W9 - Cwn to Welshpool

Summary
After the 3,400 feet of climbing yesterday, this was a breeze. Only 1,400 feet and 14 miles or so. The route is weird because it avoids Montgomery (which is supposedly very pretty), and also Welshpool. Who ever devised this National Trail had no idea about commercialism or Tourism. No wonder we meet more Europeans doing it than British people. Officially the route also avoided Forden but we deviated to it because it was lunchtime and had a pub. Tonight we are staying at another farm - Tynilwyn Farm - which is excellent.

Longer version
The route starts off straight as die across the Vale of Montgomery. It is full of farms growing a mixture of crops (wheat / sweetcorn) or animals (cattle and sheep) but little else. The route is flat and the going good. We met a few Germans walking the other way but generally we saw no one. We covered the miles really quickly to the point that when 12.30 came we were ahead of our mental schedule, plus Forden had a pub !
 We should have read ahead because as soon as we left Forden it was climbing and more climbing. The path take you up in the grounds (woods) of Leighton Model Farm. This was created by a Mr Naylor in 1848 and ended in county council hands before it was sold for £1 in 2009 to a local businessman - on the understanding he had to spend £10m to bring it back up to scratch.

The wood was full of pheasants being raised for the November shoot. When I say full, we must have seen over a thousand. As we climbed even higher we got to a hill fort called Beacon Ring. This is the view


In 1953 the local council filled it with pines and beach trees to spell out ER as a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth.  Perhaps a lovely touch then but they have now grown such that you cannot get into it and the pines have grown faster so it no longer spells ER. I really do wonder about the people in the 1950's. 

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