After a gap year with no anniversary travels due to the pandemic, we had a long weekend in Bishops Castle to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary. Bishops Castle was recommended to us by Harriet as a lovely place to visit and explore and it was a very good recommendation indeed. Thank-you Harriet!
On the way to Bishops Castle on St. Patrick’s day (aka our anniversary!) we stopped at Stiperstones National Nature Reserve and had a walk through some lovely, varied scenery. The 8 miles we walked was a good warm up for the weekend ahead. We were pleased when we arrived at Cross Keys Cottage in Bishops Castle and found it to be as spacious, lovely and clean as it was advertised; it’s open plan living room, enclosed garden, wifi and off road parking were all perfectly suited for our 4 night stay.
We got settled and then headed out into the town for an anniversary pub meal at The Three Tuns Inn. It was lovely there and we were all made to feel welcome – especially Stella who got spoiled with fusses and biscuits. My fish and chips hit the spot for sure. Paul’s Shropshire sausages and mash were also very palatable apparently!
Over the course of our stay, we walked mostly on parts of the Offa’s Dyke Path (total path distance 177 miles) and the Shropshire Way (total path distance 202 miles) which both passed not far from the cottage… In fact the Shropshire Way ran right along the side of it! We also touched on a bit of the Jack Mytton Way (total path length 100 miles) and the Kerry Ridgeway (total path length 15 miles). The Kerry Ridgeway is an ancient path that was used by drovers to drive livestock out of Wales into England.
One walk took us to the Bury Ditches – this is a iron age hill fort with great views in all directions. Two of our walks started from the town of Clun with its castle dominating the sky line. Another recommendation from Harriet to have cake at the Postcard Cafe in Clun was an excellent one. The Italian lemon cake and the orange almond cake were two of the tastiest cakes I’ve had in a long time.
On the way home on Monday we stopped in the small town of Montgomery just one mile across the English border into Wales. This little gem of a place was worth a wander. The town square was really interesting with a prominent town hall and black and white timber framed pub that really caught your eye. We walked up to the Norman castle and had the place to ourselves to explore. When we got home we head to New Brighton for a spot of lunch at Prezzo down on the promenade before it was time for me to travel north for work the next day.
The weather was dry and sunny all weekend – in fact it was nice enough to stop for a drink in the beer garden at the Castle Hotel on the way back from a walk one day. We remembered that we weren’t so lucky one of our anniversary weekends when we had camped and it was so cold Stella’s water bowl froze!
We all enjoyed the weekend very much. Would we go and stay again? Maybe not but not because we didn’t enjoy the cottage, village or the walks. More just through a desire to explore a different place and stay somewhere different next time!
