Offa's Dyke

A three-mile section of the great earthwork boundary dyke built along the Anglo-Welsh border by Offa, King of Mercia, probably during the 780s. This especially impressive wooded stretch includes the Devil's Pulpit, with fine views of Tintern Abbey.

Offa was the King of the Mercians, a warrior tribe from central England, from 747 to 796 AD. He had seized power during a time of great unrest caused by friction between Wales and England in the border region.

Offa was determined to quell the unruly Welsh and impose his authority and this he did by building one of the most remarkable structures in Britain. 

Sometime during the 780s, Offa decided on the construction of a great earth-wall and ditch, or dyke, running from ‘sea to sea’.

The work required thousands of men, and each section seems to have been built by people from a different district. The fact that this mammoth undertaking was achieved illustrates the cohesion of the kingdom at this time. The dyke was never garrisoned but would have been manned by relatively small local forces.

Offa died in 796 in a battle against the Welsh: it is believed that he was trying to establish a final link in the dyke to the Irish Sea in the north.

After his death his kingdom gradually declined until it was completely crushed by the Viking invasion. The border area, however, remained crucial in British history.

Also visit Offa's Dyke Centre.