Using fairly easy terrain this 4 ½ mile, 2 ½ – 3 hour walk starts from the car park and heads over the racecourse following Offa’s Dyke Path.
In winter’s snow the stone-throne in Candy Woods would be more at home in Narnia than Shropshire. But this land is as epic as Lewis’ fantasy. Offa’s Dyke marked out a border with Wales, later controlled by the Norman ‘Marcher Lords’ who built castles along it as mighty as Cair Paravel. And Mad Jack Mytton, who gambled away his inheritance here, once rode a bear into dinner and named his son Euphrates after his favourite racehorse. Did a Witch Queen freeze the horses’ heads?
Oswestry Old Racecourse
The site provides extensive views of the surrounding countryside, consisting of patchwork scrub scattered trees bracken and wildflower rich grassland, the whole area supports a wide range of birds and animals
By the eighteenth century the area was regularly used as a racecourse, being frequently by local legend “Mad Jack Mytton” until problems around the late 1840’s saw the course close and the only remaining reminder is the Old Grandstand.
Candy Wood & Offa’s Dyke
A pleasant woodland mainly of mature beech trees that encourages plenty of wildlife, Offa’s Dyke runs through a large section of the wood with the National Trail running parallel to it, Spring and autumn is the best times to walk in the woods with the colours of the leaves giving it most justice.
For more information on what to do in and around Oswestry visit www.oswestry-welshborders.org.uk