Day 5: Montgomery to Buttington Bridge

The final day on the Offa’s Dyke Path from Montgomery saw us head directly east back to the trail before turning north towards Buttington Bridge. It was generally flat for the first few kilometres, following the hedgerows of fields. At one point, we emerged onto a busy road before turning right and beginning to climb, initially alongside fields. This then turned into a lane with quite a steep incline before entering a pine forest, where we continued to climb.

The climb culminated in us reaching Beacon Ring, which is now covered by forest. It was once an Iron Age fort. Here, rain was approaching, so we ducked into the forest and sat on a log to eat the sandwiches we had bought from the Spar in Montgomery.

After the rain and food, we left the fort and descended, mostly through fields, with the downhill sections at times seeming relentless before reaching our final destination of Buttington Bridge over the River Severn and the end of our trek on Offa’s Dyke. We still had to get to Welshpool to catch a train home, so we headed towards Welshpool. Nick, using his OS maps, got us onto a canal towpath to avoid walking on a busy road. We arrived at the station at 2.10 pm, in plenty of time to catch our train towards Birmingham, which was at 2.54 pm. We all then headed home by train.