The September ’21 Mid and North Wales Grand Tour Day Three

 To help you navigate our blog more easily - this link - https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2025/06/how-to-navigate-our-blog.html will take you to a summary page detailing all our blog posts. Clicking on a link will open that post in a new browser window. To return to the home current page just close the browser page and return to the post you were reading beforehand.   

 A cycle ride to Monmouth

The day starts with the discovery that the rear wheel that had been tampered with yesterday i.e. flattened, had also had someone work on the hub spindle as well. It has been unscrewed in an attempt to snatch the rear wheel off my bike. I didn’t notice it yesterday when I saw the flat tyre. Rather depressing really!

The planned bike ride is delayed so Mag heads to Morrisons for some shopping. I remove the rear bike wheel, remembering this time to insert a brake gap disc so that the brakes don’t close up on me like last time! The hub spindle had been fully unscrewed and then just been pushed in. Had I cycled on it, the wheel would have come away completely. The flat tyre is a puncture and not some form of sabotage against the bikes being so well locked onto the bike rack frame. A tiny, tiny sliver of grit has managed to pierce the tyre tread and nick the inner tube. Given I’ve done almost three thousand miles on one set of tyres, I accept it is now times to replace the tyres. We carry two spare inner tubes per bike thankfully and I will patch up the old one so that it can act as a spare in the meantime until we can buy a new one.

Having departed 30 minutes later than we intend, our first stop, a few miles away proves delightful. The ‘Old Hen and Dot café’ where service comes with a smile, the lattes are rich and aromatic and the cake delicious. Throw in a broad, neatly maintained garden terrace with lawns and comfortable seating. Perfect! You can even see a medieval castle on the hill top behind.

Details about Goodrich castle: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/goodrich-castle/

The Hen and Dot Café:  https://www.facebook.com/henanddotcafe/

Route 423 is a charming ride, following the old railway line through woodlands adjacent to the river Wye. A gentle gradient, hardly noticeable, you catch sight of canoe slalom gates, wire and wood narrow suspended walkway bridges, people canoeing downstream, bankside camping sites and pubs.

Its worth crossing just for the fun of a wire suspension bridge sensation! 

Take heed though because the start of the forested trail section is chaotic. One car park serves a number of pubs and cafes and it is also the start of some of the canoe trails so some canoe businesses are found there as well. One road in and out with few passing places, absolutely heaving on the day we pass through! Chaotic but quickly passed by.

We cycle through a landscape of farming diversity. Fields with corn stubble being ploughed back into the ground by tractors; orchards with long rows of manicured apple trees (and sadly lots of fallen fruit at their trunk floors); long rows of large white poly tunnels under which long lines of strawberry plants hang, trailering runners falling out of baskets.

The river winds below steep sided forested cliffs where limestone bedding planes are exposed, indented by weathering processes.

Monmouth proves to be quaint and an enchanting market town with a castle, a variety of small chain and independent shops including some old book shops and a nice market/town hall square.  With interesting architecture dating from when the wool trade was dominant, the town is now dominated by Haberdashers Independent Prep School.

The town hall and its little market. Surrounding it are a number of smaller streets containing antique and book shops. 

Apart from a number of individual boutique, local craft and local business shops, there are cafes, ice cream parlours and a few famous household high street stores

 Its Welsh name is Trefynwy meaning ‘Town on the Monnow’ which took me a while to work out. The river Monnow is a tributary which joins the Wye! Originally a small Roman fort was built in the area but the town became established after the building of the Norman castle in 1067. Fascinating fact, the castle is the birthplace of Henry V in 1386. However, recent archaeological excavations around the town have shown the previous existence of a bronze age boat building community and the remains of some Neolithic stilt dwellings.

Here is a business opportunity if you are up for it 

Tourist information about Monmouth: https://www.visitmonmouthshire.com/places-to-visit/monmouth-in-monmouthshire.aspx

A useful trail guide can be found here: https://mediafiles.thedms.co.uk/Publication/MW-Mon/cms/pdf/Historic%20Monmouth%202021.pdf

Follow the Poppy trail here: https://mediafiles.thedms.co.uk/Publication/MW-Mon/cms/pdf/Poppy%20Trail%20leaflet.pdf

Back along route 423 we stop at various places to admire the views and read the information boards. Of course, we stop for ice cream!  We really have some bad habits which we must break…coffee, newspapers, cake, ice creams…. it’s beginning to become an endless list…..biscuits is another! 

It is worth remembering that this cycle route is along a dis-used railway line, which my dad remembers well, when it was in its heyday. 

Postscript:

And now it’s dark enough for me to do some stargazing. Clouds scuttle across the sky but there are gaps and I am an eternal optimist! I snatch glimpses of Jupiter and Saturn and the summer triangle of Vega, Deneb and Altair. All very exciting.

And then the clouds close in completely. Its all-good fun and a few fellow motorhomers come across for a nose and a chat. I think they are genuinely impressed we can fit a telescope into Bryony!

Route for the day:

Out of site and onto B4234 – Ashfield take road to ‘The Homme’ (see an OS map) – re-join B road at Walford Court – follow and turn right over Kerne Bridge (stop at Hen and Dot Café in Flanesford Abbey) – top of hill turn right to visit Goodrich Castle (English Heritage) – back onto B4229 down to Lodge junction – turn left onto NCN route 423 – at fork in road take lower road to Symonds Yat East and passenger ferry point on River Wye – follow cycle track through woods all the way to Monmouth (NCN route 423 is signposted)

Total return distance:  29 miles