FRONTIER WILDLIFE

Offa commissioned his dyke, apparently to demarcate the border. It was aggressively sited, giving surveillance of and at a disadvantage to, Wales. Its breadth reached 27–30 metres in places where it included a counterscarp bank, ditch, main bank (probably stone-capped) and quarries to the rear. Trade and transit were controlled, and it may have been patrolled by soldiers.

This was an epic project. Offa and his military-trained men probably planned the dyke, while the graft was done by conscripted labourers from all over Mercia. They used

TOP The ramparts of the early Iron Age hillfort Old Oswestry ABOVE King Oswald’s death and defeat in 642 at Oswestry (1920s lithograph)

There is a greater density of ancient pedunculate oaks along the border than anywhere else in Britain. These grandiose, gnarled and spectacular trees are living museums. Red grouse inhabit the Clwydian hills and, on Ruabon Moor, black grouse startle from the heather like inland puffins. In autumn, fieldfares, blackbirds and thrushes hustle for berries under the Eglwyseg crags, with redwings from Scandinavia. Mute swans breed on Montgomery Canal where water voles can be seen. Spy yellowhammers on upland grassland and lapwings in the waterlogged farmland around Llantilio Crossenny. iron-tipped picks, spades and shovels, and piled earth into baskets, while iron rods and fire were used to quarry stone for retaining walls and facings.

Despite the dyke, the Welsh-English border remained disputed and a war zone for centuries. Although peaceful of late, it remains relevant. This was palpable in 2020 when travellers from England were refused entry into Wales due to differing Covid-19 policies employed by Westminster and the devolved Welsh Government.

Meanwhile, like the modern border, the gloriously varied Offa’s Dyke Path crosses the dyke more than 20 times, and passes other sites of historic flashpoints fascinating to a Wales-dwelling Shropshire ex-pat like me. Here I’ve selected three contrasting sections where the walking and dyke are spectacular.

OSWESTRY TO LLANYMYNECH

Oswestry, the site of an important battle along what would become the route of Offa’s Dyke, is a good place to start. In 642, more than a century before the dyke was built, two Anglo-Saxon kings clashed near here, at the Battle of Maserfield. Oswald of Northumbria’s expansionist ambitions