Beside the River Wye and around Coppet Hill

The well-preserved remains of Goodrich Castle date from the 12th and 13th centuries, replacing an early 12th-century structure. Some gory traps and ruses kept would-be intruders away, among them a tunnel beneath the gate tower that could be blocked by a portcullis; doomed attackers would then be scalded with hot water from above or burned to death with molten lead.

The castle succumbed to Parliamentarians in 1646 during the Civil War, led by Colonel John Birch, who had successfully attacked the city of Hereford the previous December. The story goes that the colonel’s niece, Alice, and Charles Clifford, her lover, fled from the battle, only to meet their deaths trying to cross the River Wye. So watch out for their ghosts on a phantom horse. Goodrich Castle is open daily from spring until autumn, but during winter may be closed midweek.

After the death of his mother, the future Henry V lived for a while at the manor house, which subsequently became known as Courtfield. During the 17th century, the manor was held by the Vaughans, a staunch Catholic family who refused to follow the Anglican faith. In 1651, their recusancy led to the confiscation of their estates, which were given to Phillip Nicholas of Llansoy. The manor became a detached parish of Monmouthshire and thus acquired its title of Welsh Bicknor, although since 1844 it is now back in England.

The rectory, constructed when St Margaret’s Church was rebuilt in 1859, is now a YHA hostel, an organisation founded in 1931 to provide simple, affordable accommodation for young people, encouraging them to travel and gain new experiences.

The area around Symonds Yat attracts film buffs wanting to see the locations used for Richard Attenborough’s film, Shadowlands. It was based on the life of C S Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia.

Walk back down Castle Lane to the village and turn left towards Courtfield and Welsh Bicknor. Follow the lane to a bridge across the B4229.

Keep going along the lane, taking the left branch at a fork. Occasional views open to Goodrich Castle and Kerne Bridge before you break from the trees onto the Courtfield estate. Keep left where the lane later splits, shortly reaching another fork (Youth Hostel signed off right). Continue ahead here on a track towards Home Farm and Glenwye. After 0.5 miles (800m), by the high walls of the estate garden, the track divides again.

After 70yds (64m), before a second fork, take a gate on the right. Follow the edge of pasture to the right, passing through an opening to carry on in a second field. Leave through a gate just left of the corner and head downfield beside the hedge to the river. Otherwise follow the original line of the footpath and keep with the main track ahead past Courtfield’s outlying buildings. Through a gate, continue downhill to the Wye.

Turn right and follow the river downstream for 0.5 miles (800m) to Welsh Bicknor, where St Margaret’s Church and its former rectory, now a youth hostel, overlook the Wye. Keeping to the riverside path, another 0.25 mile (400m) walk brings you to a bridge that once carried the Ross and Monmouth Railway through the valley. Over to the right, past a wartime pill-box, is the southern portal of the Coppet Hill tunnel, in use until the line closed in 1965.

Return to the river, and carry on through Park Wood, emerging beyond into meadows. Further on the way, the route enters Coldwell Wood, where on the right a railed enclosure contains a memorial to 16-year-old John Warre, who drowned here in 1804. Beyond the trees, walk on at the edge of another meadow to a redundant stile beside a fallen willow.

Continue on beside the river, which sweeps to the right below the dramatic viewpoint of Symonds Yat Rock. Becoming a field track, the way shortly enters woodland again. At the far side, stick with the track towards Mainoaks Farm. Just before the entrance, climb a stile on the right into the Coppet Hill Common Local Nature Reserve. A path slants up across the wooded hillside, breaking from the trees above Rockland Cottage. A stony track leads past more cottages to meet the lane by which you first climbed out of Goodrich.