WE’RE venturing south to the border country near Monmouth this week for a walk in wooded, hilly countryside, with good views of two very different castles.

The first is Tregate Castle, or what remains of it anyway. It was a motte-and-bailey castle, built to guard a crossing point of the river Monnow, or Aon Mynwy.The motte still stands and it’s a prominent structure, 53 metres across, best seen from above, as you walk along the lane which runs from Welsh Newton to Llanrothal (point four).

Other earthworks also survive, including a bailey, some terraces, traces of a ditch and three fishponds. Evidence has been found of a shell keep, now long gone, on top of the motte. It’s likely that the stones from the keep were used to construct the adjacent farmhouse, believed to date from the 13th century.

Pembridge Castle (point five) is more spectacular, with all the attributes of a child’s picture-book castle, including a keep, round towers, curtain walls, a gatehouse and a moat. The earliest surviving part is the keep, which dates from circa 1200. It was originally called Newland Castle but was renamed after it came into the ownership of the Pembridge family, one-time lords of the village of Pembridge in north Herefordshire. The castle was held for Charles I in the English Civil War and was besieged but was repaired afterwards and then extensively restored in the early 20th century.

FACTFILE START Unsigned road junction by post box on A466, Hereford to Monmouth road, approximately half-a-mile north of Welsh Newton, marked Elephant and Castle on OS Explorer map; grid ref SO496189.

LENGTH 9¼ miles/15km.

MAPS OS Explorer OL14, OS Landranger 161/162.

TERRAIN Woodland, plantation and pasture with a few slopes, including one steep descent.

FOOTPATHS Mostly problem-free except that waymarking is poor or absent in a few places, especially in Buckholt Wood, where some of the paths are also rather overgrown.

STILES 14.

PARKING Roadside, near junction.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT Bus or train to Hereford, then Stagecoach 36 Hereford-Monmouth service, Mon-Sat only; herefordbus.info or 01432 260211, nationalrail.co.uk or 08457 484950.

REFRESHMENTS None.

ORDNANCE SURVEY Worcester News recommends the use of OS Landranger Maps, your ideal passport to navigating the countryside. This walk is based on OS Landranger 161/162.

DIRECTIONS 1 Two lanes leave the road at the junction – take the southbound one, soon passing Tremahaid.

Keep straight on at Gwenherrion Cross.

When you reach Welsh Newton Common turn right by a phone box on a woodland path then shortly turn right where waymarked.

At Newton House cross to the far side of the garden, bearing very slightly left to a stile (the middle one of three) giving access to Newton Wood. Descend to a stile and gate in the lower left fence corner then proceed downhill by a field edge to a junction.

Turn left, walking through several fields then past a house and duckery at Mill Farm.

Turn right at a junction, following the farm access track down to the road.

2 Turn right, then after a few paces cross to an unsigned path which climbs to the right, into Buckholt Wood.

Keep straight on when the path levels out, ignoring branching paths, then straight on again at a five-ways junction.

Turn right at the next junction, then left at another, then immediately right.

After passing through a brambly section, keep straight on at a waymarked junction, soon descending a steep slope on narrow, overgrown steps.

When you reach another junction descend through brambly overgrowth until you see a clearer path bearing right.

Follow this, guided by strands of yellow sticky tape fixed to tree branches, and descend gradually to a stile.

Proceed through a lightly wooded area to Manson Lane and turn right.

3 Pass some cottages (Oldshop on the map) then take a path on the left which is easily followed until you meet a farm track where the waymarking comes to a temporary end.

Pass to the right of a barn, go through a gate into a field, straight on along the edge and through a gate in the next corner, where waymarking resumes.

Walk along the base of a wooded slope, turn left when you meet a track, pass Upper Cwm Farm and climb uphill to meet a lane.

4 Turn left, descending gradually towards the Monnow valley. Turn left at a junction, signed to Tregate.

When you reach the valley floor, walk past the Tregate turn to the river Monnow. Without crossing the river, turn right on a path which loosely follows it upstream.

Ignore a branching path after 200m and proceed through fields to Llanrothal Church.

Go diagonally through the churchyard then proceed to a lane – the map shows the path taking a diagonal line, but an L-shaped field-edge route is waymarked on the ground.

Whichever you choose, turn left at the lane.

5 Take a track on the right, soon after the entrance to Llanrothal Court, and follow it uphill to a house called Trythel.

Turn right behind the house then go left uphill, by the left edge of park-like pasture, to a junction by a barn.

Turn left, passing to the right of the barn, and follow a fence to a gate.

Walk along the other side of the fence then cross back again when you see a stile.

Turn right, crossing another stile, then go diagonally left to meet a lane.

Turn right again and follow the lane that takes you past Pembridge Castle and on to Pleck Farm.

Take a path on the left, walking along a field edge until a waymark directs you diagonally to a corner.

Join on to the Monmouth Road and then turn to the left in order to find yourself back at the starting point where your walk first began.