• Circular walk: 6.13 miles (including a stroll around the castle!)
  • what3words address for parking: we parked beside the castle at ///slumped.rooting.extensive but there is also some space for two or three cars just opposite the corner of the pub at ///resonated.obey.hydration. Please do not park in the pub car park
  • GPX File

This walk straddles the England/Wales border. The River Monnow is the border in this area.

We walked this route anti-clockwise to get the hill (Coedanghred Hill) out of the way at the beginning. The route basically follows the Monnow River Trail and is (mostly) well signposted, although probably not frequently walked in some sections and was consequently somewhat overgrown. We didn’t meet another soul until we got back towards Skenfrith and came across a couple of dog walkers.

The historic church in the fields at Llanrothal was a pleasant surprise; it hardly features on the OS maps but the footpath turns through the churchyard. It is a whitewashed building possibly dating from the Norman period and has a rustic, Medieval interior. It also has a few benches and a picnic table in its grounds and made a good lunch break.

This was a fine walk with variety and some fabulous views, especially from Coedanghred Hill, and with sections through pasture filled with wild flowers as well as woodland.

At the end of the walk the Bell in Skenfrith could make for a welcome refreshment break (it was closed when we passed) and it is also worth a quick look around the castle (National Trust but free to enter) and the church.

Download file for GPS

2 thoughts on “Skenfrith

  1. Very pleasant walk, thanks.
    Some additional notes:

    1. The castle car park was full but there’s a pretty long lay-by with space for about 10 cars on the road into Skenfrith near ///forklift.horizons.verb

    2. We walked the opposite direction to you on a Sunday morning and the first section was quite busy with dog walkers but after Llanrothal we hardly saw anyone.

    3. As we got close to Ruthlin Mill (which is now a private house), the right of way shown on the map through the old mill and close to the river disappeared and the waymarkers took us up the drive of the house and onto a path unmarked on the map which ran just below the road to join the path which is marked leaving the road at map ref 463189. I could see no official path diversion signs so I guess this is another case of the landowner taking matters into their own hands! It would be interesting to know if the path coming the other way has also been blocked off – judging by your GPS trace, it would seem not but unsure when you did this walk – perhaps it has been altered since?

    4. As the “unmarked” path was quite overgrown, we elected to join the road instead and then went up onto the hill via the track to Tump Wood and Tump Farm starting on the road at 462190. This is considerably less steep than the footpath you used which is more or less at 90 degrees to the slope and is a pleasant walk on a well-made track through the woodland.

    1. Thank you for the comment – much appreciated! We also had difficulty finding the ‘right’ path close to Ruthlin Mill. Coming from the direction we walked the path was indistinct (deliberately obscured?) but there was a stile in the corner of a field almost completely obscured by bracken that we eventually found. We walked this route in mid-June 2022 and sections were pretty overgrown then! I always carry a pair of secateurs but a brush cutter might have been more useful!

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