Whitestone and Cleddon Falls

Whitestone is along the Wye Valley Walk north of Tintern and offers beautiful walks with stunning views of the Wye Valley below, the thundering Cleddon Falls and the Duchess Ride Viewpoint, one of the most dramatic in the area with views down the valley to the Severn Bridge and beyond.

Whitestone Car Park is a great place to start. It has picnic benches, barbecue facilities and a children's play area. Walking routes are plentiful here and well signposted. A recommended route is to follow the purple signposted route to Cleddon Falls and Duchess Ride Viewpoint along the Wye Valley Walk north of the car park through Bargain Wood, a beautiful mature oak and beech woodland with large Douglas Fir and other mixed broadleaves. There is a gentle uphill incline near the start but the majority of this walk is mainly level through ancient woodland with the River Wye below you to the right.

After 1 mile Cleddon Falls thunder down the valley and can be heard from a distance. They are at their best when the autumn rains have come and the falls (or shoots as they are also known) are in full flow.

Cleddon Hall, where Bertrand Russell the renowned Welsh philosopher was born in 1872, can also be seen nearby and from the falls the path continues to the Duchess Ride Viewpoint north of Llandogo.

Wordsworth wrote “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” here in 1798:
        ...again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur. Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion, and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.

See our 12 Easy Walks guide, with walk 2 featuring a 2 mile circular walk around Whitestone and taking in Cleddon Falls.

See our Wye Valley Walk page for more information on the 136-mile national trail which follows the river from its confluence with the Severn at Chepstow to its source on Plinlimon in mid-Wales.