Penallt and Millstone Country - 18th June

Having been frustrated recently with my lack of walking, be it through lack of time or lack of motivation, I finally got my rotund self moving on the hottest day of the year. It was too hot for Bonnie so she sat this one out at home. I picked this walk out of my latest version of the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean Pathfinder guide. If anyone has got it, this was route 4. 4 1/2 miles in distance.

I decided to pack light. Phone, book and camelbak.

The walk starts at the pay and display car park in Redbrook. Parking is £1.60 all day at time of writing. Setting off from the car park in the direction of the sports field (south) and heading for The Boat pub. (Yes, that's right, a walk that starts with heading for a pub!) Searching out and finding the footbridge across the River Wye to the pub, I was treated to the most beautiful views up and down the Wye Valley. The bridge sits about 15 metres above river level and once carried the Wye Valley rail line between Chepstow and Monmouth before closing in 1964.

After crossing the bridge, turn right and pass in front of The Boat pub. On nice weather days the pub can heave, with customers sat all along the river bank enjoying refreshments. Continue walking along the road until you reach a gate slightly off to the right and signposted to Monmouth. Go through and walk through meadow after meadow alongside the River Wye. In summer the vegetation can be very overgrown so trousers are recommended (I got stung and bitten a few times). Eventually, you'll enter Washing's Wood. Keep a look out for a signposted path on the left, heading uphill. Take the path uphill, turning right at the next 2 junctions. This will bring you onto a narrow tarmac lane, still continuing uphill, but more steeply. Near the top as the gradient starts to level, you'll reach The Old Church at Penallt on the right. Small, peaceful and scenic.

With your back to the church, set off straight ahead and slightly uphill. Shortly after, you pass Church Hill Common, opposite which are some stunning views across the Wye Valley to Gloucestershire. As the road bends round to the right, on the left you will find the Cross Dermond Coffin Stone. Coffins were set upon this to allow pall bearers a rest on the way to church for burial.

From the Coffin Stone, continue along the tarmac lane until you pass a turning on the left. Continue straight on and shortly after take a stile on the left into a small wood. Follow the woodland path to another stile set in a stone wall. Cross this and head straight across the small enclosure towards a gate. Turn right in front of the gate (there's a yellow footpath sign high up in one of the trees) and head along the enclosure perimeter to another stile that crosses onto a tarmac lane.

Turning left along the lane pass a newly constructed house on the left before taking a bridleway on the right signed to Pen Y Garn and Pen-twyn.

Continue along this, looking out for a stile on the left that leads into a field. Continue across the field keeping the hedged boundary on your left and proceed through a gap into the next field. Continue across this as before, keeping the boundary on your left to cross a stile into a hedged path. Follow this onto open heathland, heading towards a property on the right. The lane heads behind this property on the right to cross a stile onto a tarmac lane. 

Turn immediately left, then right at the junction, then left down a lane towards The Inn at Penallt . A lovely village pub that serves excellent food.

Looking towards the pub car park entrance, take a grass track off to the right passing to the right of Pen-twyn cottage.

Follow this to meet another tarmac lane and turn left, heading down hill for 3/4 of a mile. Keep a look out on the right for a new allotment slightly uphill from an old barn building with a totem pole (yes a totem pole). Mid distance along the lane between the allotment and house is a gravel track signposted to the River Wye. Take this and follow it down beside a wood store and through a gate leading to a stepped, down hill path. At the bottom you have 2 options. Either proceed straight ahead through a gate to the river bank, and turn left following the path back to The Boat or you can turn immediately left  and follow the old railway track bed back to The Boat. Both meet at the same place, the only difference being view and terrain. On this occasion I took the riverside view.

Once back at The Boat, you just cross the footbridge back to the car park. An enjoyable and mildy challenging walk, but with some outstanding scenic views and 2 cracking country pubs.