Chepstow 2021

One of our earliest courses started down in Bulwark and made its way up through most of the town, so this time we start in the heart of the town, right in front of the castle. From there you can cover the length of the town from the Leisure Centre at the top of town, down almost to Thornwell at the far end. There is quite a lot of climbing involved, but a rewarding run back down to the castle at the end.

You should note that in order to make best use of an A4 map the map is rotated 20 degrees East, so that the North-South lines do not run straight up the map. This shouldn't matter to you unless using a compass to check your direction, in which case you need align the North arrow on the compass with the blue N-S lines, and not the edge of the map.

The Chepstow course, unlike most, has a couple of added settings which may be of benefit to less confident navigators. If, before you tap Go to Start, you tap Options and Settings, you can scroll down to the Show Track and Show Current Location options and switch these on if you wish. The phone map will then always show you where you are. Alternatively, if you want to test your navigation without that constant aid, but would like the option to be shown where you are if baffled, then the course has the 'Show me' facility enabled. You have three chances to see where you are for 20 seconds if you tap the Show me button while out on the course. Note that to see you track constantly you need to activate the setting before tapping Go to Start; it wont work afterwards!

A couple ofsafety points....there are busy main roads running through the town, so you need to take particular care crossing these, and use the marked underpasses if those suit your route choice. Secondly, there are quite a few steep alleyways around the town, some of which include very narrow(front-to back) steps, which it is easy to slip off if going down hill too fast. Take care at these points.

Parking is in the Castle Car Park, a Pay and Display car park where the fee is £1.50 for 2 hours, or £1.90 for three, but free after 6 pm.

Start and Finish are in front of the castle, where the paths split, one up to the main castle entrance, the other up the Dell to the left of the castle.