[1] Leave the car park past the racecourse description board and take the track heading in a WSW direction. After a couple of minutes walking you will come to the ruins of the grandstand and the track of the racecourse (A). The hilltop formed the Oswestry racecourse where the English and Welsh squirearchy held an annual race week from early in the 1700s until 1848. Before the races the road that separated the north and south commons was barred to stop carriages and other vehicles from interfering with the running. Turf was laid over the road surface to prevent the horses from slipping. Most of the famous families from the Oswestry area were involved in the races during the racecourse’s history, including ‘Mad Jack Mytton’. The main event was the Sir Watkins William Wynn Cup. The race was normally two circuits of the figure of eight course (4 miles). This was accompanied by ‘much drinking, betting, begging and picking of pockets’. The race week included many other social events in and around Oswestry. Spectators sat in the grandstand, the remains of which can be seen on this walk, or on the banks that surrounded the track.
Head south along the racecourse past the grandstand towards a two headed horse sculpture (entitled Janus). Then take the Offa’s Dyke Path (symbol: an acorn) and Shropshire Way (symbol a Buzzard) past the sculpture and over the stile by the side of the gate to go down into the woods. On leaving the woods you will find a meadow on your left and magnificent views over the Shropshire plain including views of Rodney’s Pillar and The Wrekin. Continue on the Offa’s Dyke Path past the meadow and head down into the woods. At the waymark post just after the entrance to the woods continue along the Offa’s Dyke Path. After a couple of minutes walk you will see the remains of a dry stone wall. Turn left for a few metres and you will find another path marker. Continue to follow the Offa’s Dyke Path/Shropshire Way with a right turn followed in a few metres with a left turn (GR 255298).
[2] Continue to follow the Offa’s Dyke Path/Shropshire Way through the woods. In 500m you will come to an Offa’s Dyke marker post with a track forking off to the left; ignore this track and continue on the Offa’s Dyke Path/Shropshire Way (just after the track, look out for a carved wooden mushroom on the left of the path). Continue ahead for a further 600m with the path descending more steeply now until you encounter a T-junction of paths (GR 255286). Take the Offa’s Dyke Path/Shropshire Way to the right and after about 10m follow the path as it forks off to the left steeply down hill and continue until you reach a junction with three other paths (GR 254286).
[3] At this point leave the Offa’s Dyke Path/Shropshire Way and take the first path on the left running approximately level. After about 5 minutes the path begins to bear round to the left and climb slightly. After a further 5 minutes the path makes a sharp right turn by a waymark post and then joins a track with a notice "Welcome to Wood Cottage" on your right. Go left here then right onto the tarck leading to Keeper's Cottage. Keep going straight ahead along a forest road. After a couple of minutes a gateway onto a public road will come into view (GR 259283).
[4] Approximately 10m before the gateway take the faint waymarked track up through the trees to the left heading towards a stile into a field. Cross the stile and head slightly left to a stile that you can see in the middle of the fence on the other side of the field. Cross this stile and head slightly left past the large oak tree in the middle distance, then head straight ahead close to a large tree stump, between limes & a sycamore tree to a sycamore with waymarks on the surrounding fence and past beech & and an oak and towards the ruins of the walled garden you will see in the distance, until you hit an old dry stone wall with barbed wire either side of it just right of a gateway, do not go through(GR 265289).
[5] Turn left and follow the field boundary up and round, turning left at the top by the wood. Ignore the gate into the woods and continue for a further couple of minutes along the field boundary with the wood on your right until you meet a gate into a field (GR 263289). Go through the gate and follow the field boundary up and round to the right (with the wood and hedge on your right). At the corner of the field turn left and continue to follow the field boundary to the top of the field where you will encounter a stile onto a track (GR 261291).
[6] Cross the stile and track and then the stile opposite into the field. Head slightly right towards a stile on the other side of the field heading into a wood. Cross this stile and the wooden footbridge and then follow the path through the woods heading generally left. After about 50m the path swings right and goes over a plank bridge and stile into a field. Follow the field boundary round to the right for about 150m to a stile through the hedge. Go over the stile and another plank bridge into a field (GR259294).
[7] Head diagonally left across the field aiming slightly to the left of the modern house (Bwlch) you will see in the distance. As you cross the top of the slope in the field you will see some older cottages to the left of the modern house; start to head towards these. At the edge of the field cross the stile (along side a gate) onto a track and then directly across the stile into the grounds of the cottages. Head diagonally right to go through the gate and then go past the entrance to the cottages up to the road (cattle grid at road entrance) (GR 258297).
[8] Take the stile opposite the entrance to the road and go up past the barn with the barn on your right over another stile and the hedge on your left. Keep heading up the field and past the now defunct stile where a fence has been removed. Then a further 50m to another stile which you should cross. Keep straight ahead with a wood on your left. After another 50m you will encounter a dry stone wall with a kissing gate on your left into the wood. (GR 257301).
[9] Go through the gate. then go straight ahead through the wood down through the avenue of the trees until you encounter a broad track (Offa’s Dyke Path) that you went down on the outward leg of the walk in step 1. Turn right to return to the start of the walk passing the Janus horse sculpture and the ruins of the grandstand.