All walks › Newtown & the Severn
Newtown & the SevernThe Kerry Ridgeway
A prehistoric ridge route running fifteen miles along the watershed to the English border, walkable in sections with views both north and south the whole way.
- Distance
- 5.6 mi / 9 km
- Time
- 3 hr
- Ascent
- 250 m
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Shape
- There and back
Where it is
The circle shows the general area, not the exact start. Use the directions link below to get to the car park itself. Contours and paths shown are OpenTopoMap, drawn from OpenStreetMap data.
The route
Join the ridgeway at any of the road crossings and follow it east or west along the crest. It is a there-and-back unless you arrange transport at both ends.
Worth knowing
- Possibly the oldest road in Wales still in use, and it stays on the high ground the whole way for the obvious reason.
- Almost no shelter along the ridge. Exposed in wind.
- Best done as a linear walk with two cars, or a section at a time.
What you’ll see
Long views into Shropshire and back over Montgomeryshire, hedgerows, and drovers’ tracks branching off.
Background
The ridgeway has been in use since the Bronze Age and was a drove road into the nineteenth century, taking Welsh cattle east to English markets.