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Offa’s Dyke, North Wales – Maxi-METHS
and AGM
37th Annual Reunion
- Monday 9th to Friday 13th September 2024
Venue: Ruthin Castle Hotel, Castle Street,
RUTHIN, LL15 2NU, North Wales
Participants: Nigel & Jenny & Horrocks
(leaders), Rupert & Sally Roschnik, Eric &
Valerie Scott, Stewart Halliday & Jane Smith (guest), George & Val
Wallace, Neil & Carol Lawford, Dave Mc Mullan,
Kay Black, Judy & Mick Ireson, Miriam Horrocks, Kathy & David Kelly,
Janet & Lloyd Woods, Stephen & Catherine Temple, Esther Ratsma, Antonia & Peter Tolhurst.
Monday 9th September, 2024
On a dry afternoon 26 members
gathered at the Ruthin Castle Hotel to be greeted by Nigel and Jenny who had
organised and planned the meet. We booked in and set off with minimal instructions
to find our rooms along winding corridors and stairs, with the nagging concern
that we may not find our way back. Red dragons, coats of arms and Henry VIII
marked the way. We met in the bar for
pre-dinner drinks and catch up. It was great to see old friends and decide
which walks we would attempt as we ate in the large dining room watched over by
the heads of a red deer and a Zebra.
Tuesday 10 September, 2024
Llanbedr - Foel Fenlli – Graigfechan
15km with 681m ascent
Walkers: Nigel, Janet & Lloyd, David & Kathy,
Rupert, Esther, Miriam, George, Stewart, Peter, Neil, Dave M, Mick & Judy
The starting point for our first walk was The Griffin Inn
in Llanbedr. From the car park, our route went steadily uphill towards Bwlch Penbarra, where we joined
the Offa’s Dyke path. Before long, rain threatened and we stopped to don
waterproof trousers. Fine drizzle soon turned into steady rain and as we
crossed open ground, the wind picked up to a gale, blowing several of our
colourful backpack covers off so they billowed like spinnakers. Thanks to
Nigel’s choice of direction for the walk, the wind helped to push us up and
away from the edge. Heads down, we moved
on uphill to Foel Fenlli
which at 511m is the highest point in this area and the site of an Iron Age
fort, now a raised stony area with what looked like railway sleepers around
it. We could only imagine what the
ancient view might have been like in better weather and after briefly taking it
in, we descended steeply to the wet vale below, chased
by wind and rain. Glad to reach more sheltered ground, we enjoyed a pleasant
descent passing Llyn Gweryd
to our left, with buzzards high above, the gorse in full yellow bloom and ripe
blackberries in dense bramble thickets. Thence headed towards a communications
tower where the path turned right and meandered down to Graigfechan,
where we stopped at the house of a friend of Nigel’s who ferried the car
drivers back to the Griffin Inn and kindly offered the waiting passengers
shelter in his garage – gratefully accepted as many of us were very wet.
Judy
Graigfechan circular walk (the Stile Walk!) 7km
Walkers: Jenny, Sally, Carol, Antonia, Eric, Val, Jane,
Kay, Catherine
We
parked at Nigel and Jenny’s house and walked out of the pretty village where
they live, admiring her elegant and unusual fuchsia as we went. Up the hill and
into the woods until we came out on 'White Hill', Bryngwyn,
it was well named, with lovely views. The area is a nature reserve made up of
two land donations from recently demised local landowners. Good on them!
We
walked along the ridge, watching the rain clouds come closer. Eventually we
sheltered under the trees until the worst passed. We progressed through
woodland and farmland, over dozens of stiles. There were, fortunately some very
impressive footbridges over a couple of streams. Towards the end of the walk,
we passed a lovely house with a stone at the entrance commemorating the
renovation of the building. The stone was laid by someone called Linda, from
Hong Kong. We wondered about the story behind that. [Eric and Carol introduced
Jenny to the term 'bidey in']
At
one point we also passed a couple of very young men renovating a very
dilapidated building. They were making a lovely job of it and some of us
vaguely dreamed of living there [if only we weren't at that stage of life when
you need regular medical care]. The building was beautiful, in stunning
scenery, but remote. Up a steep, wooded hill, and over still more stiles; wet
to the knickers, some of us decided we'd had enough and waited by the roadside
while the rest of the party went to fetch the cars.
Then
came the highlight of the day [apart from the brilliant company] - tea and cake
on the way back to the castle.
Carol
Wednesday 11
September, 2024
Llanbedr via Nant y
Ne to Moel Famau circular walk:
10km with 518m ascent
Walkers: Nigel, Janet & Lloyd, David & Kathy,
Rupert, Esther, Miriam, George, Stewart, Peter, Neil, Dave M, Mick & Judy
Two separate rainbows heralded a successful climb for us,
although the rain and wind made it difficult.
We had been warned about a prickly channel of gorse on the
increasingly steep climb to a final gully. And we were well dressed for the
continuous gusts of rain and wind. Yet we certainly, all of us, were challenged
by a final long and steep gully that was full of loose and small rocks and
flint stone. Still our leader, Nigel, was so patient that all fifteen of us
made it. He has named it “Catherine’s Gully.”
From there was a further, straight forward but steep climb.
On the top, we tried sheltering in the massive George V Jubilee tower on Moel Famau but fierce gusts
forced us to drop down and cower along a more popular walkers’ path that soon
became a walkers’ ‘highway’. This short and steep ‘highway’ was recently built
to control the severe erosion caused by large numbers of walkers up this much
shorter route.
We then walked a section of Offa’s Dyke path, before
dropping down to the road to Griffin’s Pub where our cars were parked.
I am fairly certain that all of us were pleased to have
climbed what Nigel called “the hard but more interesting way up.”
Miriam
Llanbenwch - Coed Talon
- Nant y Garth - circular (the Cafe walk)
Abandoned after 3 km
Walkers: Jenny, Sally, Carol, Antonia, Eric, Val, Jane,
Kay, Catherine
The Wednesday walk started off at Llanbenwch
cafe with a warming coffee. However, looking
through the picture windows we could see the clouds and subsequent rain rolling
down the Vale of Clwyd towards us. The decision was made to wait a while until
the rain had passed! At 11.30, with a
break in the clouds we headed out and completed the first part of our walk down
farm tracks, across an old bridge and up a narrow sunken green lane. This fortunately gave us some shelter as the
second wave of rain had now hit us.
After crossing a couple fields and passing through the farmyard, we
followed the track to a tarmac road. 10
mins walk in heavy rain brought us to a point of no return. We either took the roadway back to our
starting point, half a mile away, the cafe!
Or commit to an hour and a half of walking to continue the planned
route. Cold and wet as we were, the cafe
proved too tempting. Our walk was
abandoned ¼ of the way round. It was
really such a shame that the rain was so persistent as
the remainder of the walk was to be a meander up through a lovely woodland
riverside track with super views from the top, looking out over Vale of Clwyd
and down to the sea.
Ah well, another time maybe.
Jenny
Thursday 12
September, 2024
Ponderosa to Chainbridge Hotel: 16km with 505m ascent
Walkers: Nigel, Dave M, Esther, Janet, Judy, Mick, Miriam,
Neil, Peter, Rupert, Stephen
This walk had the potential to
be spectacular, with views over Llangollen and the River Dee. The weather forecast had said rain,
but eleven stalwarts were prepared to face the weather as they emerged from
three cars behind the Ponderosa Café and started off just before 10 a.m. It started drizzling almost at once and we
stopped to put on the rain gear we had, mostly over trousers in addition to our
anoraks and rucksack covers for a few.
Stephen wore only shorts all day, in fact he was the only one who wore
shorts every day, without any apparent ill effects.
As we climbed the visibility
dropped as the rain increased but we still got glimpses of the valley below. Soon we were wading through ferns
or bracken some 5 ft. high, along a path that was almost invisible and only to
be found by pushing away the ferns. This
was typical of Nigel, who often led us on tracks not marked on the OS map, but
shown on the OS website printout that Neil had handed out earlier. By now it was raining steadily and everything
was soaking, especially our footwear. We
passed an isolated house (Fron-lwyd) whose narrow
access road gave us some respite for a kilometre or so, taking us down to
World’s End Farm, an organic farm at Plas Uchaf. It certainly
is very remote, although accessible from Llangollen on a narrow tarred
road. We followed this road up for some
300 m, then Nigel led us up a small muddy and stony path to a plateau above, by
which time we were all extremely wet and bedraggled zombies, covered from head
to toe (except Stephen!), shoes soaked, some filled with water, yet all of us
still had a smile, yes, this is fun, especially Esther who seemed to love it
all! After some 20 minutes along a wider
track with numerous puddles, Nigel decided to abandon the higher path on the
plateau and we dropped down to join Offa’s Dyke Path below some cliffs. Nobody complained.
This path ran fairly straight for what looked like miles, gradually losing
height through the scree slopes under the crags. Later, we
munched our sandwiches under a large tree, out of the rain, but large drops of
water from the leaves kept us wet! By
now it was around 1 p.m. and it had rained solidly for over 3 hours.
Suddenly a small patch of blue sky appeared behind us, a
most encouraging sight. The patch
rapidly increased in size and overtook us so that it soon stopped raining and
by about 2.30 p.m. we even had some sun!
The next hour or so was quite pleasant, down along tarred roads, with
many pheasants to be seen in the adjacent fields. We reached the Llangollen Canal and continued
along the wide towpath. We passed a
small barge ferrying some 30-40 mainly elderly tourists, just as their guides
were preparing to harness it to a sturdy horse that would pull the barge for
the next section. We were soon at the Chainbridge Hotel where we jumped at the opportunity to
remove all our wet clothes, Stephen probably had dry legs already, get a hot
drink and a small cake or biscuit from the bar and settle down beside a most
welcome log fire and steam! Everybody
was happy and proud at the day’s achievement.
Nigel had a friend nearby, who was soon able to ferry the 3
drivers back to the cars at Ponderosa. In
less than half an hour the cars arrived to take their passengers back to
Ruthin. On the whole, a most satisfying
and enjoyable day! Thank you, Nigel.
Rupert & Neil
Horseshoe Falls -
Llangollen - Chainbridge Hotel Circular 3kms Pontcysyllte Aqueduct Pack Horse Bridge circuit 2km
Walkers: : Jenny, Sally, Carol,
Antonia, Peter, Eric, Val, Kay, Catherine, David & Kathy, Lloyd
Thursday. And yet more rain. A 25 min drive to the Horseshoe Falls car
park. Short walk along to the
picturesque Llantysilio Parish Church then following
the River Dee , past the Horseshoe Falls to reach the Chainbridge Hotel on the banks of the River Dee with Berwyn
Railway station opposite. It is at the Horseshoe Falls that the top up canal
for the Shropshire Union Canal System begins, diverting water from the River
Dee. We crossed the River Dee via the
magnificent chain bridge which was built in 1817 and restored in 2015. Sadly no shelter at the
station other than a small porch overhang. Fortunately our train was on time, the 11.37
to Llangollen, a 10 min journey, but long enough to just about warm up.
An hour of ‘Free time’ to explore
Llangollen and meet back at 1pm to walk back along the Llangollen canal to the Chainbridge once more. The rain
eased off and the towpath was level, although very wet in places so we made
good time back to the cars. Time enough
to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Pontcysyllte,(
the bridge that connects) an aqueduct, constructed in 1805, transporting narrow boats, kayaks etc over the River Dee at a height of 126ft. It is supposedly the highest navigable
aqueduct in the world. Some of the group
walked across the 307m long aqueduct and back.
A small group continued further, taking a small tarmac road that lead in
a circle to a pack horse bridge giving a great view of the aqueduct from valley
floor level.
We ended what had originally started off as another very
wet day, with another coffee shop stop, then a drive back to the hotel, over
the Horseshoe Pass, in lovely sunshine.
Jenny
The AGM meet may be the wettest on record, but a good time
was had by all: great location, good friends, beautiful walks and delicious
food. A big thankyou to Nigel and Jenny for organising the meet, and our thanks
and appreciation go also to the Drovers Arms, the Griffin Inn and the Ruthin
Castle.
This AGM we welcomed our first new Chair in 24 years – Kay
Black. Rupert has done a superb job and we are confident that Kay will follow
in his footsteps
Contributions:
Reports from Judy, Carol, Jenny, Miriam, Rupert and Neil,
Pictures from Neil, Jenny, Rupert and Janet
© METHS, 2024