Welshpool

The narrow gauge Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway still chugs through the Severn Valley just like it did in 1903. This market town sits right on the Welsh-English border, where conversations slip between languages and the landscape shifts from gentle farmland to proper Welsh hills.

Powis Castle looms over the town centre, its terraced gardens dropping down towards the River Severn. The weekly Monday market still fills the main streets with livestock traders and local producers. Beyond the Georgian facades and Victorian shopfronts, serious walking country begins almost immediately.

Lake Vyrnwy lies about twenty miles south-west - a Victorian reservoir turned nature reserve with the Giant Hand of Vyrnwy sculpture marking one of its most dramatic viewpoints. The surrounding peaks like Carnedd Wen and Pen Coed offer proper hill walking, though you'll need a full day and decent weather.

Mont­gomery, just eight miles east, makes for an easier afternoon trip. Its perfectly preserved medieval street plan and ruined castle perch above the Severn floodplain.

Reaching Welshpool couldn't be simpler - the A458 runs straight through from Shrewsbury, taking about forty minutes by car. The town sits at the heart of the Severn Valley, making holiday parks here ideal for exploring both the gentler English borderlands and the wilder Welsh uplands without constantly packing and unpacking. You're equally positioned for castle-hopping around Powys or tackling the hills towards Snowdonia.