I know, I go to the Clwydian Range a lot….a hell of a lot.
In my defence, it’s less than 40 minutes drive from home and there are so many routes. I’m still discovering new ones years after I first went.
I’ve recently started parking in Llanferres. I had parked in the same spot last week when I (finally) discovered the cave near Maeshafn (that’s one for another post!) It is usually cold, wet and cloudy whenever I visit this part of the world, today, however, the forecast was good and the skies were clear!
After parking up, I walked towards the Druid pub and followed Rectory Lane to the end where it becomes a footpath. Here it’s a bit of a climb through fields, passing through a gate which isn’t clearly marked as being part of the footpath.
The path continues heading South West, ending up in a small woodland.
Not too sure about the barbed wire around the gate though!
I continued on this path, taking the next right, almost heading back on myself.
The views from around here were beautiful.
I had forgotten how good the Clwydian Range could look.
Continuing on this horseshoe, I could look down from above onto the village of Llanferres where I had left the car. I made my way to the narrow road at Pen-y-waun, taking a left where the path joins the road and another left at the road junction.
Ahead of me was the Moel Famau car park and a handy stop to the use the ‘facilities’!
Not far from the car park is a small pull-in off the road on the left. Here a path leads from the road towards the Bwlch Penbarra car park.
From the far end of the car park, I headed up Foel Fenlli, going up and over the top, around the location of the old fort before dropping down to Bwlch Crug-glas.
Passing a small woods on my left I walked through a large field of sheep and found a great sheltered spot to fire up the meths burner and make myself a cup of coffee,
Civilised waking!
After one of the nicest cups of instant coffee I’d drunk in a long while, I carried on along the path just skirting the route I had taken earlier in the day.
At the crossroads I continued straight on. The path here wasn’t too well signed. I headed roughly South East through the fields to a stile.
Once over the stile, the route became very difficult to see as I ducked under branches, stepped over fallen trees and made my way across the boggy terrain.
There was no clear path through when I reached the road, it was a case of climbing over the fence.
It was difficult to see the ‘official’ route from the road.
It was over grown and a rusty set of gates stood in front of the public footpath sign.
Crossing the road, I took a right then walked down the first road on my left. I stayed on this narrow, quiet road for a while until it became a path towards the quarry.
When reaching Burley Hill Quarry, I took the path to the left, though the woods alongside the now disused limestone quarry.
Apparently, this is a good spot for fossil hunting, I also spotted the entrance of a small ‘cave’.
At the end of the woods is the village of Maeshafn, home to the Miners Arms pub. The food here looks amazing especially considering how far off the beaten track it is!
After the pub, I followed the road to the left. Just after crossing a bridge, I took the footpath on the left back to Llanferres.
The total walk was around 9 miles and was very enjoyable, obviously the clear blue skies helped A GPX of the route can be downloaded.
And to round off such a good day….a drive home with the top down in the Abarth 124!
Black Pudding Gaiters 