Kington Walking Festival Committee took to a hillside overlooking one of the town’s most well-known landmarks, Hergest Court, to hold their latest meeting.
Eight members, who are preparing for the sixth annual festival in September, took their seats with a view on the top of the Twt, at the edge of the town.
Renowned for showing off highlights of the town and its surroundings in their committee photographs, they have previously held meetings at Hergest Ridge, Bradnor Hill and the Dolyhir Quarry.
Excitement about this year’s festival, which boasts several new walks and its first ever cycle event, is mounting, after the festival brochure was published this week.
Kington is one of the great small market towns of Britain. Situated close to the Welsh border it was for centuries a centre for cattle drovers, so a web of footpaths and byways, accessible on foot from the town centre await discovery by present day walkers.
The Offa’s Dyke Path National Trail, the Herefordshire Trail, Mortimer Trail from Ludlow, and the Wyche Way from Broadway all pass through (or start/finish) in the town.
The Kington Walking Festival, which this year takes place from September 21 until 24, is the primary annual event of the Kington Walks charity and this year the programme is bigger and better than ever with over 40 walks covering history, natural history, geology, industry, pubs, landscape and much more of Kington’s hinterland.
New this year is a two day circular walk from Clun with an overnight stay in Bishops Castle and an event for the less able bodied called ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’. In addition to the ever popular Eight Peaks Challenge with the support of Red Kite Fostering, the festival introduces the Three Peaks Challenge.
On September 24 the festival introduces the Walton Wobbler – the first ever cycle event, over about 30 miles, including the high points to the north of Kington with some stiff climbs and descents.
Whether you fancy an amble around the mills and weirs of the town, a ramble to the pub (or two, or even three) or the challenge of the 30 mile Mortimer Trail over two days, there will be something for all walkers.
If all that makes you hungry, sign up for the new foraging event with author Adele Nozedar and learn about the free food hidden in lanes and hedgerows around the town.
And if you have still got energy to burn there will also be lively music and dancing to Little Rumba.
Kington Walks was established by the Kington Chamber of Trade in 2011 to promote sustainable tourism and to help to preserve Kington’s unique atmosphere with support from Herefordshire Council and Kington Town Council. They successfully applied for ‘Walkers Are Welcome’ status for the town in the same year.
Most recently Kington Walks has become a registered charity with the sole purpose of promoting community participation in healthy recreation by encouraging and enabling people to partake in regular walks as a form of exercise in Kington and the surrounding area.
For more information and to book walks, visit kingtonwalks.org.
Learn more about Kington.