Monmouthshire’s boundary has shrunk during the last century but its present extent perfectly illustrates the old adage of ‘small but perfectly formed’, displaying a greater variety of landscape than many counties twice its size.
There are over 1,300 miles of footpaths and long distance trails, allowing visitors and residents to enjoy the county’s beauties in the best way possible – on foot. And this year, Monmouthshire’s first Walking Festival (22nd-31st October) encourages walkers to tread many miles of the most popular trails but also to explore lesser known rights of way.
Louise McGuinness, Festival & Events Coordinator for adventa, makes it clear that the festival aims to do more than revisit tried and tested routes such as the Wye Valley Walk and Offa’s Dyke Path.
"Development work is ongoing to open up more of the countryside to a wider range of users. adventa’s Tourism Trails project will provide a number of multi-purpose routes for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders and the first of these, a redeveloped 6-mile loop near Dingestow, will form part of the festival programme."
A tour of several days will explore the county’s perimeter, highlighting Monmouthshire’s varied topography. Overall, the festival will offer over thirty walks, long and short, ensuring that walkers of all abilities have an opportunity to take part.
The festival’s main aim is to encourage visitors into Monmouthshire by extending the tourist season and increasing awareness of what the county has to offer to walkers. Sustainable tourism will also be highlighted, with staying visitors being encouraged to leave their cars at home and to arrive by train or bus instead, an incentive for which comes in the form of minibus pick-ups and luggage transfers between the festival hubs of Chepstow, Monmouth and Abergavenny.
And it’s not all about the scenery; interpreting the landscape is also part of the walking experience. Walks often reveal interesting nuggets of local history and many of the festival walks will be themed, exploring subjects as diverse as seasonal food (and foraging for wild ingredients), Welsh culture, wildlife and poetry. Which brings us neatly to Wordsworth.
‘… O sylvan Wye! Thou wanderer through the wood
How often has my spirit turned to thee!'
So the poet wrote in 1798; lines which still inspire thousands of visitors to the same locations over two hundred years later. Though but a small part of the story of Monmouthshire, the legacy of those first Wye Valley tourists is a contributing factor to making the county one of the most fascinating walking destinations in Britain.
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Image courtesy of (c) Crown Copyright (2010) Visit Wales
