One fabulous and one rather awful day on the Llangollen Round walk in North Wales

Dates walked: 22nd and 23rd November 2018

Distance: about 8 miles on both days

Map Used:  OS Explorer 256 Wrexham and Llangollen

Guide Used: The Llangollen Round , obtainable via the website for the walk at this link (£5)

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22nd

After a couple of days of not very nice crappy weather I was beginning to feel that I was not getting the best of this walk. So when I threw the curtains back on Day 3 (curtains are always thrown back , aren’t they?) I was ecstatic to see blue sky. I breakfasted early (for me) and by 9 o clock I was heading out. The plan for today was to complete section C and then do D, finishing on the A542 at Ponderosa – a modest 7 or eight miles.

But first I had to get back to where I had left off yesterday.

Crossing the Dee……

…. and then the canal…

….I climbed back up the hill passing the secondary school, where a surprisingly large number of tardy pupils were still arriving.  I climbed continuously for about two miles, passing behind Castell Dinas Bran, silhouetted by the still hidden sun.

Nice picture Charles!

It was a cold but glorious morning. Up ahead the cliff face of the Eglwyseg rocks beckoned.

You might not be able to make out them beckoning but I assure you that they were.

I’ll throw in another pic of the cliffs as you had such a visually dull time of it over the last two write-ups.

See them beckoning just under the left hand branch

I rejoined the point where I had left the road yesterday, picking up the Offa’s Dyke Path (but not actually the Llangollen Round route, which was on top of the cliffs).

I could see why this road was locally called the panorama…..

…. though I found the views above me equally compelling.

Offa’s Dyke leaves the road after about half a mile and continues round the base of this most impressive escarpment.

The next couple of miles were fabulous walking. Just fabulous. The path was really narrow at times – and a little scary as a stumble could have led to a long tumble…..

….but the views, the views were wonderful.

In this golden morning light, the bracken was singing…..

… and the trees were at their autumnal peak of beauty.

After a couple of miles of what was undoubtedly one of the best walks I had ever experienced the path drops down through some woodland….

… to meet the road at World’s End.

The World ending somewhat anti-climatically at a ford over a stream.

At this point I was re-joined by the Llangollen Round Path that had been crossing the Eglwyseg mountain above me.

The confluence of routes climbed gently along the road for a mile or so…

I don’t know why this particular view was so misty

….. before leaving it to head north-west across open moorland towards Llandegla Forest.

This wasn’t especially high  ground (1300 to 1600 feet) but the sun had not been strong enough to lift the frost from the path.

This was quite boggy ground and in several places the boarded walkways intended to preserve dry feet were lightly coated with snow and treacherously slippery.

As the path reached the forest, the Offa’s and Llangollen routes parted company, Offa’s heading into the wood and Llangollen’s turning left and making for Cryn-y-Brain.   The skies turned ominously grey…

… and the summit (1837 feet), on which a large communications mast had been placed, was shrouded in mist.

However, coming off the hill, the skies brightened up once more, the now wide track  dropping down towards the A542.

Straight ahead was the next days first peak of Moel y Faen.  It looked increasingly inviting as I got nearer….

…… but this last section was 7 more miles  and required three more peaks to climb, so tempted though I was to carry on, I kept to my plan to defer those for the next day.

Ponderosa is the name of a huge and rather ugly cafe/bed and breakfast building at the top of the Horseshoe Pass above Llangollen.  Despite its location it is not now served by any bus route, though the old stops have not been removed. With having hitched two lifts already in the last few days I had decided to try my luck again. As I considered my best location a chap came for the cafe and engaged me in a chat about walking.  This conversation was neatly moved onto my telling him that I was on my way back to Llangollen and, joy of joys, he immediately offered me a lift.  Well, after such a nice day, I was, as they say “made up”. (well, I think they say that.)

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23rd

My luck, however, had run out. The next day started as miserably as had my first two. With heavy mist in the town it seemed very likely that the hills would be even more claggy. And so it proved.

Today I need to tackle section E , the Guide describing this as “perhaps the most demanding section with wide-ranging views to reward your efforts”. I had booked a taxi to get me back to Ponderosa. The driver wished me luck. But there was none to be had. I could see no more than 50 metres – barely enough to make out the path that climbed steeply up the hill to the first summit of Moel y Faen (1797 feet). It had to be done but it wasn’t going to be much fun doing it.

Taking pics of mist struck me as pretty pointless.  I made Moel Y Faen at 09.43….

A screen shot from my phone. I am the red arrow.

…. Moel Y Gamelin (1893 feet) at 10.05….

… (and just in case you don’t believe me)…

Sensory deprivation can do strange things to the mind

….Moel  y Gaer (1653 feet) at 10.31

In between these hills (the Guide Book was horribly enthusiastic about the views) was a lot of scrabbling up and down on steep and often loose rock.

I reached the final summit of Moel Morfydd (1804 feet) at 10.51……

… celebrating with another triumphant self-portrait.

Thankfully, it was more or less downhill all the way from here.  But there still wasn’t much to see.

I crossed a road about a mile after the last summit….

… the Llangollen Round now picking up the Clwydian Way for company. But I was past caring, and so were the sheep.

The path touched another road about a mile further on. I was by this time a bit fed up with this terrain which was soft and slippery underfoot and of little interest visually. So I abandoned the footpath and stuck to the road. Though longer, I reckon it would be quicker and I calculated that if I upped my pace I might just make an earlier bus from Carrog than I had planned to get.

It was the best part of three miles before I reached the bridge over the Dee at Carrog village.

For the last mile I could just about make out the road on which my bus would pass. It was touch and go if I would make it. I practically trotted across the bridge and up the hill to the main road, passing the final stop of the Llangollen heritage railway line of Pen Y Bont.

The bus stop was at the top of this road. Opposite the one that I had been dropped off at three days earlier. I couldn’t have been happier to see a couple waiting for the bus. They had not heard of the Llangollen Round. “Its a fab walk” I enthused “just not one, perhaps,  to do in winter”.  The bus arrived a minute later.

Licences to use all of the best images from this walk- and some that didn’t make it into the post-  can be obtained from Getty. Here’s the link.