PILLETH, June 22, 1402 – St Alban’s Day. On the Green Hill, the Welsh guerrillas, roughly 800 strong.

A forward detachment, lightly armoured and lined up level with the church of St Mary, commanding the approach up the Lugg Valley. Ready with bills, clubs and axes, the chief captain was the fearsome Rhys The Swarthy.

Under cover on top of the steep slope above them the main body encamped with their agile and sturdy ponies. And Owain Glyndwr, the ‘irregular and wild’.

Advancing up the north bank of the Lugg, from their overnight quarters at Whitton, a force representing the full military might of Herefordshire. Some 2,000 in number at the behest of the local Mortimer lordships, long time scourges and oppressors of the Welsh.

While still pre-eminent in the Marches, their military power was slowly starting to decline.

Their commander now was the unshrinking but uninspiring Edmund Mortimer. Among his retinue was a contingent of Welsh archers, recruited on his passage from Wigmore and Ludlow.

Joining battle and charging up the hill to the level, where the present drive to the church takes one serenely to the south door, the Mortimer thrust was at first rewarding.

Confident of its superiority in number and weaponry, the English army forced the insurgents into an apparent retreat.

But the more they strove to gain impetus up the slope, the more exhausted the men-at-arms became. Better equipped to defend from behind staked-out positions, rather than launching an assault uphill, the archers were gradually outmanoeuvred by a more mobile enemy.

The close nature of combat began to favour the fresher combatants occupying the higher ground.

Emboldened by the memory of previous victory in the similar hilly reaches of Plynlimon, the adaptable reinforcements overlooking the battle from above and lurking to the side in the Blewyn valley were waiting for the moment. And the crucial turning point duly came.

As pre-planned, or out of their reading of the fortune of battle, the Welsh archers elected to change sides. A series of volleys into the backs of their English ‘allies’ totally changed the tide.

Altogether about 800 Englishmen were slain in the most savage battle of the Welsh war of independence.

Rhys the Swarthy presided over the mutilation by camp followers of the corpses of many of the fallen.

Edmund Mortimer himself was captured and put up for ransom by Owain Glyndwr. Whilst Owain was approaching the height of his powers, the Mortimer aspirations to the throne of England were dealt a shattering blow.

Our highly recommended walk, largely along bridle paths contouring open hillside, takes you to the heart of this brutal setting.

The belfry of Pilleth church is the same one today which was engulfed by the melee 600 years ago. Just above the succinct information board in the churchyard, four imposing Wellingtonia trees mark a poignant burial site. They come into view from Whitton, on the B4356, about four miles beyond Knighton or Presteigne, or 30 miles from Hereford.

Nowhere will you gain a better appreciation of how a battle was lost.

THE ROUTE

1. Pilleth. Start from approach track to St Mary’s Church, just above brown tourist sign to ‘Battle of Pilleth’. Head up the gentle drive, on foot, to the church, with fine views opening out R along Lugg Valley, and Wellingtonia burial mound on steep slopes (L) of Bryn Glas Hill.

(Mark position of information board to read later). Exit churchyard via small metal gate bottom right. Descend pasture through metal gate at Pilleth Court. TL away from cattle grid, pass stables, bend L through large metal gate and bend R through double gate. Bend L through old gateway, climbing gently, levelling off, heading up to R at a fork through a bridle marked gate.

With fence on L, drop slightly to a marker post.

2. Marker Post. Now fork R up the bank into the gorse, leaving the wider track, to contour the slopes of Graig Hill. Head up ahead to top R edge of conifers and pass through the gate in the fence running in front of them. TR up the hillside, with fencing R, through a gate, keep R along R fence, up through another gate at an elbow in front, with a pond over to your R. With fence now on L, and an observatory up to L, drop through waymarked gate, bend L still downwards, ahead through next waymarked gate and a bit further L reach an old rusty gate at path junction.

3. Path junction. TR in front of gate and bear R away from cross hedge and ponds to follow rightof- way back on yourself to the R end of the fence in front. Reach farm drive you have just crossed higher up and head L along drive through gate. Go straight ahead and through a gate, R of farmhouse, and drop through next gate between its barns. Stay ahead on obvious bridle path to reach a second farm complex, and track going L (ignore).

4. Second Farm. Leave the bridle path now, before farm (L), and go through metal gate above and to R of its buildings. Pass along L edge of pasture to first fence crossing in front of you at end of trees. TL through two unmarked gates at right angles on to a surfaced track to maintain the same direction. Follow surfaced track, with Cwm Blewyn down to your L, through a gate where hedge on L ends, and over cattle grid with Whitton coming into view over to L. (Mortimer’s quarters on eve of Battle of Pilleth). Drop and bend R, still on surfaced path, with Pilleth church coming back into view, across cattle grid, past barn, bearing R then L back to grid at Pilleth Court.

5. Pilleth Court. TR through original (2nd) gate of walk, back up pasture, through church gate up to information board (L). With a final salute to the Wellingtonias, return along the drive where Glyndwr’s forces took up their advance position.