Country:
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Start : Clock tower, Kington (HR5 3BQ) Grid ref. SO 295 565
(S/E) From the clock tower walk West along Mill Street passing the Museum and primary school on the right, followed by the football ground on the left.
(1) Enter the recreation ground through the big iron gates and continue straight on the wide tarmac path. Leave the recreation ground through the kissing gate and enter the grounds of Lady Hawkins School. Follow the waymarked path through the school fields along the line of oak trees. Leave the school grounds through a kissing gate into a small field and follow the path through another kissing gate.
(2) To the left you will see a natural depression which used to be a pond fed by water leaking from a nearby mill run. In the winter it sometimes becomes a pond again. The end of the path is marked by another kissing gate. Pass through.
(3) Immediately turn right onto the road. Walk along the road for about 125m then take the footpath on the left over a stile with a finger post bearing the number 35. Follow the field hedge on the right for about 100m, then bear right through some undergrowth and leave the field over a stile onto a tarmac lane. On your right hand side is a white cottage.
(4) Turn left along the lane and follow it for about 300m and over a cattle grid alongside a finger post bearing the name Hayward Common. There is also a small sign pointing in the direction of Park Wood. Continue on the track, cross another cattle grid and enter Park Wood. After a short distance there is a cottage on the left.
Take the right hand track at this point. (There is a notice about keeping to the public rights of way as the path is crossing the land of Hergest Croft.)
(5) On reaching a junction of footpaths marked by a finger post, take the right hand path and follow it past an old quarry to your right. You will notice the woodland changes from broadleaf to predominantly conifer as you continue in an upwards direction for another 300m or so to the edge of the wood. Leave the wood through a timber farm gate and keep straight ahead for 50m to a metal farm gate.
(6) Go through this gate turning sharp right on to the track. This is the start of a permissive path and there is a map on a post at this point. Follow this path, keeping left, through a kissing gate into a large field. Go through another kissing gate and keep straight on up the slope towards a kissing gate on the horizon.
Leave this field through this kissing gate and bear right keeping the fence line to your right. From here you will have an excellent view back across Kington and the Black Mountains beyond. Ahead you will see Bradnor Hill. After about 150m you will see a lone yew tree. Continue past this to the kissing gate which marks the other end of the permissive path and has a map displayed on it. The wide grassy path in front of you is the Offa's Dyke National Trail.
(7) This is the point to choose between returning to Kington or turn left to the loop on Hergest Ridge.
To take the loop on Hergest Ridge, turn left along Offa's Dyke Path climbing steadily for about 1 Km until you come to a crossroads of grassy paths. Take the left hand path and follow it round the complete oval circuit that was once a racetrack. Keeping the group of monkey puzzle trees to your right as you round the top of the racetrack, you will pass a large rock known as the Whetstone, also on your right. On returning to the crossroads, retrace your steps downhill.
To return to Kington, turn right now heading out onto a tarmac lane. Just before the gate there is an information board about Hergest Ridge Common. Follow the lane downhill to the end, passing the entrance to Hergest Croft Gardens on the right and their car park on the left.
(8) At the end of the lane, cross over the road going straight ahead and enter the grounds of St Mary's Church – if you have time the church is well worth a visit. Pass on either side of the church to leave the churchyard through the 18th century lych gate.
(9) Turn downhill, following Church Street back to the junction with Mill Street where the clock tower is located. (S/E)
Walker
Moderate 
Association or club
AONB
