Offa’s Dyke Path
dates: Start any day May to end-September, except as indicated below re Hay-on-Wye and Llangollen festivals.
The best season for walking the Dyke is from May to September, although good weather conditions can be encountered both earlier and later in the year. However, it is difficult to obtain accommodation in Hay-on-Wye during the annual Guardian Hay Festival. This famous annual literary festival takes place for 10 days in late May/early June. In 2025 the dates of the Hay Festival are Thursday 22 May to Sunday 1 June. It is also difficult to obtain rooms in Llangollen during the Eisteddfod Musical Festival, which in 2025 lasts from Tuesday 8 July to Sunday 13 July.
Duration: This depends on how much time you have and how far you want to walk. The shortest duration tour we offer is 4 nights, e.g. from Knighton to Welshpool or from Llangollen to Prestatyn. If you want to walk for a week (7 nights), you could do Chepstow to Knighton, or Knighton to Llangollen or Welshpool to Prestatyn. To cover the whole of the national trail from Chepstow to Prestatyn can be achieved in two weeks (or less) by a strong hiker, but we recommend taking at least 15 hiking days (16 nights including overnight stops at start and end). Feel free to discuss possible variations with us before booking.
Grade and difficulty: We grade the various itineraries mainly according to the maximum distance to be walked in any one day. The least strenuous options (graded ‘Easy’) are OA6 (Chepstow to Hay-on-Wye), OA9 (Chepstow to Knighton) and OB4 (Hay to Knighton). Other options are moderate to strenuous, the most sustained strenuous section being that between Knighton and Welshpool (on OA10, OB6, OC4). For more about grade and difficulty see ‘Detailed Factsheet’ below.
Programme
Outline itineraries. We have worked out a number of possible variations of different durations starting and ending at places with reasonably good public transport links. OA, OB etc. are tour codes. 5, 7 etc. indicates the number of nights. We are flexible and can adapt any of these suggested itineraries to suit your preferences. Some popular choices are named below in bold.
OA tours starting at Chepstow :
OA5 Nights 1 Chepstow, 2 Redbrook, 3 near White Castle, 4 Llanthony/Longtown, 5 Hay-on-Wye.
OA6 Wye Valley and the Black Mountains: Chepstow to Hay-on-Wye (easier start). Nights 1 Chepstow, 2 St Briavels, 3 Monmouth, 4 Llangattock-Lingoed, 5 Llanthony/Longtown, 6 Hay-on-Wye.
OA7 The South: Chepstow to Knighton. Nights 1 to 5 as OA5, then 6 Kington, 7 Knighton.
OA9 Nights 1 to 6 as OA6, then 7 Gladestry, 8 Kington, 9 Knighton.
OA10 Nights 1 to 7 as OA7, then 8 Newcastle-on-Clun, 9 Montgomery, 10 Welshpool.
OA13 Nights 1 to 10 as OA10, then 11 Llanymynech, 12 Castle Mill (Chirk), 13 Llangollen.
OA16 All the Way: Chepstow to Prestatyn. Nights 1 to 13 as OA13, then 14 near Clwyd Gate, 15 Bodfari, 16 Prestatyn.
OB tours starting at Hay-on-Wye :
OB4 A Short Intro: Hay-on-Wye to Knighton. Nights 1 Hay-on-Wye, 2 Gladestry, 3 Kington, 4 Knighton.
OB7 The High Dyke: Hay-on-Wye to Welshpool. Nights 1 to 4 as OB4, then 5 Newcastle-on-Clun, 6 Montgomery, 7 Welshpool.
OB6 As OB7 but omits Gladestry.
OB10 Nights 1 to 7 as OB7, then 8 Llanymynech, 9 Castle Mill, 10 Llangollen.
OB13 Nights 1 to 10 as OB10, then 11 near Clwyd Gate, 12 Bodfari, 13 Prestatyn.
OC tours starting at Knighton :
OC4 Nights 1 Knighton, 2 Newcastle-on-Clun, 3 Montgomery, 4 Welshpool.
OC7 Nights 1 to 4 as OC4, then 5 Llanymynech, 6 Castle Mill, 7 Llangollen.
OC10 The North: Knighton to Prestatyn. Nights 1 to 7 as OC7, then 8 near Clwyd Gate, 9 Bodfari, 10 Prestatyn.
OD tours starting at Welshpool:
OD4 Nights 1 Welshpool, 2 Llanymynech, 3 Castle Mill, 4 Llangollen.
OD7 Three Rivers and the Clwydian Range: Welshpool to Prestatyn. Nights 1 to 4 as OD4, then 5 near Clwyd Gate, 6 Bodfari, 7 Prestatyn.
OE tours starting at Llangollen:
OE5 Nights 1 Llangollen, 2 Llandegla, 3 near Clwyd Gate, 4 Bodfari, 5 Prestatyn.
OE4 As OE5 but omits Llandegla.
Further combinations and variations are possible. Please ask us for a quotation if your preferred itinerary is not shown. Extra nights at places already en route may be added on at time of booking.
Accommodation: Specially selected guest houses or ‘B&Bs’. En suite (ES) or private bathroom facilities (PB) are available most nights.
Meals included: Breakfast each morning; other meals can be obtained locally without pre-booking.
Extra nights: These can be included at any point on the tour at the time of booking the holiday. For prices see ‘Tour Prices’ below.
Getting there
Rail stations and train service. The nearest rail stations to the various possible starting and end points are Chepstow, Hereford (bus link with Hay-on-Wye), Knighton, Ludlow (bus link from Knighton, more frequent trains), Welshpool, Shrewsbury (train and bus link to/from Welshpool, more frequent trains than Welshpool), Ruabon (frequent bus to and from Llangollen) and Prestatyn. For more details please see our factsheet FSO (available by e-mail). Train services are less frequent on Sundays and may sometimes be slower at weekends owing to engineering works.
Airports. The airports with international flights best placed for Offa’s Dyke Path are Cardiff (CWL), Bristol (BRS), Birmingham (BHX), and Manchester (MAN). London airports (LHR, STN, and LGW) are also possible. For more details of rail links between airports and the starting and end points of the various tours see our ‘Detailed factsheet’.
Tour Prices 2025
Tour codes:
OA5 (5 nights, Chepstow to Hay-on-Wye): £670.
OA6 (6 nights, Chepstow to Hay-on-Wye): £760.
OA7 (7 nights, Chepstow to Knighton): £850.
OA9 (9 nights, Chepstow to Knighton): £1050.
OA10 (10 nights, Chepstow to Welshpool): £1150
OA13 (13 nights, Chepstow to Llangollen): £1450
OA16 (16 nights, Chepstow to Prestatyn): £1750
OB4 (4 nights, Hay-on-Wye to Knighton): £580
OB6 (6 nights, Hay-on-Wye to Welshpool): £760
OB7 (7 nights, Hay-on-Wye to Welshpool): £850
OB10 (10 nights, Hay-on-Wye to Llangollen): £1150
OB13 (13 nights, Hay-on-Wye to Prestatyn): £1450
OC4 (4 nights, Knighton to Welshpool): £580
OC7 (7 nights, Knighton to Llangollen): £850
OC10 (10 nights. Knighton to Prestatyn): £1150
OD4 (4 nights, Welshpool to Llangollen): £580
OD7 (7 nights, Welshpool to Prestatyn): £850
OE4 (4 nights, Llangollen to Prestatyn): £580
OE5 (5 nights, Llangollen to Prestatyn): £670
- Single room supplement (applicable for one person when 3 or 5 persons book together): £50 per night.
- Solo traveller supplement: £65 per night (includes single room supplement).
- Extra nights: Up to £90 per person per extra night. Single rooms will cost more.
Prices quoted are per person on basis of two people in double or twin-bedded rooms. Included in the price are bed and breakfast each night, with baggage transfers, maps and route directions. ‘ES’ (en suite) facilities means that there is a private bathroom with shower or tub and toilet within the main door of your room. ‘PB’ means that the private bathroom may be outside the main door of your room.ES/private bathroom facilities cannot be guaranteed throughout on this tour (although generally available on most nights).
More
Offa’s Dyke
Offa was King of Mercia, a mainly lowland realm roughly corresponding to the present-day English Midlands, during the latter part of the 8th century A.D. To the west of Mercia lay the hill country of Wales, which must have seemed from Offa’s viewpoint a wild and uncontrollable land, populated by ruffians. Offa decided to define the western limit of his kingdom by organising the construction of a continuous north-south barrier extending 160 miles along the eastern margin of Wales from the tidal River Severn in the south to the Irish Sea in the north. This ‘Offa’s Dyke’ may have been in part a timber construction which has not survived; but for much of its length the Dyke was, and survives as, an earthwork consisting of a continuous linear earth bank, of varying height, flanked to its west by a ditch. The modern English/Welsh border still approximates to the line of the Dyke, but the boundary is now much less straight than it was in Offa’s time.
Offa’s Dyke Path
Offa’s Dyke Path is a long-distance National Trail established in 1970 and officially opened by former local resident John Hunt, leader of the first expedition to record a successful ascent of Everest. The path extends from one end of the Dyke to the other, but keeps for the most part to high ground, deviating from the line of the Dyke itself where the latter crosses the cultivated lowlands of Herefordshire and Flintshire. The Path traverses a seemingly magical and mysterious countryside of hills, valleys, moorlands, sheep pastures, farms, forests, castles, churches, old houses, inns and little market towns where the locals are pleased to pass the time of day with a stranger. Its total length is 175 miles. We now include the whole length of the Path, from its southern end on the Severn estuary near the ancient fortress town of Chepstow to its northern end at the beach resort of Prestatyn on the Irish Sea coast.
Reading
We recommend Bruce Chatwin’s evocative novel On the Black Hill, which is set on a livestock farm in the hills above Hay-on-Wye.
Hiking Tour Enquiries
Request our detailed factsheet for this tour – code FSO – to find out more about daily walking distances, places of interest to visit and more!