Into the Woods and Border Views from Pen-y-ffordd Wednesday 18th November 2020

Into the Woods and Border Views from Pen-y-ffordd.

St John the Baptis Chuch at Pen-y-ffordd from the A5104

St John the Baptis Chuch at Pen-y-ffordd from the car park by the school..

Into the Woods - Rough Piece Wood, part of the Hawarden Estate.

The bridle way - Bannel Lane, once part of the road from Hawarden to Hope,

A delightful section of Bannel Lane.

Hope Mountain in the distance.

"Bull in field", the notice said, I suppose thast means you!

Looking back overr the flooded sectio towards Vounog Hill, Pen-y-ffordd.

"I am happy to have a roof over my head, well just about over my head!"

Another view of Hope Mountain,I should have looked the other way and taken a photo of the Cheshire Plain and the Sandstone hills around Beeston and Peckforton.

Oh no, not another muddy bridle way!

Distance: 8.3 miles. Climb: 741' (584' on my newst GPS).
Time: 3 hours 37 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.7 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 2.3 m.p.h.
Group: Martyn.

The walk didn't start well, the route description (provided by the local council) said there would be free parking at the village institute - but not today, the gates were locked!

I ended up parking at the top end of Hawarden Road on a section that was  no through route and just led to some new houses.

The weather was forecast to be showery, but clearing up after lunch,  I must admit it was pretty accurate, the feel like temperature was lower that it was, and I did get a little warm in my full Paramo Winter gear.

The first walk was the "Into the Woods" walk but the description failed at one point, but with the OS Map handy I was able to follow the rights pof way marked and get back on track, Trudging through the first muddy field, I found a silver coin, "how much will it be worth once I have cleaned up?, I wondered. Not a lot it turned out to be a 1935 shilling!

Several of the field paths turned out to be very muddy and flooded, but with care, I managed to get through the problem area without getting wet feet.

I arrived back at Pen-y-fford quite early, so I decided to set of on the "Border Views" walk, even though it started at the opposite end of the village.

I encountered my first problem as soon as I crossed the stile of Vounog Hill, the field near the next stile had a sheet of water infront of it. Thankfully with gaiters and my one piece leather boots I was able to get through, despite my apprehension after seeng a dog walker with her wellies wet more than a foot up the leg!

The second route description was pretty good and easy to follow, and yes I did get good views towards Cheshire and also towards Hope Mountain.

Not many birds seen today, although on the second walk, I did see 15 pied wagtails and a Common buzzard.

Birds seen or heard today included: House sparrow, Common blackbird, Jackdaw, Carrion crow. Woodpigeon (lots of them), Common starling, Black billed magpie and Common buzzard.

Possibly good Winter walks, but onl after a long dery spell. Today was not a good day to do the walk, if you don't like cleaning your boots!