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This is the Kerry Ridgeway, fifteen miles of open top from Cider House above the village to Bishop's Castle over the border. It never drops below a thousand feet. Wales lies on one side of you and England on the other, and the view goes for miles either way.

Newtown is five minutes back down in the Severn valley, with the shops and market day on Tuesday. Llanllwchaiarn is over the bridge on the far bank. Between the town and the ridge it is all lanes, hedges and sheep, many of them the black-nosed Kerry Hill breed the village gave its name to.

Kerry is a great deal older than Newtown, and it has an old argument to prove it. In 1176 a new stone church went up in the village, and both the Bishop of St Asaph and Giraldus Cambrensis, Archdeacon of Brecon, claimed the parish for their own diocese.

Giraldus heard of the claim first. He rode to Kerry with a crowd of local men, took the church before the bishop arrived, and shut him out at the door. Then he excommunicated him on the spot, and the bishop returned the compliment.

The church is still there, St Michael and All Angels. So is a tablet recording the whole business, put up in 1818 by Thomas Burgess, then Bishop of St David's. The village also gave its name to a sheep. Kerry Hill sheep have been recorded here since 1809.

The ridge above the village mattered because the valleys did not. Before the roads were made up, low ground was wet, wooded and slow going, so anyone moving goods between Wales and the English markets went over the top instead. A route with almost nothing on it was once the main way through.

You still see the sheep in the fields around Kerry, and once you know the markings you cannot miss one. A Kerry Hill is white, with black patches round the eyes and nose, black ears, and black legs with white feet.

The Ridgeway is a bridleway, so walkers, riders and mountain bikers all use it, and the surface is good enough to cover ground quickly. The full length makes a long day on foot and an easy one on a bike. Most people do a stretch and turn back.

The Kerry end starts at a place called Cider House, up the lane above the village, where the Ridgeway begins. The going is gentle for the first few miles, and the Shropshire hills stand ahead of you the whole way across. Turn back at any point and the Welsh hills fill the view instead.

Newtown is close enough to be useful and far enough away to be quiet. The shops and the station are about ten minutes down the hill by car, and the Severn gives you a flat walk for an easy evening. Market day fills the town centre and empties the lanes, which suits everybody.