We left Wales on Tuesday and made the short drive to Clun in Shropshire, not far from the Welsh border. On the way, we made a slight detour into Hay-on-Wye, a small village which is known for its secondhand bookshops. And what a feast that was!!! We found a guide to the bookshops, and it lists 30!! Booklovers' heaven!
A very enjoyable couple of hours browsing. Of course, there is always the problem of transporting books in our luggage and excess baggage fees, but most of the shops will ship books anywhere for you and I found a few shops that I particularly liked which have their databases available on the web and offer online ordering :-) :-) :-)
From Hay-0n-Wye, it was only an hour to Clun. This is a lovely, quiet part of the country. It's attraction for me is the descriptions that I have read in Malcolm Saville's books of course. Staying in Clun meant that we could walk to the remains of Clun Castle (or HQ3!!) Not much is left; mainly the Castle Keep, and that is currently under scaffolding. But it was a nice walk, and the view from the hill is worth the effort.
On Wednesday, we went looking for Offa's Dyke - this was originally built about 1200 years ago to keep out the Welsh. We found a section of it, and an historic marker, in Knighton and walked along a little way (the full walk is over 100km!!)
Leaving Knighton, we headed for the Long Mynd, passing many familiar village names, such as Craven Arms, Ludlow and Church Stretton. We drove up and across the Long Mynd, with a few stops to walk around and just "soak up" the view, which is spectacular. I got some of it on video, and hope that this can do it justice; still photographs certainly couldn't - although, of course I took some of them too.
From the Long Mynd, we went across to the Stiperstones - just as the clouds started to come down. We got a sight of the Stiperstones, but not much of a look before they were hidden. Not the weather to try walking to them!
We came back through Bishop's Castle; another familiar village name!
So when you saw the Stiperstone, the Devil came and sat on his chair?
ReplyDeleteShouldn't it be HQ4? HQ1 was Witchend, HQ2 Seven Gates, and HQ3 in Rye...
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that Clun Castle is HQ3. From "The secret of grey walls". The book's at home - you'll have to ask one of my kids to look it up for you. Google (found Malcolm Saville Society) thus far is supporting HQ3....
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