Start : Junction Church Street and High Street at the church, Ruabon. Grid ref. SJ 303 437
(S/E) Facing the church, turn right (North) along High Street. At the traffic lights turn right into Maes-y-Llan Lane. Beyond the school, when the road bends left, go straight on to a bridge over the A483.
(1) After the bridge, follow the lane left and right around some allotments. Go through a gate at the end of the lane and follow the footpath beyond within a small wood. At the top of the hill, bear left to a metal hand-gate. Don’t go through it, but turn right over a wooden stile.
Follow the field edge beyond to a stile in the far corner. Cross the next field diagonally right, to a gate at the bottom of a track leading up to Moreton Farm.
(2) Pass between a slurry pit (left) and farm buildings (right) and follow the track beyond. At Lower Moreton Farm, swing left and right to continue along the track. After half a mile, having passed a cottage and farm, you meet a road (B5426).
(3) Cross and follow a farm drive opposite. Go through a gate to the left of the old farmhouse and walk parallel to the left-hand edge of the field to a double stile in the corner. Beyond these, turn right and walk along the right-hand side of the next field to a further stile. Turn half-left and cross the next field diagonally, passing through a gateway in the far corner to another stile by a second gate.
Follow the left-hand edge of the field to another gate and walk left down the steep bank to meet the road at Old Sontley Farm.
(4) Turn left (North) and follow the lane for a little under 1⁄2 mile, ignoring a footpath on the right and passing Millfield House.
(5) Shortly afterwards, turn right (East) along a byway past The Old Smithy. Descend to a stream, where a footbridge on the left bypasses a ford. Continue along the track, emerging from the trees along a pleasant green lane. Pass Kiln Farm on your right and continue to a road.
(6) Turn left (North) and follow the road for 1⁄2 mile, passing another farm to reach a triangular road junction at Reynolds’s Grave. Turn left then immediately cross a wooden stile by a gate on the right (North).
(7) Bear half-right to a footbridge over a stream. Follow the boardwalk beyond, then after a clump of willows bear right on an indistinct path to a gate in the hedge on the far side of the field. Pick your way through a scrubby area at the end of the wood and out to a cultivated field.
If the path ahead is unclear, turn right to a clump of trees beyond the woodland edge, where you turn 90° left, away from the fence, and climb to a waymark post at a projecting fence corner. Follow the fence ahead to a stile, where you switch sides and continue out to Sontley road.
(8) Turn right (North-East) and walk down the zig-zagging road to Sontley Bridge. At the car park beyond the river, turn left and follow the path left over a sidestream and then right to meet the Afon Clywedog at a weir.
(9) Follow the riverside path for a delightful half mile or so to a stone bridge, where you cross the Clywedog . Follow the obvious track leading ahead, signposted “House and tea garden” (with a pretty cottage on the hillside to your right).
(10) Stay on the track past the footbridge to the Cup and Saucer hydraulic ram, and beyond a cattle grid climb to the tearoom. To visit the house, turn left, otherwise turn right and right again to join the entrance drive leading away from the cluster of buildings.
Pass a cottage on the right then, when the drive curves right by another house, take a path over a stile on the left.
(11) Follow the right-hand field edge then turn right over a waymarked stile, then left along the prominent bank of Wat’s Dyke. Beyond a stile, continue along the field edge to the road at Middle Sontley. Turn left (ignoring the track opposite) then right onto the signposted footpath opposite a holiday cottage.
Follow the right-hand edge of a series of fields to the B5426.
(12) Cross carefully and take the footpath opposite, which skirts right and left around a cottage, before following the top of the Dyke to a double stile and footbridge. At the next stile, the path switches to the right-hand side of the Dyke, and then runs within the hedge to a stile back to the original (left-hand) side, where you turn right to continue along the line of the Dyke.
(13) After a couple more stiles and footbridges, the path climbs along the field edge to the rear of Pentre-clawdd farm to a final stile. Beyond a barn, turn right through a gateway and bear left around the farm buildings.
Level with the main farmhouse, turn left through a gateway. Follow the top of the field with views over Ruabon, before a short section that again follows the top of the Dyke within the trees to a field gate.
(14) A short hedged section leads to a metal hand-gate by the first stile you encountered at the start of the walk. Retrace your steps downhill to the right within the small wood to meet the end of Maes-y-Llan Lane at the allotments. Follow the lane over the A483 and pass the school again. Turn left along the High Street to return to the Wynnstay Arms. (S/E)
