Wye Valley: Bigsweir Bridge and Bigsweir Wood

We stayed for a pre-Christmas weekend in a lovely cottage in "The Fence", a hamlet near St Briavels in the Wye Valley. Much of our time was occupied with visiting family in the area, and the weather was doggedly grey, plus a bit cold, so it was hard to persuade the girls to leave the cottage for more than a short walk. Still, we made the best of it, and went for a short stroll down to Bigsweir Bridge, and then a bit of a wander through the woods, which are labelled Bigsweir Wood on the OS Map, but Cadora Woods on the sign at the entrance.

The cottage where we stayed had a rather picturesque old phone box outside with was very photogenic.

We started from there and followed the road down the hill to Bigsweir Bridge. This was made a little easier on this occasion as the road was closed for cable laying.

I've always had a fondness for Bigsweir Bridge, and remember it well from childhood holidays in the Wye Valley as it's the point where the Wye Valley road from Chepstow to Monmouth crosses over from the Welsh side of the river to the English side. It was bulilt in 1827, so is approaching 200 years old, and was formerly a toll bridge - the little toll house still remains on the Welsh side, now long since abandoned.

After visiting the bridge, we headed back to the English side, and back up the hill, to explore the woods a bit. There was a bit of fungal interest near the entrance to the woods, and these brown mushrooms which looked almost like mouldy russet apples were particularly intriguing - when prodded with a stick they released a cloud of yellow spores.

We made a brief stop for hot chocolate (this had formed part of the strategy of persuading Erika to leave the cottage earlier) and then followed a short section of the Offa's Dyke Path through the woods.

Bigsweir Woods is apparently a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The wood floor was here and there strewn with boulders, according to Wikipedia the rock here is a mix of Devonian Old Red Sandstone and quartz conglomerate and it seems we saw more of the latter.

Eventually we left the Offa's Dyke Path and connected through to the little network of tracks that provide access to the houses of The Fence, and returned to our cottage.