719 walks across Wales

• Radnorshire

  Llandrindod Lakeside Loop

  Flat surfaced circuit of the boating lake on the southern edge of town, benches most of the way round.

  1.0 mi30 min Easy
• Radnorshire

  Rock Park and the Chalybeate Spring

  Victorian pleasure grounds in a wooded dingle below the town, built around the mineral spring that made Llandrindod’s name and paid for most of its architecture.

  1.2 mi40 min Easy
• Radnorshire

  Water-break-its-neck

  Twenty minutes up a wooded gorge in the Radnor Forest to a waterfall dropping into a dark, fern-hung amphitheatre. Superb after heavy rain and frankly a bit pointless in a dry August.

  1.5 mi45 min Moderate
• Radnorshire

  The Whimble

  You will have noticed this one from the road: a near-perfect cone of a hill that catches the eye from every direction in eastern Radnorshire. Steep, short, and the summit view takes in most of mid Wales.

  4.3 mi2 hr 30 Demanding
• Radnorshire

  The Warden, Presteigne

  Woodland on the edge of town above the River Lugg, with a bowling green at the top that has been played on for centuries and a border you can step across without noticing.

  1.6 mi45 min Moderate
• Radnorshire

  Knighton and the Dyke

  One of the best-preserved stretches of Offa’s Dyke climbs straight out of Knighton. You can put your hand on an eighth-century earthwork ten minutes from a railway platform.

  3.1 mi1 hr 45 Moderate
• Radnorshire

  Llandegley Rocks

  Low ridge of hard rock above the A44 that returns a wildly disproportionate view for the effort involved. Twenty minutes of climbing buys you most of Radnorshire.

  2.5 mi1 hr 30 Moderate
• Radnorshire

  Abbeycwmhir and Llywelyn’s Grave

  The ruins of a Cistercian abbey in a deep, quiet valley, holding the grave of the last native Prince of Wales. One of the most affecting places in the county and almost always empty.

  3.4 mi2 hr Moderate
• Radnorshire

  Pilleth and Bryn Glas

  Owain Glyndŵr destroyed an English army on this hillside in 1402, above a church that still sits alone in the fields. The ground reads like a battlefield if you stand in the right place.

  2.8 mi1 hr 40 Moderate
• Radnorshire

  Old Radnor and Hanter Hill

  Hilltop village with one of the finest parish churches in Wales, and a short climb onto the old volcanic hills that mark the border.

  3.7 mi2 hr 15 Moderate
• Radnorshire

  Glascwm and the Radnorshire Commons

  Big, empty, rolling common land above a hamlet with a church and not much else. This is the Radnorshire that people who live here mean when they talk about the hills.

  5.0 mi2 hr 45 Demanding
• Radnorshire

  Stanner Rocks

  Some of the oldest rock in Wales, carrying plants that grow nowhere else in Britain. The reserve itself is closed to the public, so this is a walk to look at it rather than climb it.

  1.9 mi1 hr 10 Moderate
• Radnorshire

  Llananno and the Upper Ithon

  Go inside the church first. It holds the finest medieval rood screen in Wales, and the quiet loop through the Ithon valley behind it comes after.

  2.5 mi1 hr 30 Moderate
• Radnorshire

  Beguildy and the Teme Valley

  Upper Teme farmland right on the border, about as far from a main road as Radnorshire gets. Sheep, hedges, hills and almost nobody.

  4.0 mi2 hr 20 Moderate
• Radnorshire

  Cascob and the Forest Edge

  Remote church with a Norman motte in its churchyard, and a climb onto the eastern edge of the Radnor Forest through plantation and open hill.

  4.7 mi2 hr 45 Demanding
• Radnorshire

  Llanbister Hills

  Long, quiet circuit on Glyndŵr’s Way over the hills above the Ithon. Steady climbing, huge skies and the sort of emptiness that surprises people who thought Wales was crowded.

  5.6 mi3 hr 10 Demanding
• Elan Valley and Rhayader

  Elan Valley Dams

  The Victorian dams above Rhayader, on good paths with water beside you most of the way. It is the sheer scale of the masonry that stays with people.

  4.0 mi1 hr 45 Moderate
• Elan Valley and Rhayader

  Elan Valley Trail

  The old dam builders’ railway, resurfaced and traffic-free the whole way. Do a mile of it or all nine. It is one of very few genuinely wheelchair-usable routes of any length in the county.

  9.0 mi3 hr 30 Moderate
• Elan Valley and Rhayader

  Craig Goch Dam

  The highest and prettiest of the Elan dams, a curving wall of arches at the top of the valley with moorland opening out beyond it.

  2.5 mi1 hr 25 Moderate
• Elan Valley and Rhayader

  Pen y Garreg

  Wooded circuit around the middle reservoir, with an island and a dam you can walk across.

  3.1 mi1 hr 40 Moderate
• Elan Valley and Rhayader

  Claerwen Dam

  The furthest, largest and emptiest of the Elan dams. Once you are past the wall there is very little between you and Ceredigion but bog, grass and sky.

  3.1 mi1 hr 45 Demanding
• Elan Valley and Rhayader

  Gilfach Nature Reserve

  Hill farm kept as it always was, in the Marteg valley, with a medieval longhouse and salmon in the gorge.

  2.2 mi1 hr 15 Moderate
• Elan Valley and Rhayader

  Rhayader and the Wye

  Short loop out of the oldest town on the Wye, taking in the falls the town is named after and a stretch of riverbank. Good for an hour when you have driven a long way and want to stretch.

  1.9 mi55 min Easy
• Elan Valley and Rhayader

  Abergwesyn Pass and the Devil’s Staircase

  The old drovers’ road over the mountains between Abergwesyn and Tregaron, and the hairpin climb that gives it its name. Empty in a way that is hard to find in Britain now.

  3.7 mi2 hr 20 Demanding
• Upper Wye Valley

  The Groe, Builth Wells

  Level path along the Wye through the town’s riverside common, with the castle earthworks above.

  1.5 mi35 min Easy
• Upper Wye Valley

  Aberedw Rocks

  Terraced rock ledges high above the Edw and the Wye, with a cave linked to Llywelyn’s last days. Steep in places and a scramble near the top.

  3.7 mi2 hr 15 Demanding
• Upper Wye Valley

  Cilmeri and the Irfon

  The last native Prince of Wales was killed here in 1282. Short walk from the monument out along the Irfon and back, quiet and gentle and heavier than its length suggests.

  2.2 mi1 hr 10 Moderate
• Upper Wye Valley

  Erwood and the Wye Valley Walk

  Follows the Wye Valley Walk north from an old station, on the river the whole way.

  5.0 mi2 hr 45 Moderate
• Upper Wye Valley

  Llanwrtyd Wells and the Irfon

  Out of the smallest town in Britain along the Irfon, through oak woods and back. Quiet on all but a handful of days a year.

  3.1 mi1 hr 45 Moderate
• Upper Wye Valley

  Llangammarch and the Cammarch

  Gentle circuit from a former spa village where two rivers meet, climbing to open ground for the view and dropping back through farmland.

  3.7 mi2 hr 10 Moderate
• Upper Wye Valley

  Llanelwedd Rocks

  Short steep climb above the showground for a view straight down the Wye valley, with Builth laid out beneath you.

  2.5 mi1 hr 30 Moderate
• Upper Wye Valley

  Painscastle

  Enormous castle earthworks in a small village, and a quiet farmland circuit around them with the Black Mountains filling the southern skyline.

  3.4 mi1 hr 55 Moderate
• Upper Wye Valley

  Newbridge-on-Wye

  An easy riverside and farmland loop from a village on the Wye between Rhayader and Builth. Nothing dramatic, and a good honest hour and a half.

  2.8 mi1 hr 30 Moderate
• Upper Wye Valley

  Disserth and the Ithon

  One of the least altered churches in Wales, beside the Ithon, with a short loop through the fields around it.

  2.2 mi1 hr 10 Easy
• Upper Wye Valley

  Llyswen and Boughrood

  Two villages on opposite banks of the Wye, linked into a loop, with the Black Mountains along the whole southern horizon.

  3.7 mi2 hr 5 Moderate
• Upper Wye Valley

  Llandeilo Graban

  Scattered upland parish above the Wye with big views and almost no traffic. The sort of walk where you meet a farmer and nobody else.

  3.1 mi1 hr 55 Moderate
• Usk Valley and Abergavenny

  Brecon Canal Towpath

  The Monmouthshire and Brecon canal starts here and runs level all the way to Pontypool. The first couple of miles out of Brecon are flat, surfaced and easy to turn round on.

  2.5 mi1 hr Easy
• Bannau Brycheiniog: Central Beacons

  Pen-y-crug Hillfort

  Rings of Iron Age rampart on a hill above Brecon, forty minutes up and the best view of the town.

  2.5 mi1 hr 25 Moderate
• Bannau Brycheiniog: Central Beacons

  Pen y Fan from Pont ar Daf

  The busiest mountain in Wales, and still worth doing. Pitched stone almost the whole way, which is straightforward underfoot and relentless on the legs.

  4.7 mi3 hr Strenuous
• Bannau Brycheiniog: Central Beacons

  Pen y Fan from Cwm Gwdi

  The quiet northern approach to Pen y Fan, up an old army track through a valley most people never see.

  6.8 mi4 hr Strenuous
• Bannau Brycheiniog: Central Beacons

  Llyn Cwm Llwch

  Walks to a glacial lake in a deep hollow under Corn Du, without committing to the summit.

  4.3 mi2 hr 30 Demanding
• Bannau Brycheiniog: Black Mountains

  Llangorse Lake

  Largest natural lake in south Wales, with a reconstructed crannog offshore and easy shore paths.

  2.8 mi1 hr 15 Easy
• Bannau Brycheiniog: Central Beacons

  Mynydd Illtud Common

  Open common by the visitor centre with the whole northern escarpment of the Bannau in view.

  2.5 mi1 hr 10 Easy
• Bannau Brycheiniog: Central Beacons

  Craig Cerrig-gleisiad

  National nature reserve in a glacial hollow where arctic plants have hung on since the ice.

  3.7 mi2 hr 30 Strenuous
• Bannau Brycheiniog: Central Beacons

  Fan y Big and the Gap Road

  The old Roman-era route through the heart of the Bannau, with a climb onto the ridge and the famous diving board rock at the top.

  5.6 mi3 hr 30 Strenuous
• Bannau Brycheiniog: Central Beacons

  Talybont Reservoir

  Long, easy circuit of the reservoir on tracks and quiet road, with a good bird hide and two decent pubs at the end of it.

  5.6 mi2 hr 50 Moderate
• Bannau Brycheiniog: Central Beacons

  Blaen-y-glyn Waterfalls

  Compact set of falls in a wooded gorge below the Bannau escarpment, best after rain.

  2.5 mi1 hr 30 Moderate
• Usk Valley and Abergavenny

  Llanfrynach and the Canal

  An easy loop from a pretty village between the Usk and the canal, joining the towpath for part of the way. Flat, green and undemanding.

  3.1 mi1 hr 40 Easy
• Bannau Brycheiniog: Black Mountains

  Hay Bluff

  Straight up the northern nose of the Black Mountains for the widest view in the range.

  4.0 mi2 hr 30 Demanding
• Bannau Brycheiniog: Black Mountains

  Hay-on-Wye and the Warren

  Out of the back of the bookshops onto the Wye, with a shingle beach at the Warren that half the town swims from in July.

  2.0 mi50 min Easy

These are route guides, not turn-by-turn directions. Take the relevant OS Explorer map, check the weather, and tell someone where you are going.