A Berwyn Circuit With Horseshoe Fall Views 3rd April 2019

Looking North to the Horseshoe Falls from Pendre road.

On the road to Pendre.

Primroses and Bluebells in flower on the roadside.

Looking acrss the valley towards Rhewl and Maesyrychen Mountain.

On the delightful track from Pendr to the A5.

Not a good day to be a young lamb, even if you have just had a warm drink!

A pair of Mandarin ducks on the banks of the River Dee.

Looking across the River Dee towards the Eglywyseg Escarpments.

Snow on the Eglywyseg Escarpments.

Last views of the river.

Walk stats: Distance: 4.0 miles. Climb: 457'.

Time: 1 hour 54 minutes. On the move walking average; 2.6 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 2.1 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Sue and Michel.

The original walk with a possible extension to Moel Fferna didn't tempt Nigel to join us on his first walk after retirement and with the snow falling heavily as we arrived at the start, that we decided to do a shorter low level walk.

 The Butterfly Man lay-by will have to be renamed as the RuthLee lay-by as Ruth Lee Limited have started a new factory there making manikins safety training equipment. This is in addition to their first factory down the road at Corwen.

 The walk undertaken was one that Sue and Michel had done previously and started on a minor road West of Berwyn station (grid ref: SJ196432).

 The route followed this minor road as far as Pendr where a footpath/track followed the edge of a forest up to the A5. On reaching the A5 we followd it East towards Llangollen and after a hundred metres or so took the minor road and dropped down to the road that we had initially used on the outward journey.

 Soon after starting we had good views of the Horseshoe Falls, marred only by the trees that had grown on the South bank of the river around the Horseshoe Falls.

 There was plenty of snow on the hill above Rhewl and the Eglywyseg Escarpments looked majestic in the white coat.

 The surprise today was to see Bluebells just beginning to come in to flower on the edge of  the wood North west of Rhysgog Farm.

 Primroses were abundant, particularly in a field just off the A5. 

 The birds of the day were a pair of Mandarin ducks on the river bank West of the Horseshoe  Falls.

 Birds seen or heard today included: Mallard, Mandarin duck, Blue tit, Great tit, Wood nuthatch, Common blackbird and Winter wren.

 Although we set off in sleet, by the time we arrived back at the car, it was much brighter and had almost entirely stopped.

 After removing our waterproof and had lunch in the comfort of the car before setting off home.

 Overall a very enjoyable stroll, probably the best we could do considering the amount of snow that greeted us at RuthLee Lay-by. Today was not a day for tramping across exposed moorland just to get to the top of Moel Fferna.