FINE VIEWS, INTERESTING landforms and good wildlife sites are easy to find in the Lower Wye, but it may be helpful to include here a summary of the best and most accessible. Additional information about their reserves can be obtained from the county wildlife trusts and the Forestry Commission. The Ordnance Survey 1 : 25,000 Outdoor Leisure sheet 14 covers most of the Lower Wye, but Explorer 189 is needed towards Hereford, and Explorer 154 brings in the Caldicot Level. Some sites are drive-in reserves, but most require some walking. Be encouraged that one is never more than a kilometre or two from a public road, but be aware that much of the ground around the gorge is steep, rugged and potentially dangerous.
The Upper Gorge can be reached from Symonds Yat and several other points. The Wye Valley long-distance footpath passes along the valley floor, the hinterland can be reached along numerous forestry tracks, and the Wye can be crossed by the Biblins Bridge and the hand-ferry at Symonds Yat. Tracks into woodland on the Great Doward and Little Doward (Woodland Trust) provide access to grassland reserves, the tops of the Seven Sisters Rocks, Kings Arthur’s Cave and the Madawg Rock Shelter. The RSPB maintains a peregrine watch on Symonds Yat Rock.
The Lower Gorge is also outstanding. The Welsh side has the fine woods on the Wyndcliff and Blackcliff, both accessible from Forestry Commission car parks. It is still possible to walk the Piercefield walks out of Chepstow along the Piercefield Cliff to the Lover’s Leap and up the steps to the Eagle’s Nest viewpoint on the Wyndcliff, from which the great meander of the Wye can be viewed with the Severn beyond. An inconspicuous track leads down to the overgrown brackish Martridge Meadow and the entrance to the Otter Hole. On the Gloucestershire side, the Lancaut and Ban-y-Gor reserves of the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust give access off the Lancaut road to cliff woodland, the base of Wintour’s Leap, Pen Moel quarry screes and salt marsh on the muddy banks of the Wye.
The gorges provide easy access to the best woods on Carboniferous Limestone, but there are also fine woods on other strata. On the Woolhope Dome much of Haugh Wood is plantations, but its rides are open and full of butterflies, and it leads through to the Pentaloe Brook and Bears and Timbridge Woods. Access is from the central Forestry Commission car park. Lea and Pagets Wood is a diverse mixed ash wood managed as a Herefordshire Trust reserve. Between Monmouth and Tintern, the best examples of woodland on sandstone are the Hudnalls and Bigsweir Wood. The contiguous Cadora Woods is being restored from plantations by the Woodland Trust. All three are crossed by the Offa’s Dyke long-distance footpath. Highbury Wood NNR stands above Cadora Woods and can be reached off the ancient Coxbury Lane. The Woodland Trust also manages much of the fine woodland on the Kymin and around the Fiddlers Elbow. On the Welsh side, Cleddon Shoots is best visited from above after heavy rains. The exceptionally base-poor woodland at Parkhouse Rocks can be reached by public footpath. On the steep Brownstone scarp, Croes Robert Wood is a Gwent Trust reserve with a small car park.
Turning to grasslands, the Hereford Trust maintains three fine examples of floodplain meadow. Lugg Meadows is accessible from their headquarters in a seventeenth-century timber-framed house. Lower down the Lugg, a visit to Hampton Meadows requires a walk across fields from Hampton Bishop. Upriver, the fine remnants of Letton Lake at the Sturts and Waterloo are close to a lane.
Limestone grassland is hard to find. The most extensive example, Brockwell Farm, south of Caerwent, is a Gwent Trust reserve. The Herefordshire Trust has several small reserves on Common Hill at Fownhope and the Great Doward, but these are always on the brink of becoming overgrown. The only good examples of grassland associated with the Wye cliffs are on the Seven Sisters.
Neutral grassland, sens. lat., is widespread. On the fringes of the gorge, Trellech plateau and the Dean it remains fairly common, mostly as small, privately owned fields. Most of the best examples are accessible, however, as commons or nature reserves. On the Woolhope Dome, Broadmoor Common and Checkley village green are crossed by roads, and Joanshill Farm (a Plantlife reserve) is accessible from Haugh Wood. In the intensively cultivated country southwest of Hereford, Honeymoor and Littlemarsh Commons can be entered from adjacent roads. Further south, Garway village green is a floriferous meadow where it is not a football pitch. In Monmouthshire, the Gwent Trust has meadow reserves at Pentwyn Farm, New Grove Meadow and Springdale Farm, all with exceptional displays of orchids and other flowers. In Gloucestershire, the Trust maintains Ridley Bottom as a secluded reserve near Tidenham. St Briavels and Hewelsfield Common is now an extensive tract of small fields, most of which still have semi-natural grassland. Together with the Monmouthshire Meadows Group, the local Parish Grasslands Project has set up display boards at St Briavels Castle, the Brockweir village shop, Tintern railway station and Trellech surgery.
Acid grassland and heath is largely confined to commons. Garway Hill is still well grazed and open, but Merbach Hill, Ewyas Harold Common, Coppet Hill, Staunton Meend and Gray Hill have been invaded by scrub. Fortunately, some open ground remains and successful efforts are being made to enlarge and manage the open ground, which also helps visitors to appreciate the magnificent views. These commons also retain small patches of heather among the acid grassland, but not enough to describe them as heathland. The nearest approach to lowland heath is at Poors Allotment, Tidenham, where a constant and so far successful battle is being fought against gorse and tree invasion. The other fine example is Cleddon Bog, the largest remnant of the Trellech heaths, and the only extensive acid mire. Encouraging efforts are being made by the Forestry Commission to restore heath and bog at Tidenham Park, Beacon Hill and the fringes of Cleddon Bog. The boundaries of all these sites are accessible from minor roads. All provide fine short walks in relatively wild country, though progress across the Molinia tussocks of Cleddon Bog is difficult.
With one exception, marshes have been reduced to tiny fragments. The exception is Magor Marsh, a Gwent Trust reserve, where lakes, reedbeds, wet meadows and a few unpolluted reens can be seen from lanes and boardwalks. The Hereford Trust has a reserve at Coughton Marsh, but this is really an alder wood.
The Wye and Monnow are both readily accessible from footpaths, though not along their entire lengths. Below Tintern the Wye can be reached only at a few points, and they all require careful attention to safety. The best riverside walks include a circular route south from Goodrich around Welsh Bicknor and through the upper gorge between Symonds Yat and Monmouth. Much the best approach is to hire a canoe and paddle with the flow from Ross down to Symonds Yat.
Coastal habitats line the Severn and the lowest reaches of the Wye. Lancaut reserve provides access to examples of the latter. Sedbury Cliff can be reached at the terminus of the Offa’s Dyke Path, and this gives access, not only to a wonderful mixture of cliff woodland, freshwater marsh on cliff seepages, extensive grazed salt marsh and the tidal mud banks, but also to fossil beds, tufa deposits and other geological excitements. Beachley Point brings one to mud flats, beds of seaweed, sandy banks, and a sight of Chapel Rock and the mouth of the Wye. Brackish grassland on the Monmouthshire side of the Wye mouth can be reached from Bulwark. Fragments of salt marsh can also be reached at Black Rock. At Goldcliff decaying putcher ranks and ancient peat beds can be seen among the layered muds.
The Lower Wye is full of fine geological exposures, of which the most accessible is Ross Cliff. The best guide is still William Dreghorn’s book, which covers the country south of Ross. These overlap with a set of landscape and geology trails by the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Earth Heritage Trust, which cover the Wye Gorge, Ross-on-Wye, Woolhope Dome and Hampton Bishop.
Finally, the best viewpoints. In truth, there are fine views everywhere, but the best are breathtaking. Symonds Yat Rock is the most popular, closely followed by the view over Monmouth from the Kymin and the panorama from the Eagle’s Nest on the Wyndcliff. The views from Coppet Hill, Garway Hill, Coles Tump near Orcop Hill and Merebach Hill are more than worth the walk. Garway Hill permits an aerial view of Kentchurch deer park. The walk to the top of Gray Hill affords not just a complete panorama of the Severn estuary, but also a chance to see the prehistoric stones. Among the many lesser known and more intimate vantage points, my favourite is one of the Seven Sisters rocks, from where there is a sweep over the Biblins, Lady Park Wood, the Little Doward – and a buzzard’s view of the Wye as it passes through the gorge.