Monmouthshire's pub walks sit in the shadow of the Black Mountains and along the wooded gorge of the River Wye — two landscapes that couldn't be more different and somehow share a border. The Skirrid Inn at Llanvihangel Crucorney stands beneath the holy mountain it's named after, while the award-winning Goose & Cuckoo at Llanover hides up a farm track in the hills above Abergavenny. Down in the Wye Valley itself, the Boat Inn at Penallt — reached on foot via a footbridge from England into Wales — ties the county's old cider-making industry to a pint at the end of a proper hill climb.

A county that rewards the climb.