England and Wales's great canoeing river, running lock-free from Hay-on-Wye down to the tide at Bigsweir
The Wye here is the long border river that rises in the mountains of mid-Wales and runs down to the River Severn below Chepstow — not the shorter Derbyshire Wye of Bakewell and the Peak District, which shares the name.
Two routes share the Wye valley: walkers have the Wye Valley Walk along its banks, while this page is about the river itself — and the river matters most to people on the water. Unlike the canals and canalised navigations elsewhere in this section, the Wye is a natural river, with no locks and no room for narrowboats or barges; what it offers instead is a public right of navigation running lock-free for some 80 miles from Hay-on-Wye down to Bigsweir, below which it becomes tidal. That, together with the scenery, makes it the most popular canoe-touring river in Britain.
Below Hay the river runs through farmland and past Hereford, then enters the wooded gorge for which it is best known, winding beneath Ross-on-Wye, Symonds Yat and the cliffs of the Forest of Dean. The one obstacle worth knowing about is the rapids at Symonds Yat, a short, lively stretch that most canoeists can manage with care but that catches out the unprepared.
For most of its length the Wye is gentle, shallow and slow enough for beginners, and hire operators along the banks run day trips and longer descents with boats dropped off and collected for you. Popular sections include Hay to Hereford and the classic Ross to Monmouth run through the gorge. For much of its lower course the river forms the border between England and Wales.
The banks are quiet and thickly wooded, and the valley is a designated National Landscape. Kingfishers, herons and dragonflies are common sights from the water, and peregrines nest on the crags at Symonds Yat. The riverside towns — Hay, Ross, Monmouth, and Chepstow near the mouth — are easily reached by road, though the valley has no railway of its own along this stretch.
