Route
Waypoints
Blackbrook Road to New Houses
Cross over to take the footpath opposite, passing through a wide wooden gate to join a stone track heading uphill. Some distance up the hill, pass through another gate which sits alongside the gated entrance to Tan-y-Wal.
At the top of the slope the track swings left passing the gates to Gwysaney Hall which you can see across the lawns to the right. Gwysaney Hall is Jacobean in the main having been built in 1603, but its wonderful front door bears the date 1640 and the initials RAD. Apparently the Davies-Cooke family, owners for the last 450 years, can retrace their origins to the royal house of Powys possibly as far back as 1200. The financial pressures of the estate forced the family to put it on the market in 2010.
Keep straight ahead down a short slope and then follow the track as it swings right with open fields to the left and the fenced grounds of the hall on the right. Pass through a gateway alongside a cattle grid, with a pair of cottages called New Houses to the left.
Marks
Rhosesmor Road to Soughton
Turn left along this lane with Black Brook running once again down to the right. As the road swings hard left, turn right onto a footpath signed to Soughton. The path is part of Wat's Dyke Way.
Wat's Dyke is a 40 mile long earthwork running through the northern Welsh Marches from Basingwerk Abbey on the River Dee estuary, passing to the east of Oswestry and onto Maesbury in Shropshire. The date of the construction of the dyke is much disputed, but a likely context for construction is around 820AD, when the Mercian King, Coenwulf, was fighting against a resurgent Welsh threat.
Cross the footbridge and stile and follow the grass path ahead staying close to the fence on the right. As the grassy bank on the left gives way, keep ahead along the right-hand edge of this field, with a number of electrically fenced horse paddocks to the left and the stables to the right.
Continue on this rough path as it climbs fairly steeply to reach a stile into a sheep pasture. Cross this stile, and keep ahead on the path between the grass banks. Two further stiles lead you through a small enclosure containing a lake and out into a wide tree-lined grass track. Pass a couple of properties on the right, after which a final stile takes you back out to Rhosesmor Road.
Turn left along the lane and follow it to the end, taking care of any traffic. At the T-junction with the main road, cross over with care and turn right along the pavement. Take the first road turning on the left, signed to Soughton Hall and Alltami. After passing a cottage on the left and the fenced woodland, Coed Andrew, on the right, turn right through a kissing gate to join a fenced path. The path dog-legs right and then left through a kissing gate and continues to emerge out to a residential road within Soughton.
Start to Blackbrook Road
Leave the pub car park onto Raikes Lane and turn right along the pavement. Take the first road on the right, directly opposite the civic centre. Follow this quiet lane for some distance, taking care of any traffic as there are no pavements.
In the gaps within the hedge on the left you'll have great views of the rolling hills to the south. After passing Blackbrook Farm on the left, you'll emerge to a T-junction with Blackbrook Road. If you glance to the left you'll see the small stream, Black Brook, from which the road takes its name.