The stamping station boxes for the 2023 Passport season will be on site in time for Easter.
Sales of the Passport support our Conservation Fund for Offa’s Dyke. It is also a way for you to record your achievement of having walked the National Trail and some significant stretches of Britain’s longest ancient monument. You can collect all the stamps in one fell swoop or walk the Trail in stages over several years collecting your stamps over a period of time..
Why is the Passport seasonal, between May and October?
If you have walked Hadrian’s Wall Path then you might be aware of the seasonal Passport on that Trail. The idea is to encourage long distance walkers to consider walking the route during what are normally the drier months of the year – between May and October. This is because archaeological earthworks are more vulnerable to the wear and tear of walkers’ feet between November and April when soils are saturated with water. Saturated soils have a much lower carrying capacity than soils in moisture deficit.
The Offa’s Dyke Passport operates in exactly the same way as Hadrian’s Wall Path and the aim is the same, to protect the sensitive fragile archaeology of the Scheduled Monument. That the Trail is aligned for much of its course on sections of upstanding Dyke, often on the crest, is a legacy of the 1960s when the Trail’s route was designed. With hindsight that decision was a mistake and the 2018 condition survey of the Dyke revealed that erosion from walkers accounts for 20% of damage to the monument. Until the route is re-aligned off the earthwork the Passport will continue to be seasonal.
The good news is that the new Offa’s Dyke Conservation Officer is now in post. Funded by Cadw and Historic England the project to turn back the decades of ‘benign neglect’ of Offa’s Dyke will run for several years as the threats to the integrity of the monument are tackled field-by-field. The Offa’s Dyke Association is a member of the Conservation Officer’s steering group, the other members being Cadw, Historic England and Shropshire County Council.
In the meantime we are asking walkers to actively engage in the effort to help conserve it for future generations.
You can buy your Passport in advance of your holiday from our online shop for £5 + p&p.
They are also available from Chepstow TIC, Redbrook Village Store & Post Office and Hay-on-Wye TIC.
We have produced a downloadable pdf guide to locating the stamping stations. If you have any suggestions for improving it please contact oda@offasdyke.org.uk
The stamping stations are as follows, from north to south:
Nova Sports Centre Prestatyn (at reception); Oriel Bodfari Gallery; Llandegla community shop; Carreg y Big Oswestry Equestrian Centre (on fence opposite north bound stile); Beacon Ring hillfort; Mellingon Lodge gates; Offa’s Dyke Centre, Knighton; Hergest Croft Gardens (on metal fence inside customer path entrance from Ridgebourne Road; Hay-on-Wye TIC; Llangattock Lingoed Church (Trail sign post next to gate); Redbrook village store; Chepstow TIC (on outside wall under glass canopy).
Proceeds from sale of the Passport support the ODA’s Conservation Fund. The more Passports that we sell the more conservation projects to promote the long term conservation and welfare of the monument that we will be able to support.
When you have completed walking the Trail then you can buy your souvenir blue and gold enamel badge, together with personalised certificate of achievement, from our online shop.
Walking companies interested in selling the passports to their customers should contact the ODA by emailing oda@offasdyke.org.uk
We hope that you enjoy your walk!
