A Lovely Day for Getting Lost

 That is to say, I wasn't lost in general - I knew where I was.  What I didn't know was exactly where the public footpaths went.

I decided to head for the hills to see if I could see anything of Hen Allt Common, and it seemed to me that the best way of doing this was to climb the lane that branches off from Forest Road to the Neolithic Long Cairn, and keep going until I got to Pen yr henallt Farm.  There's a public footpath marked on my map that goes straight through the middle of the woodland on Hen Allt Common.

It was a lovely walk up the hill, with panoramic views across the Wye Valley:

On the verge, I found Autumn Crocus:

When I got to Pen yr henallt farm, I found the stile for the pathway below the Common easily enough, but I couldn't see any way markers for the path through the woods.  There was a track, just above the farm, but there were no signs on the gate to show it was a public footpath, so I didn't go along it.  Instead, I went a bit further up the lane and found a field gate where I could eat my lunch.

On the way back, I met a girl on a pony followed by a family with a small child being led on a Shetland pony.

I took the path below the farm house, and was starting to worry that there wasn't a way out at the bottom of the field when I saw the yellow way marker on another stile through the trees.  Then I headed roughly downhill and across towards Hay, over another stile.  The map showed the path going down to Wernwilk House and up to meet the path that came through Hen Allt Common woods, so I went up as far as a gate:

This is as close to Hen Allt Common as I got, I think.

From the gate, I looked across the field to see another stile leading into woodland which I guessed would take me to the Offa's Dyke Path.  Despite the yellow way markers, though, as soon as I got into the woodland on the other side of the stile I saw a notice pinned to a tree saying: "Private Land: So Get the Feck Out."

I went back over the stile and headed downhill towards Wernwilk House.

By now I was getting a bit tired of stiles - and I wasn't even going to attempt this one:

It was impossible to get through the brambles on the other side!

Fortunately, there was an open field gate just along the hedge.

There was another open field gate onto the lane that leads to Wernwilk Farm and Dan-y-Fforest, so I came out of the fields and came down to Hay on the roads from there.

I may try this walk again from another angle - if I take the Offa's Dyke Path up the hill the way markers are probably better from that side.  I did enjoy getting so high above Hay for a while - the views really are wonderful up there.