Radnor Hills and the Border

Radnor Forest sits in the middle like a plug and the settlement goes round it. East of it, the Lugg and the Teme run out into Herefordshire and Shropshire through low hills that carry more sheep than people.

Presteigne and Knighton are the towns, both of them on the border, both facing east. New Radnor, laid out as a planned medieval town below its castle mound, never grew into the county town it was meant to be.

What to look for

Offa's Dyke. Knighton takes its Welsh name, Tref-y-clawdd, from it, and the National Trail runs through the town.

The language line, and its absence. Radnorshire lost Welsh earlier and more completely than any other Welsh county. Place names remain Welsh; almost nothing else does. Understanding why is one of the more useful things to carry round this region.

Dispersed parishes. Places like Beguildy and Bleddfa have a church and a scatter of farms and no village at all, which is the older pattern and one that survived here because nothing came along to change it.

Timber framing. The border building tradition crosses the line freely and the black-and-white houses of Herefordshire continue several miles into Wales.