Mynydd Eilian, Point Lynas and More 28th October 2017

Porth Eilian and Point Lynas.

Point Lynas from the path below the Transymynydd Isaf road.

An unusual water tower on the coast North west of Pengorffwysfa.

Viewed from Mynydd Eilian.

At the trig point on Mynydd Eilian.

The first of many flocks of Starlings seen today.

Starlings on power lines near Pen-yr-allt.

The tower on Ynas Dulas.

Ynys Dulas from Porth Helygen near our lunch spot.

Fungi on the Coastal path heading North towards Point Lynas.

Looking North towards Pount Lynas.

Point Lynas lighthouse.

Searching for Porpoise from the view point at Point Lynas.

The Coast looking South east from Point Lynas.

Looking over Porth Eilian towards Point Lynas.

Walk stats: Distance: 8.2miles. Climb: 1749' (Wind assisted GPS reading), in reality about 1000'.

Time: 5 hours 8  minutes. On the move walking average: 2.0 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.6 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn and Ed.

W intended to leave my car at the Pensarn Beach car park, but when we arrived there, we learnt that it was to be closed at 17-00 in preparation for a firework display later on. As it was doubtful that we would get back in time, we moved down the coast and left the car at The Beachcomber car park, Llandulas.

 Almost all the way to Llaneilian, we drove through very light rain, but thankfully it stopped as  we approached our start point.

 The weather all day was overcast, but dry, with a wind that at times was quite strong, but thankfully not cold. In fact it looked as though we had the better of the weather as the main land seemed to be in mist all day.

 Our route took us inland to the highest point of the day, Mynydd Eilian. The views from Mynydd Eilian were superb, and we could see all of our walk ahead of us Even so the unusual water tower on the coast North east of Amlwch stood out. 

 As we headed towards the coast from Mynydd Eilian, we kept on seeing large flocks of Starling, not a common on sight on our walks.

 Other birds seen or heard today included: European robin, Common chaffinch, Common blackbird, Common pheasant, red grouse, Black billed magpie, Eurasian jay, Eurasian curlew, Oystercatcher, Blue tit, Great tit, Long-tailed tit, winter wren and Grey partridge.

 Lunch was taken overlooking Porth Helygen where once again we saw a Grey seal. 

 After lunch as we headed along the Coastal Path towards Point Lynas, the wind picked up a little and by the time we arrived at the lighthouse it could be described as being bracing to say the least.

The Coastal Watch hut was manned and the man on duty pointed out Porpoises just off the coast. He also said that a Gannet could be seen, but we didn't spot them.

 The muddiest path all day was experienced as we climbed from Porthyrychen to Llaneilian church.

 Overall a good a good walk, again a walk that would be equally as good to do in the Summer.

 After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Pilot Boat Inn, Dulas, where the tea went down well (Robinson's brews aren't one o my favourite tipples!) and Ed sampled the Unicorn bitter.

Walks and Dates October 2017

Advanced notice.
Harris Hikers Annual Meal 2018.
Probable Venue: The Red Fox, Thornton Hough. 
This is another Brunning and Price hostelry.
Date: Thursday 8th February 2018.
I haven't approached the Red Fox yet, and won't do so until early in January 2018, so if you prefer another venue, I am open to suggestions.
I will contact everyone by e-mail in December to check how many are interested in joining us for the meal.
Thursday 5th October 2017.

Thurstaston Common, Stapledon Wood, Caldy and More.

Distance:8-10 miles. Climb:1000'.

Start: Thurstaston Visitor Centre Car Park. Grid ref:SJ239835.

Leave Chester at 9-00 a.m.

This is a repeat of the walk that we usually do in January, so I thought it was about time we tried it out in a different time of the year.  The route combines two walks from Raymond Roberts' booklet "Wirral Walks - the West Wirral Six". This is a relatively easy walk with good views along the way, especially from Thurstaston Hill. We hope to walk back to Thursaston along the beach, so bring binoculars with you. High tide is at 13-27, even though it is a 30.5' tide (9.3 m), it should have gone out far enough by the time we get to the coast. If not we have always got the Wirral Way.

Saturday 7th October 2017.

Llugwy and Lledre.

Distance: 8-9 miles; Climb: 1000'.

Start: Railway station car park in the centre of Betws-y Coed. Grid ref: SH795565. 

Leave Chester at 8-30 a.m. (It takes about 1 hour 10 minutes from Saltney)

This is another walk taken from Dave Berry's new book "Walks Around Betws-y-Coed and the Conwy Valley". This walk links the beautiful wooded Llugwy and Lledre Valleys. It takes in Sarn Helen, the former Roman Road, and reaches over 800' before descending in to the Lledre Valley. It involves a steep climb to Llyn Elsi or at least that is what Dave Berry says!
The last couple of times I have done this, the weather has not been kind, but hopefully at this time of the year it may not be quite so wet!

Thursday 12th October 2017.

Lady Bagot's Drive and More.

Distance:8-0 miles. Climb: 600'.

Start: Ruthin Riverside Car park (Pay and display - £3-50). Grid ref: SJ121582.

Leave Chester 9-00 a.m.

This walk combines two walks from Dave Berry's book "Walks in the Vale of Clwyd".  We have completed this walk many times before in all sorts of weather conditions. Conditions underfoot have been particularly challenging after lots of rain and the Afon Clwyd is in spate.  In the past we have seen Kingfishers and Salmon jumping the weir, seeing either again would be nice.

Saturday  14th October 2017.

No walk - I'm going for my flew jab.

Thursday 18th October 2017.

Cwn Dulas, Cefn yr Ogof and Gop Wood.

Distance:10 miles; Climb:1300'.
Start location. Abergele, Pensarn Beach car park by PC. Grid ref:SH942786.
Leave Chester 9-00 a.m.
The bulk of the walk is taken from Dave Berry's book "Walks on the North Wales Coast", with an extension to include the small hill Cefn yr Ogof. Always a good walk with several opportunities to have extensive views. We may decide to explore Gop Wood a little more. If we miss out Cefn yr Ogof, the walk will be a mile or so shorter and the climb reduced by about half.

Saturday 21st October 2017.

Deganwy Castle and the Great Orme. 
Postponed due to the weather forecast suggesting high winds and heavy rain all day.

Distance:10 miles; Climb:1900'.

Start:Roadside parking near the Public Conveniences on the West shore of Llandudno. Grid ref:SH773819.

Leave Chester 9-00 a.m.

The main walk today is the Deganwy Castle walk taken from Dave Berry's book "Walks on the North Wales Coast". Sections of this walk have been known to be muddy in the past.

The extension to the walk , after returning to the car, will involve most of the circuit of the limestone plateau on the Great Orme, including a visit to the trig point and descent via the Monks' path to the toll road. There are plenty of options to shorten the walk if required.

Thursday 26th October 2017.

Around Gwystaney and More.

Distance: 6.0 miles, 8.5 miles or 9.5 miles or 10.5 miles (decided on the day, as and when we have to make a decision!).

Climb: 1500', but depends on the actual route we decide to take after lunch! 

Start. Parking area near the children's play ground in Rhosesmore. Grid ref: SJ214684.

The walk uses two walks from Dave Berry's book " Walks Around Holywell Mountain and Halkyn Mountain. Our usual route normally includes Cwm Conwy, but I suspect that today's walk won't! The Gwystaney walk is described as a walk through the undulating countryside between Rhosesmor and Sychdyn, exploring the lush wooded Gwysaney Estate. The second walk at least includes visiting Moel Y Gaer hill-fort and how much more depends on us!

Saturday  28th October 2017.

Mynydd Eilian and Point Lynas and More.

Distance: 7-10 miles. Climb: 1000'.

Start: Llaneilian Car Park. Grid ref: SH474929.

Leave Chester at 08-00 a.m.

This walk combines two walks from Dave Berry's book "Best Walks in North Wales". The walk visits one of Anglesey's high points, and follows a section of the Coastal Path. A good section of the coastal path is on concessionary paths that are closed on some days. I've e-mailed Anglesey Council, but as yet they haven't go back to me.  I'm sure that we can use our map reading expertise to get round any path that is closed! Walking along the coast is always good at any time of the year, especially if you get good weather'. Let's hope we will get good weather on this occasion.
The difference in mileage depends on how much of an extension we add on to the planned walk.

Around Gwysaney and More 26th October 2017

Looking back towards Moel y Gaer.

looking across the valley from Bryn -caeTudur towards Tan-y-wal.

Gwysaney hall.

Fungi in the meadow South of Sarn Galed.

Fungi in the meadow South of Sarn Galed.

Fungi in the meadow South of Sarn Galed.

Sheep in the fields next to Sarn Galed.

An unusually friendly sheep.

Jim, successfully negotiating "Roger's stile".

Walk stats: Distance: 7.3 miles. (8 for Mike). Climb: 573'.

Time: 4 hours 9 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.1 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.8 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Mike and Jim.

A rather overcast day, but no rain worth mentioning, no wind and quite pleasant for walking. I don't know what Mike had for breakfast, but by the time we reached the Southern entrance of Big Wood, a usual lunch spot, it was only 11-09. trying to keep up with him we were walking at an average speed of 2.5 m.p.h. This was far too early for lunch, so we carried on for another hour and had lunch just after entering Ram Wood where we took advantage of a low wall, probably used as one of the horse jumps for cross country horse events.

 Pheasants were everywhere, so we assumed that any shoots on this estate hadn't yet taken place.

 On the climb to Sarn Galed we saw lots of Red coloured fungi with some looking very pink when they had spit open . These could have been Scarlet wax caps, but trying to identify fungi from books is never easy.

 Birds seen or heard today included: Blue tit, Long tailed tit, House sparrow, Winter wren. Black bile magpie, Carrion crow, Jackdaw, Woodpigeon, Eurasian jay, Common pheasant and Common buzzard.

 Not long after starting on the extension part of the walk, Jim pulled a muscle, so we decided to cut the walk short and head straight back to he car. In fact Mike race ahead of and brought the car to meet us, saving us the last half a mile or so.

 Too early for the Blue Bell, we headed for the Britannia Inn at Halkyn, where the Lees bitter went down well. You can always rely on the Lees bitter being in excellent condition t this hostelry -  I'd almost forgotten how good Lees bitter tasted!

Cwm Dulas, Cefn yr Ogof and Gopa Wood 19th Ocober 2017

Looking West from Abergele towards Llandulas.

Who's the poser then?

Common redshank and Turnstone on the rocks as high tide approaches.

Looking across towards Llandulas Quarry from the path leading to Cefn yr Ogof.

Panorama  from the path leading to Cefn yr Ogof.

At the trig point on Cefn yr Ogof.

Crossing the "new" stile North of Cefn yr Ogof.

Craig y Forwyn from the village of Rhyd-y-foel.

On the path below Pen-y-coeddyn-mawr.

Is that where you should be?

Is this the latest walking fashion - an umbrella?

Walk stats: Distance: 9.2 miles. Climb: 1129'.

Time: 5 hours 0 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.3 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.8 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Sue and Michel, David S, Celia, Mike and Ed.

Overall this turned out be a good day for walking, mainly dry, not much Sun and very little wind. It was only in the last hour that we had any rain at all and that wasn't enough for me to put on waterproofs on, although Ed did ue his umbrella for short period.

 As we set off from Abergele, the sea was well in, but few birds could be seen except for Great cormorants and Herring gulls. Careful looking out to see a few Common scoter could be seen. As we approached Llandulas every groyne post seemed to be occupied by a Great cormorant, there must have been over fifty in all.

 Heading inland our route took us to the trig point on Cefn yr Ogof, a superb viewpoint looking West. It was pleasing to see that since our last visit,  a stile had been constructed over the broken stone wall and a new fence erected alongside of the wall.

 Lunch was taken on the slopes of Cefn yr Ogof, overlooking the Dulas valley.

 We had good views from the path that contoured on the West side of  Pen-y-coeddyn-mawr. Up to this point we hadn't had any hint of rain, but as we approached Gopa Wood we started to feel a bit of the wet stuff on any skin that was exposed, so we decide that on this occasion we wouldn't do any further exploring of the wood, but head straight back to the start.

 Birds seen or heard today included: Herring gull, Oystercatcher, Great cormorant, Pied wagtail, Goldfinch, House sparrow, Turnstone, Common redshank, European robin, Mallard, Woodpigeon, Eurasian jay, Collard dove and Common buzzard.

 Overall a good walk, making the best of the day weatherwise and thankful that the heavy rain only came when we were in the car on the way home.

 After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Blue Bell Inn at Halkyn where Flintshire Bitter and Black Bart Cider went well. I was even home early enough to do a "Tim Dwyer" - head to Chester and sample a curry at Wetherspoons as Thursday is their Curry day.

Lady Bagot's Drive and more 12th October 2017

Waiting for the "leader" after the first climb of the day.

Crossing the Afon Clywedog, South west of Rhewl.

Autumnal colours beginning to show on Lady Bagot's Drive.

Looking North east tover Rhewl towards the Clwydian Hills.

Information board adjacent to our lunch spot.

Trig point found?

Not David's choice of stile!

"Well that was a waste of time".

Walk stats: Distance: 9.5 miles.Climb: 540'.

Time: 5 hours 40 minutes, On the move walking average: 2.3 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.7 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Roger, Mike and David S.

 This turned out to be a really good day for walking, pleasantly warm, hardly any wind and after lunch plenty of sunshine.

 Lady Bagot's drive was delightful, with sunlight penetrating the canopy highlighting the start of Autumnal colours in the leaves.

 The views of the Clwydian Hills as we descended the fields from Coed Nant towards Rhewl were superb. 

 Lunch was taken in the centre of Rhewl, where two benches provided dry resting places as we basked in the Sun as we enjoyed the contents of our lunch boxes.

 After lunch we set off from Rhewl towards Llanynys, although it wasn't our intention to go that far.

 We went in search of a trig point marked on the OS map that had eluded us on previous occasions.

 Mike found it, well we think he did, when he spotted a ring on the grass in the middle of the junction.

 Much of the walk after that was along the banks of the Afon Clywedog, a river that was as high as I have ever seen it. Most of this section in the past had stiles that weren't of the highest standard, but since our last visit had been replaced by new kissing gates, a blessing to those that are getting a little less dexterous in limb, even if they aren't as aesthetically appealing to some.

 Just after passing Clwyd Hall, we came across two sheep with heads trapped in the wire fence. We attempted to free them, but in vain, so Mike set off to the farm  Plas Llanchant to inform the farmer, but alas his journey was in vain too. Hopefully the farmer would check out his sheep before it was too late,

 Passing the sewage farm, several people were watching at the Salmon leap, they said that the Salmon were there, but today they hadn't attempted to get up the weir, but had so the day before.

 We arrived back at the cars with legs a little more tired than expected, but there again the distance was a little longer than expected too.

 Birds seen or heard today included: Carrion crow, Raven, European robin, House sparrow, Common pheasant, Black-billed magpie, Pied wagtail, Mute swan and Woodpigeon.

 After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Castle Hotel in Ruthin, were David enjoyed sampling the Ruddles and I sampled one of the festival brews.

 Overall an enjoyable walk, despite the claggy mud that had to be removed from our boots when we got home.

Thurstaston Common, The Dungeon, Royden Country Park and Caldy 5th October 2017

Our first view of the Dee Estuary from the Wirral Way, but is the tide in or out?

The bottom of The Dungeon.

The Dee Estuary from the top of the steps on The Dungeon path.

"Is this really the waterfall in The Dungeon.

Looking across the estuary towards the North Wales from the path South of Thursaston Church.

Thursaston church from the South.

Thurstaton church from Telegraph Road.

The Dee Estuary from the toposcope on Thurstaston Common.

A brisk march on the shore from Caldy to Thurstaston.

Walk stats: Distance: 8.1 miles. Climb: 900' wind assisted on the on the GPS, but probably nearer 700' in reality.

Time: 4 hours 32 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.2 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.8 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Roger, Celia and David S.

The forecast for today was pretty good with little rain on the cards, but quite a strong North westerly wind. This was exactly what we got, but probably with a lot more sunshine than expected, making me wish that I hadn't opted to wear my fleece for the whole walk!

  In order to avoid the trek up Station Road, we set off along the Wirral Way, through The Dungeon to reach the described walk at Thurstatston Church. Much of this section gave us good views of the Dee Estuary and the incoming tide.

 Our walk across Thurstaston Common, started on a path around a boggy area that we learned was locally known as Kitty's Flash. It was in this area that we had superb views of a Common kestrel, probably a young one from the calls that it was giving.

 Once again we had good views from the toposcope on Thurstaston Hill, with the Great Orme seen in the distance on one side and the cathedrals of Liverpool on the other.

 After passing the sandstone outcrop called Thor's Stone we headed for Royden Country Park, where we knew there were plenty of pic-nic tables we could utilise for  lunch.

 After lunch we headed for Caldy where our route took us past some very prestigious properties where garages were bigger than my little semi!

 Arriving at the beach at Caldy we were met with a pretty strong cool wind, which thankfully assisted us on the way back to Thurstaston Visitor Centre, the start of the walk. Thankfully at this time the tide had gone out sufficiently to allow us n easy way walk on firm sand below the sea defences

 Unfortunately at this time the Sun was shining at its brightest, making spotting birds on the estuary quite difficult.

 Birds seen or heard today included: House sparrow, Carrion crow, Woodpigeon, Collared dove, Common kestrel, Herring gull, Black-headed gull, Eurasian curlew, Oystercatcher, Eurasian jay, Canada goose and Black-billed magpie.

 We arrived back at the car having had a good walk and only two stile, none of which really challenged Roger!

 After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Red Fox at Thornton Hough, a Brunning and Price hostelry.

 Dunham Massey's Walker's Bitter went down well. hey also had an impressive selection of real ciders on offer. 

 This could well be the venue for Harris Hikers annual meal 2018.