llanfyllin. It looks little more than a brook on the map, but it makes a good story… Maintaining the biblical theme for just a little longer – we’re walking to Jericho Hill! If the weather had been different we might have stood atop its grassy summit – but we’d have felt the full force of the bitter northerly wind, so we stayed on the path in the hollow. Away from the wind, it was very pleasant in the warm sunshine, which lit the landscape like a floodlight, really bringing out the colour.