I took the Hay Ho Bus to Peterchurch, chatting along the way to an older lady who regaled me with stories of her romantic entanglements over the years!
There are several bus stops along the main road through Peterchurch, and the last one is at the crossroads where the side road heads off up the hill, past Fairfield School, to Urishay. That's where I had decided to go. It's years since I visited Urishay Chapel, and on the map I'd seen a standing stone marked, further up the hill.
It took me roughly an hour to get to Urishay Chapel - the last hill nearly killed me in the heat, so I was very glad to see the chapel at the top!
It's changed since I last saw it - the Friends of Friendless Churches renovated it in 2009, re-roofing the east end, and building buttresses against the west wall, with a wall across the nave enclosing the roofed section. I sat on the side wall at the west end, near the base of the font, to have my picnic lunch.
Inside the chapel it was quite cold and damp, and they keep a book there with more information about the chapel. It was the first chapel to be built in Herefordshire for a castle garrison, in the 12thC.
I also picked up a leaflet for the Friends of Friendless Churches - their website is www.friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk and they take over redundant churches and preserve them. They run a joint membership with the Ancient Monuments Society, which is concerned with a wider variety of historic buildings.
The castle is just behind the chapel, but was not accessible. There was a notice on the farm gate saying "No Unauthorised Persons Beyond This Point". There was a pretty good view of the ruins from the chapel though:
The ruins only date from around the 17thC - and are only ruins because the owner in 1921 took the roof off because he didn't want to maintain the building any more! Before that, in 1908, one of the wood panelled rooms from the castle was sold to Baker University in Kansas, where it was rebuilt and is still used today to display some of their collection of Biblical art and books.
Then I headed further up into the hills, eventually finding myself on a dead end road. I crossed a little stream and went up the other side, and finally, in a field:
I thought that was well worth the long walk. It's on private property, so I didn't get any closer than that. Back home, I looked it up on the Modern Antiquarian website. It is known as the Wern Derys stone (that's the name of the farm), or the King Stone, and it stands on fairly flat ground looking out towards the Black Mountain ridge. Craswell is just across the valley from there, and the Offa's Dyke Path runs along the top of the ridge. It's the tallest standing stone in Herefordshire, and was re-erected in 1989.
On the way back down the hill, I came across this rather astonishing flower by a stile:
I got back down into Peterchurch in plenty of time for the last bus back to Hay, (the return ticket was £7.75), so I used the time wisely by going to the pub.
I needed something to drink by that time! I think I walked around 8 miles.
I hadn't been into the Boughton Arms since I first came to Hay. At that time it was run by a pleasant Italian chap - my ex-husband spent some time in Italy, so they got talking. Now it's got a big TV for sports, and a snooker table, and several trophies on display, and the only real ale is Butty Bach, among the tall taps for Carling and Guinness.
I moved on from there, once my legs could be persuaded to move again, to the Nags Head at the end of the village. There were more people in there, and they all seemed to know each other. I had a half of Lost Fossil brown ale from Wye Valley, which was very pleasant, and one of the regulars asked me where I'd come from. When I said I'd been up to Urishay, he said there were some hard-working farmers up that valley.
"No they're not, Rob," said a man at the bar. "You're not up there no more."
Another couple in the bar were very impressed by the new Gibbons' butchers in Hay.
And then it was time to head for the bus stop, and back to Hay.
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