RAMBLERS are looking to put their best foot forward at a town’s annual five-day Walking Festival next week, with 35 strolls and rambles on offer throughout the local Wye Valley area and beyond.

The Chepstow Walking Festival runs from April 4 to 9, and to coincide with it, a town group is also celebrating a major milestone in its history by publishing a trail guide to a nine-mile walk around the area.

The Chepstow Society is 70 this year, and is releasing the leaflet A Walk Around Chepstow following a circular route.

Guided walks in the festival include Monmouthshire Way trails; a stroll out to Black Rock; woodland wanders; hilltop hikes; river rambles; historic treks; pet promenades; places of worship jaunts; seafront saunters; rocky roams, Offa’s Dyke ambles; farmland foodie trails; and many more.

For more information and to book a place, go to www.walksinchepstow.co.uk

The society’s A Walk Around Chepstow starts in the town and follows the Coast Path through Bulwark and Mathern to St Pierre Pill on the estuary, before heading back through Mounton to join the Wye Valley Walk at Piercefield, and back to the town centre. 

The leaflet is in the same format as the popular Chepstow to Tintern and Return booklet – a single sheet folded twice to give detailed information about the route and its history, together with a map. Copies will be available from Chepstow Books in St Mary Street, and the Tourist Information Centre. 

The society also publishes the Chepstow Town Trail booklet, Chepstow Story – an introduction to the town’s history – and other publications.

Set up in March 1948 as a local amenity and historical society, the group is dedicated to studying and protecting the town and its surroundings.   

It meets regularly on the third Wednesday of each month in the Drill Hall, and always welcomes new members.   

For more information go to www.chepstowsociety.co.uk