Buckley Town and Heritage Trails and More 20th August 2022

Quite an unusual Centitaph at the Coranation Gardens, Buckley, 

The first heritage sculpture (no 7) that we encountered on the veast side of Knowl Hill Gravel Pits, now an SSCI (access restrictedas a site with Great crested newts known to be breeding.

Knowl Hill Gravel Pits, now an SSCI - the nearest we could get thanks to a local who allowed us to view it from his garden.

The start of the Heritage trail

The start of the Heritage trail.

Globe Pool.

No 2 o the Sculpture on the trail.

The vtrack along the old railway track towardss the Brick Lane Works.

St., Matthew's Church, Bistre, Buckley.

Distant views of the Clwydian Hills including Moel Famau.

A view of Moel Famau is a mst on any Flintshire walk!

A delightful path on the way back to Buckley.

Happy memories of swimming here with HGS and later with my father.

Distance: 10.0 miles Climb: 827' (wind vassisted GPS reading.

Time: 4 hours 49 minutes. On the moe walking average: 2.6 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 2.0m.p.h.

Temperature 20.1 - 24.0 Cesius.

Beaufort Wind Force: 1 - 3 (max gusting to 11.1 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn and Ed.

This walk was in some doubt.Ed had n electricity outage that was only resolved with calling out an elsctrician yesterday evening, and I had a power cut this morning (05-00) thankfully restored about an hour later.

Not a walk we would normally expect to do, but one I could get to the start on a bus from home.

I arrived pretty well on time, but would have been earlier had I got off the bus at The Tiv, raher than the Black Lion in Buckley.

The walk was quite challenging in terms of route finding, but with continual reference to the trail guides (not that good) and OS maps and our GPS mapping it worked quite well.

It was disappointing that the nature reserves we were hoping to walk around had no acces, so we followeed too many tracks along green metal fences. Most pools we were expecting to see, we didn't!

Birds seen or heard today included: Grey heron, Cot, Common blackbird, Herring gull and Black headed gull.

Lunch was taken near Buckley Mountain, where large stones gave us a suitable place to sit, at least off road, but notwith a particularly good views.

The surprise of the day was the number of green spaces around Buckley that we encountered - a real bonus for the Buckley area.

Very little of the walk was in open countryside, but we did get a short section around istre Cottage Farm that gave us good views towards Llandega, the Clocaenog Wind Farm and eventually Moel Famau.

We arrived back at the car, having had a good and "interesting" walk and looking forward to a decent pint of beer.

Buckle is not kown for pubs having real ale, so I was only to happy to agree with Ed's suggestion to drive to the Central Hotel (a Wetherspoons) for refreshment. Not the best selection on, but it stop me trying one or two!

 

Caergwrle - An Ancient Packhorse Trail 8th October 2015

I couldn't resist putting a couple of photos of this Sparrowhawk hoping to catch breakfast as birds visited the feeders in my garden. 

As far as I now it went away hungry!

Crossing a former packhorse bridge - slightly modified.

We did a lot of this - trekking across fields.

Another field to cross, but on this occasion no inquisitive young cows in tow.

One of the better stiles encountered - well we did managed to cross it.

Another stile, but we didn't even attempt to cross this one!

Don't argue with the Caergwrle mafia!

or

You shouldn't have gone on that fat-free diet!

Walk stats: Distance: 9.4 miles. Climb: 476'.

Time: 5 hours 26 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.2 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.7 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Annie, Celia, David S., Tim, Phil and Paul.

We set off from Caergwrle Public Car Park with the prospect of good weather all day. In fact it was largely bright and sunny, but at times a little on the humid side. The morning part of the walk went without any problems except for a few fields that were a little on the claggy muddy side.

 A suitable lunch spot wasn't easy to find, so we had to put up with a verge on the roadside at Burton Green or around a tree just inside a field with an open gate.

 After lunch Paul left us and headed along the road directly for Caergwrle as he needed to get back in time for his Thursday grandparent duties. 

 We decided take a more circuitous route back, in the end not a particularly beneficial decision, but we did get to chat with a friendly local mole catcher before we started to encounter stile after stile that were in great need of a  little TLC.

 After missing one path we did a little quick re-routing to get back on track and arrived back at the car to find that Annie can no longer lay claim to being the only one to have found notes left on her windows screen.  We had notes written by a local resident we had met earlier and who had suggested that ramblers shouldn't park in this car park as it would prevent locals using it. The note however suggested we should use a mini-bus so that we didn't take up more than one space!

 Birds seen or heard today included: House sparrow, Common pheasant, Common buzzard, Jackdaw, Rook, Woodpigeon and Pied wagtail.

 After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Red Lion at Penyfordd, where Timothy Taylor's Landlord and a Young's brew were sampled by some of the group.

A Ysceifiog, Lixwm and Nannerch Round 23rd May 2013

On the way to Babell.

Bluebells on the wlk today.

Welsh poppies and Bluebells in the last wood of the day.

Ysceifiog Church - the final approach.

Inside the church at Ysceifiog.

Ysceifiog church from the main gate.

Walk stats: Distance: 9.1 miles. Climb: 1370'.

Time: 4 hours 59 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.3 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.8 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Phil, Celia, Wendy and David S.

The weather forecast for the day was lots of showers, some of them heavy.  Thankfully we did get the odd shower, not any really heavy ones, except when we were picking Celia up at 08-55 this morning.  This is a bit of a roller coaster type of walk, that went through several delightful woods with plenty of sunlight filtering through the branches and lots of Spring / Summer flowers blooming. These included lots of Bluebells, Primrose, Cowslip, Common Dog violet, Welsh poppy, Field speedwell, Dandelion, Daisy, Bramble, Early purple orchid, Lesser celandine, Greater stitchwort, Lesser stitchwort, Red campion, Creeping buttercup. Meadow buttercup, Garlic mustard Ramson,  and even Daffodils (but I'm not sure that they were wild ones).  I reality there were probably many more!

Birds seen or heard today included: Common blackbird, Jackdaw, House sparrow, Barn swallow, Common swift, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Great tit, Carrion crow, Raven, Willow warbler, Blue tit, Greenfinch and Blackcap.

Lunch was taken as we left Rofts Wood. We sat in bright sunshine for most of the time, but a five minute rain burst hurried us, but not before enjoying some fruit cake to celebrate David S's surviving his first year with the group.

After walk drinks were enjoyed at Britannia Inn, despite the Lees bitter not being quite at its usual best!

Coed Pen-y-Gelli and More 13th May 2013

Wood anemone in Coed Allt-y-tywod.

Bluebells in Coed Allt-y-tywod.

A carpet of Bluebells just starting to appear in Coed allt-y-tywod.

Bluebells in Coed y Garreg.

Cowslips North east of Crown Wood.

Early purple orchid North east of Crown Wood.

The path along the Western edge of Coed Pen-y-gelli.

Not everyone's favourite flower, but in large numbers even the Dandelion gives an  impressive show.

Walk stats: distance: 5.4 miles. Climb: About 600' (the wind assisted 1290' on the GPS is a little over the top!)

Time: 2 hours 49 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.2 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.9 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn and Roger. 

This was Roger's first walk for some time, so I decided to repeat the walk done by a few of us on the 10th of the month, just hoping that a few more Bluebells were showing.  A few more were in bloom, but no where enough to match the impressive Bluebell carpets seen in earlier year.  I think we may have to repeat at least one of our Bluebell Wood walks in the first week of June.

At least we did see Bluebells and quite a few more wild flowers blooming.

The cool wind made sure that there was no chance of either of us over heating, but thankfully the sun was shining most of the time and we didn't get any of the predicted rain showers.

We had lunch just as we entered Coed Pen-y-gelli, taking advantage of recently felled tree trunks lying on the forest floor.  As it was Roger's first walk in 2013, we celebrated with a piece of well mature fruit cake.

Birds seen or heard today included: House sparrow, Common blackbird, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Woodpigeon, Common pheasant, Barn swallow, Carrion crow, Jackdaw, Rook, Chiffchaff, Greenfinch, Blue tit, Great tit, Coal tit, winter wren and Common buzzard.

After walk drinks, as usual were enjoyed at the Britannia Inn, where Martyn nearly left without paying for his take-away!

Roger coped well with his first walk, and hopes to join us on our next walk.

Coed Pen-y-Gelli 9th May 2013

Bluebells in Coed Allt-y-tywod.

Striding out along the field paths, heading for Coed-y-Garreg.

Common Spotted orchid.

Cowslips.

A new (to us) part of Chwarel Pen-y-Gelli.

The lime kiln in Chwarel Pen-y-Gelli.

Walk stats: Distance: 6.3 miles. Climb: 968' (probably wind assisted).

Time: 3 hours 14 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.4 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 2.0 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Phil, David S., Sue and Dave P.

If you believed the weather forecast, this was a day when we should have stayed at home. Thankfully like Sue we looked out of the window and saw that the Sun was shining, so let's go for it!

Just as we arrived at Lloc, it started to rain, but only a few spots, but we donned our waterproofs in anticipation of the downpour to arrive soon.  Rain was always in the air, but it never reached the really unpleasant, "why I am here?" levels.

This was the second of our Bluebell wood walks and thankfully today we did manage to see a few in Coed Allt-y-tywod and Coed Pen-y-Gelli. We did see Early spotted orchids and Cowslips just starting to bloom too.  All these flowers blooming, it was enough to make you think it was Summer, despite the less than double digit temperatures!

We had lunch as usual at Chwarel Pen-y-Gelli Nature Reserve, sheltering from the gentle rain and the cool breeze the best we could. It didn't encourage us to linger long, and poor David didn't have enough time to eat his chocolate snack!

Overall this was a very enjoyable walk, especially so as we explore more of the paths through Coed Pen-y-Gelli and the Nature Reserve, paths I'm sure we will return to again and again.

When we arrived back at the car, we decided that our best option was to miss out on the second loop of the walk around Gorsedd and head straight for the Britannia Inn, and also give Phil the chance to get back early to be with his Granddaughter  It turned out to be a good decision as it seemed to be raining even heavier as we headed down the A55 on the way home.

Birds seen or heard today were few and far between, but included: Chaffinch, Common blackbird, Chiffchaff, Carrion crow, Jackdaw, Rook, Goldfinch, Barn swallow, Black-billed magpie, Woodpigeon and Blue tit.

Thanks to Sue and Dave P, I didn't have to drive, so I could really enjoy my earlier than usual Lees bitter at the Britannia Inn at Halkyn. Just for the record, I wasn't the only one to enjoy the Lees bitter!

Waun-y-Llyn, Hope Mountain and Wood Pit 12th July 2012

Three girls out for a chat!.

Tito on a mission!

At the toposcope in Waun-y-Llyn Country Park.

Looking towards Wayn-y-Llyn.

A superb meadow of Common spotted orchids, red and white clover, Meadow buttercups and more!

A closer view of some of the flowers in the meadow just outside Llanfynydd.

Walk stats: 10.1 miles. Climb: 1331'

Time: 6 hours 26 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.2 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.7 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Sue and Michel, Celia, David S., Sylvia and Dave J., Fran and Tito

The forecast for today was good, well at least 'till about 13-00, but they got it wrong at it was very good throughout the whole of the walk (around 16-00)! a glorious day for walking with superb views all day. Both cathedrals in Liverpool could clearly be seen as well as the coast towards Formby, the Cheshire plain and beyond and of cause on our local patch, Moel Fammau.

However the highlight of the day was having the Ravazzolos joining us for the walk for the first time for a while.

Whilst some of the walk was somewhat contrived, it turned out to be very enjoyable, and everyone that we met on the walk and chatted to, were delightful, especially one young lady that had six dogs on tow. we think we saw her van at the car park, that had the words "I love dogs and my dogs love me" on the side!

Some of the walk was proved challenging, especially the stiles and the overgrown or muddy status of the paths, my legs are still tingling from the abundant Stinging nettles that we encountered, and the bites from Horseflies didn't help either.

The final stretch of the walk towards Llanfynydd was a bonus as we went through a meadow that had an incredible number of Common spotted orchids in flower as well as other flowers.

The last part of the walk along the old railway track through Wood Pitt was in anyone's words,  "delightful"!.

A lovely walk that I'm sure will be repeated.

After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Bridge Inn at Pontblyddyn, where the Brain's bitter went down well after the usual Cottage brew wasn't up to scratch!

Birds seen or heard today included: Common buzzard, Collared dove, Greenfinch, House sparrow, Goldfinch, Barn swallow, Chiffchaff, Long-tailed tit, Stonechat, Common blackbird, Sparrowhawk, Carrion crow, Raven, House martin, Common swift and Linnet.