This is a relatively straightforward walk, although it may be a bit on the long side for some. The walk is based on looping through the two bridges and along both sides of the Wye, to make a very satisfying circular walk.

SUMMARY

• Grade: Easy – Fairly long and some muddy patches
• Length: 9 miles
• Key Features: Two elegant cast iron suspension bridges over the Wye; St Mary’s church at Foy; good views – especially over Ross
• Refreshments: None – some good places for picnics though.

For an interactive version of this map click the image above or here

Route

Park near Strangford ( north from the A49, two and a half miles from Ross). Take the track which goes across a disused railway and follow the signs to Strangford farm buildings.

Follow yellow way marks through the farmyard and across fields, until you reach a metal gate on your right in the hedge, and another yellow mark to show that this is where you too turn right.  Follow the path down the field, and as you reach the farm you want to go left following a stone wall rather than going into the farmyard (if you do that you’ll find you can’t get out!).

Turn right at the asphalted road, and when you get to St Mary’s church at Foy, go left around the church exiting in the left hand corner – by a fantastic old yew tree and a bench.  There a path takes you diagonally down to the river.

Follow the river bank until you get to the Foy suspension bridge.  Go over this, and then turn left down the lane.  You will find yourself  walking through the hamlet of Hole in the Wall, (the name may be a corruption of ‘hole-stone’ the literal Norman name for the hamlet) and by a big PGL centre.  Stay on the lane until you pass a raised tin building on the opposite side of the river (you’ll know it when you see it!) and reach a wooden footpath sign down to the left.

You take this to the riverbank and continue along the bank for some distance, until you emerge at a road.  Here, you turn left over a bridge and a few yards along turn left again along the signposted path.  Continue following the yellow arrows, until you reach a farmyard – which was extremely muddy on the day that we were walking.  Also the yellow arrows disappeared.  Anyway, once you have somehow navigated the farm, you come to a lane which you go straight over, into another farm yard area, which you go straight through taking the footpath on to a field.

Carry on for a third of a mile or so, and on your right you will see a blue footpath arrow, which you follow.  At one point the path goes underneath a disused railway.  You eventually emerge onto a lane, and keep going in the same direction of travel until you reach Poulstone Court, where you turn left downhill.

When you get to the bottom of the hill, just past two houses, you will see a footpath on your left which takes you down to the second bridge over the river at Sellack.  Go over the bridge, and straight on to Sellack church, and left on to the asphalted road.  At a T junction turn left, continue along until you come to another road on your left signposted to Strangford, which you take back to your car.

The walk

So – the twin bridges of the title. In walk D1 there’s some background information about the second bridge you cross over – the one at Sellack. This was built by Louis Harper, and the first bridge was built by Rowell and Co – both apparently prolific specialist footbridge builders in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Engineering isn’t really my thing, but these bridges have an extraordinary elegance and this combined with the superb setting makes them unforgettable.

It wasn’t a particularly bright day when we went walking, but this gave the views of Ross an ethereal quality.  There was a sense that spring was lurking under the surface waiting to push its way up the moment it got a chance, although only the snowdrops had ventured out so far.  Dense rosettes of clinger were concertina-ing themselves for action, and dead nettles were tentatively exploring the outside world. In one area the farmer had left brassicae and sunflowers from the previous season as field borders, and here there was a lot of bird action. Not only birds, in the middle of the field we were startled by a hare which sprang up from a few yards away (he had been totally invisible) and leapt across the field to safety.