Last weekend was spent walking the Three Castles Walk, between Monmouth and Abergavenny. The attraction is three castle ruins in three picturesque villages - plus village pubs. The first leg of the walk was from Whitecastle to Grosmont. This took 6 hours at an extremely slow pace, and involved one hill rising to 400 metres. This would not be suitable for children under the age of 12, although great for dogs as very few fields contained animals, so my springer was off the lead most of the time. We stayed overnight at an excellent guest house in Grosmont, and ate at the Angel Inn. This is a pub owned by a consortium of villagers, and had a buzzy atmosphere. It was shabby (in a good way) and holds live music on some nights, although not the night we were there.
The next day we walked from Grosmont to Skenrith. We avoided heights this day and walked on roads for a lot of the time. A leisurely 4 hours later we pitched up at Skenrith, and were welcomed at the Bell Inn. This serves seriously good food, with the provenance of meat and fish listed in the restaurant. It has won numerous awards, and deservedly so based on the lunch I had. They serve light lunches every day except Sunday.
Verdict: A great weekend holiday for those wanting a strenuous walk, and who don't mind walking through herds of cows!
