A Powys hotel has been included in a new book which has it as part of an epic national trail.
Welshpool’s popular hotel the Royal Oak features in a new book called Paths & Poetry as being right on the route of an national trail – the 280-miles Cross Britain Way.
The trial begins in Boston, Lincolnshire, and ends at Barmouth.
Paths & Poetry authors, Nigel Heath and his colleague and poet, Peter Gibbs, both journalists, enjoyed dinner and a comfortable night at The Royal Oak before continuing on their way.
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“The Cross Britain Way created by the Macmillan Way Association in support of the Macmillan cancer charity makes wonderful walking adventure and the route beyond Welshpool to Lake Vyrnwy and then climbing up into the Snowdonia National Park, is particularly spectacular,” said Mr Heath.
“And while I write features about all our adventures, Peter is inspired to pen Betjeman-style poems, which add another dimension for the reader.”
The pair will be returning to the hotel in May because it is also conveniently situated on the 33-miles long Montgomery canal, which is to be their next walk.
The Coaching Inn Group, which owns The Royal Oak and Boston’s White Hart hotel, from which the duo set out, together with more than thirty other hotels and inns in market towns across the country, are ordering copies of Paths & Poetry to perhaps inspire other guests to follow in their footsteps.
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“We set out in all winds and weathers, returning to the trail every three months, experiencing the wonderful changing of the seasons, and completed the walk in twenty days,” added Mr Heath.
“On one of many memorable days, we caught up with an elderly lady, whose daughter was ferrying her overnight case from place to place.
“What keeps you going?” Peter asked. “It’s keeping going that keeps me going young man” came her instant and inspiring response.
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