Shropshire Routes to Roots

4. Aircraft crashes: Selattyn Hill walk

Distance: approx 3.5 miles
Starting point:(MR SJ254349) the former Craignant quarry, now a roadside picnic site about two miles from Selattyn along the Glyn Ceiriog road. About 6 miles from Oswestry town centre.

Walk description:
1. Walk back towards Selattyn for about 200 yards and turn right, up the track indicated by the Offa's Dyke waymark (an acorn). The track rises gently, and after a gate and waymarked stile reaches a cottage called Woodside. From here the route continues upwards as a grassy track enclosed by collapsed dry stone walls and overhung by trees. Running parallel on the right is Offa's Dyke, topped by a wall. Another stile brings you out in open moorland, and the path turns half left to reach a waymarked gate at the corner of a conifer plantation.

The views at this point, the highest on the walk, are extensive. Behind you are the distant Berwyn Mountains, while in front is a huge vista of the Shropshire plain, with the Wrekin and the Church Stretton hills prominent in the distance. To the right the view stretches to the Breidden hills and the Long Mountain at Welshpool. From here many crash site are visible.

If you do not wish to continue with the circular walk, turn and retrace your steps: otherwise continue as below.

2. A clear wide path to the right of the gate now leads downhill, passing through a typical hill landscape of sheep-cropped turf, gorse , and bracken. The farm on the right stands on Offa's Dyke; its name - Orseddwen - commemorates Gwen or Gwyn, a 6th-century Celtic prince, reputedly slain in a battle here against the forces of the Prince of Powys.

3. Opposite Orseddwen the path joins a stony track, where you turn left. The track soon becomes a metalled lane, passing Brook House and crossing the Morlas Brook. After 100 yards look out for a waymarked stile on the left. The path is now undefined, but you walk straight across the first field into the dip, cross another stile and head for the prominent telegraph pole on the brow of the hill. This is very Old pasture with the residual dry stone walls typical of these hillsides, which once provided a scanty living for several small farms like Holly Farm which you now reach.

4. There is a stile next to the telegraph pole. Cross the first field to the stile visible on the other side, then bear right in the second field to a stile tucked away in the far right hand corner. There is a good view here of the Morlas Brook running through a remarkably deep and heavily-wooded ravine. After yet another stile a few yards away you continue to follow the edge of this wooded valley until you reach a stile and gate giving access to a small conifer plantation. After 100 yards of broad forestry track watch for a footpath branching off on the left. It leads down to Corner Cottage on the outskirts of Selattyn. (It is possible to return to the starting point by turning left here and walking along the Glyn Ceiriog road, which commands good views across the Nant valley.)

5. Walk into the village centre. Selattyn is an old hill settlement, and some venerable stone cottages stand beside the church. The Cross Keys is one of the oldest buildings in the village and a good example of a traditional inn. St Mary's church, in its very attractive setting, has undergone successive restorations and alterations since the early middle ages but retains a fine 14th-century carved barrel roof over the chancel.

6. For the final leg of the walk take the lane that runs between the pub and the church Iychgate, cross the stile at the end and follow the hedge on the right to a stile that brings you into a narrow lane. This dips down sharply into the steep-sided valley called the Nant. As you walk up the other side ignore the lane leading away on the right and continue to a white cottage where the metalled road ends. A few yards beyond the cottage along the stony track a footpath climbs away on the right. Take the left turn where it forks and follow it to the top. You are now on a tranquil lane that descends gently, with thick woodland on one side and fine views across the Nant on the other. At the bottom is the Craignant Methodist chapel, a tiny mid- Victorian building still in use.