The delightful path through Castle Wood.
Looking over the Dee Estuary towards Liverpool.
Halkyn Church.
Ed at the trig point on Halkyn Mountain.
At the trig point on Halkyn Mountain.
Pen t Henblas Quarry.
Pant y Pydew Lime Kilns on the East side of Bryn Mawr Quarry.
"Don't they realise that they can't come this way?"
"I'll try and look aggressive, it might stop them coming over the stile."
Pant-y-pwll-dwr Quarry and the new bank that is in the process of being built.
The unusual looking mine shaft caps that appear on Halkyn Mountain, especially East of Rhes-y-cae.
Walk stats: Distance: 8.7 miles. Climb: 926'.
Time: 5 hours 5 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.2 m.p.h Overall walk average: 1.7 m.p.h.
Group: Martyn and Ed.
This was a superb day for walking, but if Ed hadn't been able to make the trip from Llangernyw to join me, I'd have been "Billy no mates again!"
It turned out to be a superb day for walking, bright sunshine all day, accompanied by stiffish breeze that started quite cool, but after lunch was pleasantly warm.
The worst of the mud was through the North west section of Castle Wood a we approached Halkyn old cemetry.
As a change, I decided that after leaving the trig point on Halkyn Mountain, we would explore paths on the East side of Pen yr Henblas and then around the Northern edge of Bryn Mawr Quarry.
The Pant y Pydew Lime Kilns would have been a good place to stop for lunch, but the wind was in the wrong direction and there was a strong smell coming from the chicken farm nearby that encouraged us to keep on going.
I had a a section of the limestone outcrops on the South East side of Pant-y-pwll-dwr as the next best place to stop for lunch. Alas my plans were thwarted as the track running on the West side of the quarry had been closed since 16th October 2016 while the quarry owners built up the safety embankment so that they could extend the quarry workings.
This meant we had an unplanned detour involving paths that had not seen much use for some time and finding the right stile proved tricky. We eventually arrived at the track that lead towards Pwll-melyn where we met the owner of the farm. He suggested that we took the track that lead directly back towards Halkyn Mountain, rather than take the official path round the back of his property. He was a little concerned over some unprotected mine shafts near the path.
This was much better for us as it took us back to where we should have been an hour or so earlier!
Lunch was taken as soon as we found a suitable spot as we crossed Halkyn Mountain just short of Rhes-y-cae. As the grass was dry we sat on the side of the path as it wound its way through the old mine workings.
As we had already done over six miles at lunch, we decided to miss out Moel Ffagnalt and head from Rhes-y-cae towards the radio mast at Catch.
Birds seen or heard today included: Common blackbird, Jackdaw, European robin, Winter wren, Meadow pipit, Black-billed magpie, House sparrow, Redwing, Fieldfare and Raven.
We arrived back at the start a little on the early side and had to wait about 10 minutes for the Blue Bell to open, Blacksheep's Blitzen went down well and I'm enjoying Sheppy's Orchard Dew Cloudy Cider as I complete this post.
Overall a very enjoyable walk, but it is sad to see that the Blue Bell is up for sale and I'm sure that many of our walking group will be disappointed to hear that I might have to leave of our annual "Halkyn, Limestone and Lead walk for some time"!
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