Garway Hill is a modest elevation (just 366m/1,200ft) in the south-western corner of Herefordshire, miles off most ramblers’ radars. Theirs is the loss, for this bald summit offers unparalleled views across these Welsh Marches, deep into the mountainous parts of South and Mid Wales, to the Shropshire Hills and across to the Malverns.
[1] Start facing the inn (SO464227), turn right. Turn first left and walk this lane into the valley at Trolway. Keep left at the junction and rise steeply to reach another tarred lane coming in from the right.
[2] Use the lower of two field gates on the left, then go ahead to use the corner stile. Walk the left field-edge up to a stile into a lane, along which turn left. Remain with this to the next junction, near the former Sun Inn. Bear right here towards Pontrilas; lovely views unfolding across this tranquil corner of Herefordshire.
Beyond a sharp-right bend, pass above a red-brick bungalow before reaching the next left turn, marked Yew Tree Corner. Turn up this tarred lane, which becomes a farm track, bending right outside the farmhouse boundary. At the nearby waymark post, fork left to a stile onto Garway Hill and head slightly left for the hilltop structure, a WW2 radio tracking station.
Views through 360 degrees from this ancient common-land are astonishing: 70 miles across at least seven counties on crystal clear days. Medieval field-systems corrugate the slopes, whilst wild birds and butterflies abound.
[3] At the trig point pillar, find the face with the baseplate. Facing this, go left on the grassy path to a small patch of gorse in a hundred yards. Fork left here on a path which curves gradually left (southeast), keeping ahead over a junction of paths. Head downhill just to the left of a nearby lower knoll crowned with firs and oaks and with a hollow developing on your left. This route will bring you to a dirt track opposite the gate for ‘Little Adawent’. Turn left to pass the hamlet’s notice-board here at White Rocks. The track becomes tarred and crosses a cattle-grid, before eventually turning sharp left at Keeper’s Cottage.
[4] Obey the fingerpost on the right and drop down the left-hand edge of the pasture to a stile and brook. Follow the waymarks which take you right over two stiles, then up the left edge of a field. Near the top corner look right for a stile a hundred yards along the hedgerow. Use this and walk ahead, hedge on your right, to the slight kink and a stile. Tackle this then head left of the diagonally-opposite corner to another stile. Climb it and keep left along the slope-top to a stile above a farmhouse, then another leading onto the driveway. Walk to the lane.
[5] Go left, then right down Church Lane and turn left in 150 yards to reach the church.
This quirky little building, with its solid detached tower, incorporates one of only half-a-dozen churches in Britain established by the Knights Templar. Some traces of this circular church (based on sepulchres in the Holy Land where the Templars fought their crusades) can be seen outside the current north wall of the nave. This little old monastic community also had a columbarium, or dovecote, which can be seen (on private land) beyond the neighbouring old Church Farm. Strangely, it’s said to have 666 nesting holes.
Use the handgate at the eastern end of the churchyard (just above the greenhouse and by the old village spring) and pass to the left of the ruinous tennis court to a stile and footbridge. Beyond it, climb the steep pasture, passing just left of an old hedge, to a stile through the hedge at the top of the bank. Climb this and turn left, use a field gate and aim right of the cottage to a lane. Turn right to return to The Garway Moon inn.