Ruthin And The Clwydian Mountains

Introduction

With good spring weather forecast, I chose to venture further afield today, and headed off to Wales.

Ruthin is a pretty market town in Denbighshire, a drive of 58 miles, one and a quarter hours.

The weather was still, warm and cloudy, ideal for walking.

After a fairly flat start, this 7.8 mile walk ascends by 1230feet, 375metres at a gradually increasing gradient and took almost 4 hours!

There are some sections where it would be suitable for dogs to run off the lead on fenced paths and minor roads, but there is also a lot of sheep pasture, and moorland where a lead is essential.

I parked in a car park by the big roundabout on the A494 opposite the Tesco as you come into the centre of Ruthin, postcode LL15 1BB.

The walk is on OS Explorer Map 265.

River Clwyd Valley From Ruthin

From the roundabout, I wandered round the main road to the start point of the walk shown on the map, and headed north up the River Clwyd.

The Vale of Clwyd is a wide expanse of fertile farmland, and the river is a classic fast flowing river, typical of northern regions.

These two cattle were dozing in the field, and grateful for the attention of crows picking insects off their backs!

Last week, I saw a white bird that turned out to be a leucistic pheasant.

Could this be another one?

No, this was a little egret, which I soon disturbed as I approached.

Ash To Fron-bellaf

I crossed the river at Ash where a tributary, Dwr Lal, had once served a mill and pond. The building was still there, but the pond was now just a dried up grassy dip.

The walk was now beginning its gradual rise, following a very pretty track, with my destination appearing in the distance.

There was much evidence of active badger setts along the track as it narrowed.

However, the real joy of this section was the volume and variety of wild flowers growing here.

And there were cultivated flowers too!

At Fron Ganol, this gorse bank was quite stunning.

Fron-bellaf is a farmhouse undergoing renovation. It enjoys two lovely ponds with a tumbling stream.

Fron-bellaf To Bwlch Penbarra

At this point the incline becomes much steeper, entering grazed mooland.

Earlier, I’d been delighted to see the little egret, but now I was greeted with an apparent flock of about 30 blackbirds ahead of me. Strange, I thought as you wouldn’t expect blackbirds out on the grassy slopes of the moor, nor in this quantity at this time of year.

These were not blackbirds, but were a passage flock of their upland cousin, ring ouzels. Wow! Quite shy, and difficult to photograph on a phone, but here are three showing the prominent white chest band –

Just ahead, and much cuter, and easy to photograph, were these two posers!

On reaching the Offa’s Dyke Path, the westward panorama is fantastic.

And in a bit more detail:

The Descent

From the car park at Bwlch Penbarra, it’s quite tricky to find the correct path, but locating and following the small stream took me down to the Woodland Trust’s Coed Ceunant.

At the entrance to the wood is another pretty pond.

And more interesting flora – beautiful small blossom tree.

Very soon, I was back down in the valley, and heading across the farmland back to town. Just time for a glance back to the hills which I’d scaled a short while earlier.

As I came into Ruthin, I took a short detour to view the splendid facade of Ruthin School, a quite famous private school.

And in no time at all, I was back at the car.

A great day out, highlighted by the egret, the ring ouzels, the flowers and the views. Splendid!

And Finally….

We are off to see Paul Weller at The Apollo tomorrow night. We haven’t seen him before, either solo or with The Jam or Style Council.

I don’t expect to hear this, but it’s one of my all time favourite songs – you feel uncomfortably like you are there!