Border Bagging Bimbles

It’s been a bit quiet here on the Pieblog for a couple of weeks. This is because me and Mrs Pieman and LTD have been on our holidays and I don’t write blogging stuff on holidays. This isn’t because I have any deep philosophical objection, it’s because I don’t really know how to do it.

Hennyway, we went to Leintwardine, which is a small but bijoux village just inside Herefordshire and not very far from Shropshire. This is really very handy for bagging Herefordshire and Shropshire Marilyns, Humps and Tumps, which is what entertained me on the days when I wasn’t doing anything else. Thus we abandoned the dark wuthering moors of Hen Ogledd for the softer oak-clad legend-soaked slopes of the Welsh Marches.
I won’t drag out the details of each walk, except to say that there were five main ones and several unmain ones, bagged en passant whilst off to do something else. LTD enjoyed these small intervals of brambly joy.

Altogether, 23 hills were bagged for The Pieman and 25 for the Pieman’s Pooch (I’d already ticked two of them) These were:
Grimshill – A Hump in Corbett Wood, just a bit North of Shrewsbury on the way down the A49
Weaver – A Tump with a cracking view near our cottage
Evenhay – A sheep pasture near Mortimer Forest
The Coggin – Brambly wooded top near Evenhay

High Vinnals – Marilyn – highest bit of Mortimer Forest. Well populated with dogs on walks.
Bringewood – Mortimer Forest Hump ascended via an “extreme” mountain biking route
Wapley Hill – Large hillfort Marilyn in a forest
Shobdon Hill – Forested, brambly Marilyn – met Jenny Hatfield and her partner Rick. They gave me a lift back to my car. Jenny is the first woman to complete ALL of the Marilyns, a stupendous acheivement. We really are not worthy.
onwards:

Croft Ambrey Hill – National Trust land – stupidly expensive car parking and volunteers who apparently know bugger-all about the hillforted summit which has enormous and extensive ramparts AND medieaval rabbit warrens just like they have on Wapley Hill. “Oh, we’ve got nothing like that” said the very nice but ever-so-dopey volunteer.
Monks Well Hill – Just outside Hay on Wye. Ridiculously easy Tump and I camped within  a couple of hundred metres after a walk over the Black Mountains a few years ago.

Merbach Hill – A Hump on the way to Hereford for a new battery for Mrs Pieman’s car key. Cracking view of the Black Mountains.
Callow Hill – Marilyn with a tower on top – Flounders Folly, built by a Yorkshireman for no good reason other than he bloody well wanted to.
Woolverton Hill – A brambly wee shite on Wenlock Edge

Clee Barf – Now we’re talking – a proper hill at last.
Brown Clee Hill – Highest point in Shropshire. Marilyn with horses.

Titterstone Clee – Devasted Marilyn with huge holes, and electronical stuff on top. Nice views, though

Coxhall Knoll – Brambly in the extreme, but with enormous ramparts on the hill-fort at the top. Probably forty feet high at one point. I got lost on the way down. I knew I was lost by LTD’s sighing, tutting and eye-rolling. Dhuhh.
Helmeth Hill – wooded Tump at Church Stretton. Woodland Trust path from the bottom to the top. We love the Woodland Trust. Very steep.


Hope Bowdler Hill – Rounded, misty Hump with rocky tors. Steep

Caer Caradoc Hill – Best hill of the lot. A Marilyn with craggy tors and a hillfort. The sun came out. Super stuff. I’d done it before though.

The Lawley – Hump just South of Caer Caradoc. Long, thin ridge. Quite steep with superb views.
Shelderton Hill – A ploughed crop field near our cottage. A Tump.

Bradnor Hill – Marilyn with a golf course at Kington. Very foggy. Couldn’t see a thing.  Ended up climbing barbed wire fences during a fracture in the Earth Time and Space continuum which caused some temporary misalignment of my navigational senses.
Rushock Hill – A Tump on Offa’s Dyke. I did this before with Dawn on a backpacking trip.

Herrock Hill – A big, rounded Tump with Offa’s Dyke as a high necklance overlooking Wales.
And that was that.
We’re back now. The knipemobile is currently broken, so there may be another short hiatus. I need to throw money at it. Or I need a new car…