Hill walk starting at Rhewl, near Lllangollen, North Wales

Distance: 5 miles

Start point: The Sun Inn Rhewl, park in the car park, refreshments available from 1700.

Walking: mostly paths, trails or quiet roads, though there are a few difficult areas including a steep slope.

In October last year we popped to North Wales for the day visiting the small town of Mold where we search the local shops for a local walking book. not finding one for the local area, we did find one we liked based in the Llangollen area. Kittiwake walks around Llangollen & the Dee Valley (David Barry)

Driving over the Horseshoe Pass we headed up a side road to The Sun Inn, Rhewl and the start of Walk 17 (Foothills of Moel Morfydd). The Inn allows cars to park in the car park whilst going on walks, although it is suggested that you pop in for a drink when you have finished the walk.

Heading out of the car park down the road you get to walk alongside the side of the River Dee for a short while before heading up into the hills. After a short climb you get a good view along the valley back to Rhewl, before passing over the ridge into the next valley and down again along some roads before heading across a small ford and back onto the main trail. In the guide there it tells you to leave the fence at a second gate and head off at an angle down the hill, do follow the guide, but not too literally at this point as the gate to exit the field is higher up than you would think.

There is a possibility on this hillside to see steam trains travelling along the Dee Valley line. Although there was no steam trains whilst we were there the line of the track was highlighted by a couple of passing Diesel engines.

Following the trail according to the guide book takes you to a disused farm house and then just down from the house a barn (point 3 in the guide), with a number of fences. The guide tells you that at the left of the barn there is a style to climb over before heading up a trail into the hills. Unfortunately the fence and style appear to have deteriorated and been replaced by a gate across the path, although not impassable, the rough ground that it stands in makes it better to head back down to the main path, pass through the gates and walk up the rear of the barn.

Taking care to follow the guide, the next 50 yards are the hardest part of the walk, heading up a steep slope through some trees to the right of a stream, the trail is indistinct and this seems out of place considering the good paths that make up the rest of this walk. I paused a few times wondering if we were heading in the right direction, but as you reach the end of the trees the footpath that you are heading for appears and it starts to make sense again. Although shortly after this the path again disappears but keep following the fence up the hill before the paths become proper trails again.

Shortly after passing point 4 and at the base of the slope, take care if the ferns are tall. As you arrive at the next fence there is a style that you climb over and then shortly after turn and follow the trail on your left rather than heading up the slope.  When we visited the ferns were still up at shoulder height and this completely hid the path other than a small path trodden down through the ferns, I could just see above the ferns, but much shorter that me and all you can see is ferns. Basically head along the slope to meet up with the right edge of the trees in the distance where the path starts to reappear.

After heading down the trails past a cottage we appeared out onto a road with a cottage, the owner of the cottage was out working in his garden and directed us to head through the gate and then down some steps to a path. Following this guidance led us off the trail in the guide and we had to find our own way backto Rhewl. A quick check of the map and we headed straight down into the valley and walked back up the road alongside the Rider Dee to the Sun Inn and the car.

Overall we did enjoy this walk apart from the steep hill by the barn that just takes you the 50 yards to get back on the trail. There were some fantastic views, especially as the trees were starting to chagne into their autumn colours. At times we were expecting rain, but the weather, although cloudy and windy held out for us.

The walking was mostly on good paths, tracks or quiet roads, the route did go up and down quite a bit, though there was a good bit of downhill towards the end. 

We found the guide book quite well laid out, with easy to follow instructions, the parts were we had problems following was more down to the changing environment and reading the detail in the instructions lead us in the right direction.