Pen-y-Pigyn, Llangar Church and Caer Drewyn 24th February 2018

Pen-y-Pigyn from our start in the main car park main Corwen.

Saint Mael and Saint Sulien's Church, Corwen.

Saint Mael and Saint Sulien's Church, Corwen.

Care Drewyn from Pen-y-Pigyn.

"We may be Peacocks, but wer'e not posers!"

Snowdrops on the East bank of the River Dee.

Llangar Church from the South west.

Llangar Church.

Goosander on the River Dee South west of Pont Corwen.

Looking South west towards Pont Corwen.

At the cairn in Caer Drewyn.

Looking towards Corwen from the South Western side of Caer Drewyn.

Walk stats: Distance: 8.5 miles. Climb: 1135'.

Time: 5 hours 09 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.2 m..h. Overall walk average: 1.6 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Celia, Mike and Ed.

This turned out to be a really good day for walking, largely in sunshine. We set off from the car park in full winter gear as it did feel on the chilly side. In fact the usually muddy path leading to Pen-y-Pigyn was still pretty firm and icy in places. after leaving Pen-y-Pigyn we were soon in sunshine and it t felt quite warm.

We arrived at Llangar Church a little too early and had to complete the riverside/railway track loop. 

 The River Dee was pretty high and flowing quite fast, but some Goosanders we saw had no problem swimming against it.

 On this occasion we sat outside Llangar Church for lunch a this meant we could take full advantage of the warm sunshine.

 After lunch most of us had cast off at least some of our outer garments to prevent any overheating, and I walked all afternoon in a short sleeved shirt.

 Even the riverside path was firm, except by one of the gates.

 It was such a nice day that we didn't have any excuse not to head for Caer Drewyn. Views from Caer Drerwyn were good, but somewhat hazy.

 Birds seen or heard today included: House sparrow, Blue tit Great tit, Common chaffinch, Rook, Carrion crow, Dunnock, Greylag goose, Canada goose, Grey heron, Mallard, Goosander, Mute swan. Little egret, Common blackbird, Common buzzard, Woodpigeon, Common buzzard, Common pheasant, Wood nuthatch and Bullfinch.

 We arrived back at the car, having had a good walk. All we needed now was a good refreshing pint of real ale, but it wasn't to be at the Crown at Llandegla. No real ale - no seats we only stayed five minutes and are unlikely to return any time soon!

 We did however have a good pint of Conwy Brewery's Pride of Wales Bitter in the Bridge Inn at Pontybodkin. A welcoming real fire and the tea arrived in a tea pot giving two cups of tea, very welcome when trying to quench your thirst after a good walk.

Pale Heights and Primrose Hill 21st February 2018

At the monument on Pale heights.

Distant views from Paler Heights could have been clearer!

An unexpected sighting - a Reeve's pheasant.

No-one can argue with that!

Lunch time in the Willington Wood.

A glimpse of Tirley Garth through the trees.

A glimpse of the racing stables through the trees on Primrose Hill.

Spotting unusual stones in Urchins Kitchen.

Strolling through Urchins Kitchen.

Looking back down the path in Urchins Kitchen.

The racing stable at Kelsall.

The final climb of the day - up the steps to the Gresty's Waste Car Park.

Walk stats: 9.3 miles. Climb: 806'.

time: 5 hours 9 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.6 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.8 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Roger, Sue and Michel, Celia, David S., Ed Paul and Scrumble.

A pleasant surprise awaited us as we arrived at Gresty's Waste Car Park, lots of stones had been put over the notoriously muddy surface, making it much better.

 The first part of the walk was the challenge to cross the busy A51 before reaching the path through Nettleford Wood and onto Pale Heights.

 The views today weren't particularly clear, and we spent some time debating whether or not we could see certain features like Jodrell Bank.

 On route to the Yeld Lane Car Park and pic-nic site, one of the local residents, an exotic pheasant,  strutted out of its garden to see us off the premises. This exotic pheasant was I think a Reeve's Pheasant, one I hadn't come across before.

 After reaching the top of Waste Lane, one man and his dog left us to head for King's Gate and the Sandstone Trail back to Gresty's Waste. Apparently to see an U19 football match at Prenton Park and the chance to see who was the better coach out of Steven Gerrard and Nicky Butt. Locally  born Ben Woodward scored the first of two goals that made sure that this time, Liverpool ended up winners.

 We were a little too early for lunch on Birch Hill, and found a convenient spot in Willington Wood, where fallen trees and exposed tree roots gave us places to sit.

 It was surprisingly warm, and felt nothing like the feel like the temperature of 5 Celsius the forecasters had predicted. In fact from this point I left my Paramo jacket in my rucksack - I should have done that right from the start!

 As Michel had recently had a memorable birthday, he provided everyone with celebration cakes for us to enjoy - thought to be home made, but turned out to be Co-op specials!

 A slight change of route enabled us to take a path running alongside Tirley Garth, but we were only able to get glimpses of this impressive building.

  A last minute decision to explore Urchins Kitchen ensured that we didn't get back to the cars until just after 15-00, the time when the Farmers Arms at Kelsall opened. Our first choice for after walk drinks was now possible.

 We arrived back at the car, having had a very enjoyable walk, warmer than expected and with boots only slightly muddy compared with recent experiences.

 Birds seen or heard today included: Blue tit, Great tit, Winter wren, Wood nuthatch, Black-billed magpie, European jay, European robin, Raven, Woodpigeon and a Reeve's pheasant.

 After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Farmers Arms, Kelsall, where Weetwood's Cheshire Cat went down well.

Around Bosley Cloud 17th February 2018

The Cloud approaching from the East.

Croker Hill and Sutton Common from the East side of The Cloud.

Croker Hill and Sutton Common from the trig point on The Cloud.

Looking towards Jodrell bank from  the trig point on The Cloud.

On the Gritstone trail heading towards Timberbrook.

Ongoing works on the Macclesfield Canal.

This beats any mud experienced before this year.

The end of our diversions - or so we thought!

Part of a wonderful bank of Snowdrops next to the Macclesfield canal North east of Buglawton.

The Cloud from the Macclesfield Canal.

Croker Hill and Sutton Common from the Dane valley Way South of Bosley Locks.

St. Mary the Virgin Church at Bosley.

Walk stats: Distance: 8.8 mile. Climb: 1139'.

Time: 5 hours 30 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.1 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.6 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn and Celia.

Arriving at Bosley, it was still raining, so we sat in the car for about 15 minutes waiting for the rain to stop. Just as the weather forecast had suggested, just after 10-00 it did, so we put on our boots and set off. We had seen the last of the rain for the day, and were blessed with long spells of warm sunshine, particularly after lunch.

 The challenge for today was MUD, the worst that I have experienced since one of our infamous trips to Derbyshire!

 As we reached the top of The Cloud, the views opened up and we even saw Pale Heights on the other side of the Cheshire Plain. 

 Lunch was taken in our usual spot just before joining the Macclesfield Canal. Thankfully the fallen trees at this point were still there and we had a good place to sit as w were serenaded by the local birds - mainly Blue tits and great tits.

 After lunch we had our major challenge getting through the deep mud to reach the footbridge over the canal. At one point I struggled to pull my foot out of the mud and as we crossed the bridge everything from now on would be easy. However we had been warned that one section of the towpath was closed and a short diversion through Eastern edge of Buglawton would take us around the problem. A couple in the housing estate gave us direction, so we didn't have to resort to real map reading!

 The last few miles were done in really warm sunshine, warm enough for we to walk in my short sleeve shirt.

 Birds seen or heard today included: House sparrow, Common blackbird, Pied wagtail, Common starling, Common buzzard, Jackdaw, Mallard, Moorhen, Blue tit, Great tit, Common chaffinch, Wood nuthatch, Winter wren and Rook.

  Overall a an enjoyable walk, especially if you blot out memories of MUD!

 I must remember t put this walk on a dry Summer day when the muddy areas would be less challenging.

 After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Farmers Arms at Kelsall, where Weetwood's Cheshire Cat was h bet real ale on offer. One point to note, we found out that on a Wednesday the open at 15-00 - anew target for our walk from Gresty's Waste next week!

East of Holywell and More 14th February 2014

Dancing through Cefn-y-coed or is it just a mud dance?

Hilbre just coming into view.

Ed on the secateurs.

And that's the way we wanted to go, but no-one was willing to test the water!

The Millenium welsh dragon beacon at Bettisfield - a view that we hadn't seen before.

The stile is there somewhere.

Yes that is where the stile came out!

Our lunch spot adjacent to the Bettisfield Car Park.

Don't ask!

Daffodils in flower at Bettisfield car park.

Abundant Gorse in flower.

This is it then, the tunnel! What tunnel?

This tunnel.

Dee Quay and the flow of water gushing out of the tunnel.

Boats in Dee Quay.

Shelduck and Oystercatchers on the river bank.

Great cormorants and Oystercatchers on the river bank.

Looking East towards Bettisfield.

Greenfield Dock.

Walk stats: Distance: 7.8 miles. Climb: GPS wind assisted reading 1573'. Memory Map route estimate: 870' -  a more realistic value for the level of climb done.

Time: 4 hours 53 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.2 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.6 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Roger, David S and Ed.

The weather forecast suggested that it would be windy and cold, but there was good chance that we would escape any significant precipitation. In fact we had a few minutes when hail encouraged us to wrap up well before setting off and didn't get anything else. At times it felt quite warm, when the wind eased or we were in a sheltered spot.

 As expected we did test our boots in terms of how they could cope with mud and soggy wet fields, but to  my surprise the soles had no mud left when I came to wash them later on. A quick 10 minute wash and wipe were all they needed.

 Our best views were after emerging from Cefn-y-coed, where we could clearly see across the Dee estuary towards Hilbre Island and the Wirral. At one point Liverpool's Anglican cathedral could be clearly seen on the horizon.

 Soon after taking the path at Cefn Smallholdings, we encountered the first problem, but Ed deftly used a pair of secateurs to open up a way through.

 Several paths had the potential of being flooded and causing us to rethink our options, but today it a minor road at Ffordd-y-Dre that was flooded.

 We decide to head towards Pentre Bagillt to pick up another path that would lead us to a point where we could rejoin the original route or head for the coast.

 It wasn't long before we encountered another stile totally overgrown with Holly and decide this needed more that secateurs and retraced our steps until we could enter the field at another spot.

 By now most of us had decided that the walk planned for the afternoon, wasn't going to happen, so we headed for the coast at the Bettisfield Colliery site (now a car scrap yard). As it was after 12-00, we decided to have lunch, where we spotted some concrete blocks in a nearby wooded area that meant we had a dry place to sit and were sheltered from the wind. We could even train spot at the same time, if we were so inclined.

 Just after lunch David spotted a sign for the Milwr Tunnel, and mentioned he had always wondered where it came out on the coast - it wasn't long before we were to find out.

 After visiting "happy bushes", we ended up exploring the coastal flood plain North and west of Dee Quay, before rejoining the official Coastal Path to Greenfield Dock.

 The last part of our walk took us through the Greenfield Heritage Park along the old railway track back to Holywell. As we headed down Halkyn Street, a local resident stopped us and explained that she was in dispute with a neighbour about Footpath 10 that had been going on for many years.

  Birds seen or heard today included: Common blackbird, House sparrow, Carrion crow, Jackdaw, Woodpigeon, Black-billed magpie, Common redshank, Oystercatcher, Common coot, Black-headed gull, Goldfinch, Grey heron, Mallard, Lapwing, Great cormorant, Herring gull, Common starling and Wood nuthatch.

 We arrived back at the car, having had a varied and at times with unexpected challenges. Although the walk was slightly shorter than planned, our legs still knew that they had been on a good walk -  extra mileage wasn't necessary!

 After walk drinks were enjoyed at home, for me after cleaning boots, a cup of tea with a dash of whiskey added.