Holidays & Travel

with Al Hidden

An hour after setting out, the Wye rolls past as we follow its gently curving bank towards Welsh Bicknor. On the map, its course between Goodrich and Symonds Yat’s crag looks for all the world like a bored child’s random doodling. In reality, its serpentine route is a masterclass of incised meandering.

Can you remember how the Wye was always the example of this during school geography lessons? If one thing’s certain, it’s that this breathtaking fluvial landscape delivers a rewarding 8.2-mile (13 km) circular walk. A bonus is that it starts and finishes close to historic Goodrich Castle – one of England’s finest medieval strongholds.

Soon after leaving Goodrich and descending steeply to the Wye, we turn right at Kerne Bridge. Then we follow the river downstream through stands of woodland and onto broad flood meadows overlooked by the Regency style Courtfield Manse. Whether on a misty morning or at summer’s scorching height, rewards await around every bend. As does the picnic lunch we enjoy beside the small, but attractive, St Margaret’s Church with its subtly toned ashlar walls.

Later, by then heading in a south-westerly direction, the route passes two filming locations for ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1’: first, the riverside meadows below Symonds Yat; later, climbing back to Goodrich, Coppett Hill where Hermione tells Harry they’re in the Forest of Dean!

Before that, we’ll pause to ponder a poignant riverside memorial commemorating the crash, on 7th June 1942, of a Halifax bomber. The aircraft came down, with the loss of all 11 on board, including electronics wizard Alan Dower Blumlein, while testing pioneering H2S airborne radar. ‘If you have to die,’ say the words of his widow inscribed on the miniature obelisk, ‘this is a beautiful place.’ And it is…

This walk has everything needed for a revitalising day out. Look forward to shady woodland, broad meadows, easy riverside walking, satisfying climbs and descents, industrial archaeology (the former wireworks near Welsh Bicknor) and heart-wrenching aviation history.

And, of course, there’s that Harry Potter connection, as well as the magnificent view down to Kerne Bridge as you return to Goodrich.

Less than an hour’s drive from Gloucester, what is arguably one of the Wye’s loveliest walking routes is sure to leave you spellbound.