The Offa's Dyke Training Flight

Flying Offa's Dyke
Offa’s Dyke, is 177 mile long barrier that was built in
the 8th Century by King Offa of Mercia to mark the
edge of his kingdom with Wales.

Much of the Dyke is still traceable along the 80 miles
from the Wye valley to Wrexham and is still visible as
a mound some 25 feet high with a deep ditch
alongside. In other parts it has disappeared due to
1200 years of farming activity but the famous Offa’s
Dyke Path closely follows the old route and it is this
that we intend to fly over.

Our flight will begin at Prestatyn and then head south
through some of Wales’ most picturesque scenery
including gorges, woodlands and rolling hills and
ending in Chepstow.

Along the way we intend to fly over a succession of
historic border towns and attractive villages including
Welshpool, Montgomery, Knighton, Hay-on-Wye and
Monmouth.

Other sights to see from the air will be Chepstow
Castle, Tintern Abbey, the White Castle stronghold,
the castle like church of St Cadoc’s, Powis Castle and
the hilltop fort of Dinas Bran. With an overnight stop
planned at Knighton, which is over half way, setting
off again in the morning and then finishing at
Chepstow.

Offa's Dyke is a linear earthwork which roughly follows
the Welsh/English boundary. It consists of a ditch
and rampart constructed with the ditch
on the Welsh-
facing side, and appears to have been carefully
aligned to present an open view into Wales from
along its length. As originally constructed, it must
have been about 27 metres wide and 8 metres from
the ditch bottom to the bank top.

This will be will be filmed by the BBC and another
great test for the team trying to put in place ideas
and systems that we had learned from the Wales
trip. After every trip we get together and discuss ways
to make tings run more efficiently ready for the
TransGlobal trip.