A border river running out of the Radnorshire hills through Herefordshire to join the Wye below Hereford
The Lugg rises on Pool Hill in Radnorshire and runs about forty-five miles south-east through quiet Herefordshire farmland to meet the Wye at Mordiford. In its upper reaches it is fast and stony, cutting through the wooded hills around Aymestrey; lower down it slows, meanders and spreads into old flood meadows. Salmon run it, and the gravel beds hold white-clawed crayfish and freshwater pearl mussel, which is why the whole river is protected.
It became briefly famous in 2020 when a landowner bulldozed a mile and a half of the bank near Kingsland, destroying the habitat; the prosecution that followed was a landmark case in English river protection.
The Mortimer Trail crosses the upper valley and gives the best walking, with The Riverside at Aymestrey right on the water. Lugg and Hampton Meadows near Hereford is open flood meadow on the lower river. Leominster Station sits close to the middle reach.
