Walk this route yourself in 3D!
The Video is a 3D walk through of this route, it will give you a unique sense of having walked through the route before you start.
I have created 3D Videos of my adventures and have shared them with the OutdoorActive community as well as my walking community.
This walk has so much history and incredible views it is going to be difficult to keep the post from not being a mile long, I was considering breaking it up into different pages, but I’m going to go for it, and show as much as I can and explain what you will learn and see. It is a long walk, it’s not easy, and I think there is no chance of being able to do this hike without using the GPX file I have included below, or the route on the app, it’s just way to complicated, and so many hidden paths, that can be easily missed, as we found out.
The Wye Valley is such a beautiful area. This route starts at Lower Wyndcliff car park, heads to the Eagle’s nest via the 365 steps, then along the Wye Valley Walk to Tintern Abbey, you will see the industrial history of the Anghidi Valley & Tintern Abbey Furnace, the ancient iron foundry & returning through woodlands to St Arvans & back to Wyndcliff.
Give this walk a go, I can honestly say you will love it, and would love some feedback if you do.
Getting There: Directions, GPX and App Link
The Hiking app I use to plan the walks and to aslo guide me around is the ‘Outdooractive App‘, which has a free a Pro and a Pro+ version, the Pro version will allow you to download the routes to your phone, and use them without using up your data.
The reason I mention it is that if you were to download a route, they are FREE and you can find this link to this route in my hike listings. You can then follow the arrows and voice on your mobile, as most of these walks are a bit tricky to explain.
- On the way to Tintern from Chepstow on the A466, about half way a car park will appear on the right called ‘Lower Wyndcliff Car Park‘. The car park is free, and is protected really well by tree’s so a good place to start in winter and summer.
Navigation Aids:
- Follow this route on the Outdooractive App, it is FREE, and it will guide you around safely.
- Download my hand crafted *GPX file, and use it on your own guidance devices.
- * If you’re not sure what a GPX file is, I have put this post together that will hopefully explain it in plain words. It’s worth considering as well as mobile app navigation, as they will make your hikes better & safer.
Hike Map
Hike Profile
- Distance: 10m / 16km
- Duration: 5/6 hours
- Highest point: 814ft / 700m
- Difficulty: Moderate (steep short climbs), sometimes difficult terrain through the woods.
- Route conditions: Well-worn pathways most of the way around, good walking shoes are a must really.
Hike Description & Pics
Best place to start is the ‘Lower Wyndcliff Car Park‘ car park, the postcode is NP16 6HD, and it’s between Chepstow and Tintern on the A466. The car park is on the opposite side to the 365 steps, so you will need to cross a road, and head towards the right through the woods.
There is a path but it’s not very clear in places, but you will start to see steps in different places and hand rails, so as you venture on you will find your way. Walk to the top of the 365 steps, turn right and follow the Wye Valley path to Tintern.
After a mile or so of walking through a lovely woods, you will start to drop down a little and reach a gate to an open field, go through and head to the left to find the next yellow arrow badge, and keep following those as you are now heading to Tintern. Again you will keep dropping down, but you will need to keep looking on your left for a big clearing that will take you to the first historic part of this walk, the birthpace of modern industry: Abbey Tintern Furnace, first active in 1590.
After the furnace stop, it’s then a short walk carrying on in the same direction you where before you leave the woods and come out facing Tintern Abbey. There is a visitor centre you can look around, and or have some food in the pub nearby, or do what we did and have a coffee in the little cafe on the roadside called ‘The Filling Station Cafe’, great coffee and cakes.
After our little coffee break, we doubled back on ourselves a little bit by crossing the road and heading up the lane to the right of the ice cream shop, which will take us to our next historic building St Mary’s Church on Chapel Hill. The history books say that it was probably once a retreat for the Tintern Abbey monks, it has a really interesting graveyard and you can walk around it to feel the place from the inside. We stopped there for a little while, looking around and then continued up the path to the left after you leave the church walls.
This next section of walk is walking up and down through thick woods, and you pass by a little cottage selling their own Honey, Rich tried it out and said it was very nice. This is this where the route can get tricky without guidance, there are a lot of little left and right turns to carry on through the woods, but you do get to see a little waterfall feeding a great looking pond, and then all of a sudden you will arrive at the next historical location Abbey Tintern Furnace.
The rest of the walk is following the righ paths up through the beautiful woods, and you will eventually reach the top where you will need to jump over a style which then opens up into farmland. You have now left the woods behind. The journey will take you through beautiful fields with crops growing, and some of the best views around, and you will start dropping down through a little animal farm, and then eventually come out onto a road, and if you head to the left this will take you to St Arvans village. This is now not far from your starting point to complete the circular.
Once you walk through St Arvans, you can then turn left on the main road and head back towards Lower Wyndcliffe car park.
That’s it, you’re all done, back to the car and hopefully the weather has been good, and you have had a great experience.
It is worth downloading this route onto your outdooractive app, it’ll re-assure you time wise and that you’re not heading in the wrong directions. There is so much space up there and lots of alternative paths you could accidently join.
Hope you enjoy this walk, and I’d love it if you could share this post either with the social media buttons that follow you down the screen on your left, or below you in the footer. Also comments are very welcome, I love meeting new people and talking and you never know we could meet up on one of our walks.