9.30am, Sunday, the sun is out and a quick decision on what to do with the day is required.
It ended up as a case of putting a pin in a map then a route was quickly drawn up and I headed to Llandegla Forest.
After the turn off from the main road, the route to the car park is a singe track road with passing places which lead me to believe that I’d be pulling up in a small car park perhaps containing a little hut selling snacks….how wrong I was – the place is vast!
Not only that, it was extremely busy. Where everyone went, however, I don’t know, a few yards from the car and I hardy saw another person.
The area is predominantly for cyclists but there are lots of footpaths for walkers and, on the whole the two are kept separate.
There are four signed trails;
- orange at 2.5 miles around the reservoir,
- black grouse/purple at 2 miles,
- turquoise intermediate at 2 miles
- the brown long route at 7 miles.
I started on the brown route, following it to the spruce plantation then took a left where it crosses the Offa’s Dyke path. This path goes through heather on a narrow path, occasionally on wooden planks.
When this path comes out to a road, take a right and follow it along to World’s End. It’s a quiet road so you shouldn’t see much traffic.
Just after a river passes over the road, it takes a sharp bend, this is where you leave the road and get back on to the Offa’s Dyke footpath.
This path does become quite narrow with quite a steep rocky drop to the right hand side but offers some great views.
Leave the Offa’s Dyke by taking a path down to the right hand side through woodland, this can be quite difficult to spot.
The path drops down on to a road below but you’ll soon leave the road, taking a path to the left which climbs to Eglwyseg Glen.
The route continues through fields, follow this and you will briefly join the Clwydian Way, however when this forks to the left, keep to the right.
When reaching a track heading towards the phone mast,cross the road and the path continues virtually directly opposite. It’s quite difficult to find initially but easy enough to follow once on it.
Once this reaches the road, take it to the right, eventually taking a right back in to the Llandegla forest.
Follow the Clwydian Way back to the crossroads with the ‘brown path’, the path on the right leads back to the car park.
There’s nothing better after a long walk than a decent cuppa and the coffee served up in theLlandegla cafe cetrainly didn’t disapoint. Unfortunately the kitchen was closed by the time I got back but the cakes looked good (and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t have a sweet tooth at all!) There is also a vast array of energy bars and gels.
All in all, a great day and I’ll definetely return, will have to try out some of the bike trails.
At the time of writting, all day car parking is £4.50
For more information, visit their website: http://coedllandegla.com/
Download a copy of the route
Black Pudding Gaiters 
Leave a Reply