Date: 12th – 15th February 2004
Participants: Graham Beevor, Howard Hillier-Daines, Drew Rush, Malcolm Rush,
John Schmitt and Geoff Wright.
This year we were a little closer to home – Wales (again).
Our plan was to walk the Berwyn Hills in North Wales and we had arranged to stay in Llangollen. So, on Thursday evening six of us made our way up the motorway and back over the border.
Our chosen B&B was Cambrian House, a Grade II listed property almost in the centre of town.
Friday
After breakfast we set off to climb the Berwyn Peaks and on the way to Tyn-y-ffridd, our starting point, we had a rather scary experience. We were in two cars and Howard, with Geoff navigating, were leading the way up a narrow lane when all of a sudden a 7.5ton lorry came hurtled round a bend towards them. The lorry swerved and ended up in a ditch with his wheels off the ground. Whilst composing ourselves after this ordeal we could hear the driver on his mobile, presumably talking to his employer, saying ‘I’ve done it again’!
Without further incident we arrived, parked the cars and headed north towards the footpath that would lead us up the hill. We followed the wall edge to the rocky outcrop at Foel Won.
From there we continued west to Tomle. We had lunch a little further on before we started on the footpath up to Berwyn Ridge. By now it was quite misty.
We then made the final climb north to the cairn at Cadair Bronwen, where Graham read us the story of the peak.
From here we retraced our route south and continued first to Cadair Berwyn and then Moel Sych at a height of 827 meters.
The mist by now was even worse and visibility was becoming fairly difficult.
We hiked a little further south before turning east to follow the footpath down the hill, first past the lake and then onto a stream. From here we tried to follow a rough bearing east towards the fence junction and as usual, and despite the mist, started to spread out over the hillside. Geoff was at the front on the left edge, heading straight up to the fence, with Malcolm a bit further behind and everyone else even further back. Malcolm recalls the descent:
‘I remember the poor visibility. I think Geoff was in front of me (with
a map) and the rest were behind (with the other map). We were getting
stretched out and I was in danger of losing sight of everyone else so I
was hurrying to try to catch up with Geoff. We eventually came to a
fence line but weren't sure if Graham and Co. would hit it to the left
or the right of where we were.’
After reaching the fence Geoff and Malcolm followed it round to the junction and waited sometime for the others. Eventually they left a note on the fence post and moved on further east and amazingly caught up with the others as they came out of the mist. As it turned out Graham and Co had actually hit the fence in a slightly different place and instead of following it round to the junction had gone south-east, passing Geoff and Malcolm as they waited.
We eventually reached the cars, having covered about 18km (11miles) and returned to the B&B, where we met Peter Cox who had decided to visit and spend the night.
Peter had in fact arrived much earlier and had been in to town to try and book a table for our evening meal, at a pub recommended by Graham Hicks. However, despite actually being the night before Saint Valentine’s Day they were fully booked.
After changing we all walked into town and ended up at the Wynnstay Arms in Bridge Street, where we ate and drank.
Saturday
We were going to walk out from Llangollen and catch the train back from Glyndfrdwy or even Carrog.
Peter had departed and was going to have a walk around town before driving home. The rest of us walked down to the station to check the timetable, only to discover that it was a special Thomas the Tank Engine day.
As a result ticket prices were inflated and we decided to abandon the original plan.
Our alternative plan was to return to the hills and on this occasion we would climb Moel Fferna.
On the way back to the B&B to collect the cars we stopped at the second hand bookstore for a browse round and met Peter, who was also there and rather surprised to see us.
Our drive out to our starting point, a car park in Ceiriog Forest followed a similar route to the previous day. Howard being a little wary did not want a repeat of the previous day, so he asked Graham to drive along the narrow lanes first.
From the car park we walked north-west through the forest to the cattle grid at the entrance. Here we turned west along the path that would lead all the up the hill to the summit of Moel Fferna.
Once again it was misty but this time there was also some light rain.
It was a fairly boring walk but where the path makes a significant change in direction there was an interesting boulder that we spent some time admiring.
Following this little bit of light relief we continued to the summit and had our lunch in the shelter.
After lunch we proceeded in a southerly direction following the path and fence through the mist.
We found an interesting plant growing on the fence posts, which Graham later was able to reliably inform us is called Cladonia floerkeana, lichen that only grows in very clean air.
The return journey was fairly straightforward – east, down to the woods then onto Fron-heulog. And, from there it was north up the hill and along the path through the fields, full of brightly coloured pheasants, to the car park. Graham identified them as Reeves Pheasants, not found in the wild in Britain, except as escapes.
Back at the B&B we washed, changed and prepared ourselves for another night in town. Because of the problems from the previous evening we set of early in the hope of avoiding the numerous loving couples that had already booked their tables. We had wanted to eat the Simla Indian restaurant and were a little surprised when we were turned away. But, while we were hanging round outside, wondering what to do, they took pity and took us. The proviso was that we had to be finished within an hour.
We agreed and an hour later strolled down to the Wynnstay Arms, where we spent a second evening enjoying their beer, playing cards and recounting the 14km (8.5 miles) we had hiked.
Sunday
Our Sunday morning exercise, before the journey home, consisted of a walk out of town and up the steep hill to see the ruins of Castel Dinas Bran (Dinas Bran Castle). It was both a hill fort and medieval castle with it’s Iron Age defences and castle located high above the town on a rectangular platform.
Legend has it that the original fortress was built by a Prince named Bran who came to live there following a disagreement with his brother Beli.
The castle is also known as the 'Grail Castle' due to its legendary links with the Holy Grail.
After loading the cars with our gear we walked down the main street and crossed both the river and the canal (which was dry as they were doing some refurbishment work).
We followed the path north up the hill and then east up the castle mound. It was a clear day so, as we wandered around the grounds, we had some good views in all direction.
We returned to town by following the path to the north-east, round the north edge of the castle and down the footpath.
We returned to the B&B for the cars and drove along the A539 to the pub at the northern end of the Thomas Telford Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.
Here we climbed down to the River Dee to look at the supports of this world famous structure that carries the Llangollen Canal 120ft above the river.
It was then back to the pub for some lunch before our journey home.