Moel Famau

Start: The Ruthin Castle Hotel, Castle Street, Ruthin, North Wales LL15 2NU

(S/E) Walk down the drive from the The Ruthin Castle Hotel and out through the castle gateway. Walk down Stryd y Castell/Castle Street and follow it past Nantclwyd y Dre to the town square. Turn right down Stryt y Farchnad /Market Street and walk downhill past the Market Hall and County Offices. Continue down the road until you reach a large roundabout.

(1) Bear right to the crossing and cross over, taking the third exit of the roundabout. Follow the road ahead of you, then cross over at the junction with Ffordd Cae Glas/Greenfield Road. Follow the unadopted no-through road (Bryn Goodman) uphill. At the top of the road at the rear of the school, turn left along a tarmac path, which leads shortly to another road (Wern Uchaf). Follow the road ahead to a T-junction, where you turn right onto a narrow lane.

(2) At a left-hand bend after 300 metres, go through the gate ahead into a hedged green lane. Follow this as it winds down to the valley bottom and up the other side. Look out for a kissing gate on the left-hand side where the signposted footpath leaves the track. Go through the gate and turn right up the field to a hand gate (next to a field gate) and then cross the next field into another hedged trackway. Cross straight over through a kissing gate and continue uphill along the field edge, to a kissing gate in the corner.

(3) Turn left along a narrow, hedged path that joins a track and then passes between houses to a road junction. Take a few steps to the right then cross to a gate into a field, which you cross and then join the left-hand hedge. At the end of the field, go through two kissing gates into a farm track. Follow the track uphill past a cottage and a farm and then up the concrete drive to Teiran Farm.

(4) Go through the first gate then bear right before the farmhouse to another gate and between some farm buildings. Climb a grassy area then go through the gate on the right into the corner of a field. Follow the left hand edge of the field then cross to a stile in the top fence that leads finally into open country.

(5) Follow the path to the right, with fenced woodland on your right, then continue along the fence beyond the end of the wood. Pass a stile by an interpretation board, and continue ahead and uphill, ignoring a path that snakes across the valley to the right. After a steady climb, cross a stile by a gate and continue up the track until you finally reach the road at Bwlch Penbarra.

(6) Walk up the lane and turn left into the car park, exiting along the signposted Offa’s Dyke path. At a fork, take the higher, right-hand path, which climbs round a shoulder of land then levels off before rejoining the National Trail. Follow the obvious path as it winds gradually upwards with level sections before the final steep pull up to the remains of the Jubilee Tower on the summit of Moel Famau (A).

(7) Once you’ve rested and admired the view, continue along the Offa’s Dyke path (which now heads roughly west). At the foot of a steep rocky slope you come to a meeting of five paths (with a gate in the wall to the right).

(8) Turn left here (off the main path) onto a less prominent descending path that heads towards the distant hillfort of Moel y Gaer, before swinging right. The path descends gradually at first then steepens as it bears left, with a stream valley away to the right. Towards the bottom of the open land it swings right to ford the stream, passing a three-way fingerpost. Climb the other side.

(9) By a waymark post, turn left to a wooden gate beneath a tree at the foot of the open land. A fenced path leads downhill past a farmhouse and joins a concrete drive. Follow the driveway for a little over half a mile, bearing right when another drive joins from the left.

(10) When the driveway reaches a road, cross straight over through a gate onto a footpath and bear half-right across the field towards a farm. Climb a stile and continue across a second field in the same direction to another stile. In the third field, keep left of the farm buildings to a gap in the hedge, beyond which turn left and follow the field edge down to a stile in the corner. The path continues down the left-hand side of a long field then joins a farm track that may be muddy. Follow it through a farmyard and past the farmhouse to a road.

(11) Turn left and follow the road round an S-bend, then take a footpath on the right, through a sheep pen. Follow the right-hand edge of the field, alongside a small stream. Continue alongside the stream until you reach the driveway to the half-timbered Plas Llanychan.

(12) Cross the drive and go through the gate opposite (unsignposted at the time of writing). Turn half-left and walk diagonally across the field to a clump of trees, then follow the fence to the far bottom corner (the path on the ground does not appear to follow the official right of way as shown on OS maps).

(13) In the corner are a stile and a gate. Use either, and (ignoring another stile into the next field on the left) walk down the fence to a second stile, nearer to the river. Cross this field to a gate into the road by a bridge over the River Clwyd.

(14) Cross the bridge and turn immediately left onto the riverside footpath. At the end of the second field, ignore a footbridge and continue through the kissing gate ahead, still on the right-hand bank. After two fields the path crosses a footbridge over a side-stream and continues along the main river through two further fields (potentially under crops), leaving the Clwyd briefly to a kissing gate into pasture. Beyond the next kissing gate the path runs between the river and a water treatment works to a weir and bridge.

(15) Continue alongside the river beyond the service road before returning to pastureland. After a kissing gate, pass under a road bridge and continue through more meadows.

(16) At the end, cross the river via a footbridge and cross a small field to the road by the entrance to a builders’ merchant’s yard. Cross and follow Hafan Clwyd opposite.

(17) Bearing right and uphill at a junction. This road runs below the churchyard and emerges in the main square in Ruthin.

(18) Pass to the right of the Old Court House into Stryd y Castell/Castle Street and walk past Nantclwyd y Dre back to the castle gatehouse. Follow the driveway through the arch and back to the The Ruthin Castle Hotel. (S/E)

Start: The Ruthin Castle Hotel, Castle Street, Ruthin, North Wales LL15 2NU Tel: 01824 702664

Notes: Significant ascents and descents. The paths on the open moorland around Moel Famau are rocky in places and should not be attempted in poor visibility. Strong footwear required.

Find more information on Walks From the Door website

(A) Moel Famau: is the highest point of the Clwydian Hills and lies on the route of the Offa’s Dyke path. The Jubilee Tower on the summit was built to celebrate the golden jubilee of George III, though it was never completed

• The Afon Clwyd rises in Clocaenog Forest and runs for 35 miles to the sea at Rhyl. Sand Martins nest in the banks below Ruthin.

• Stonechats are common in the Clwydian Hills and have a sharp call that sounds like two stones being tapped together.

• Nantclwyd y Dre in Castle Street dates from 1435.

• The beautiful, wooded valley of the Afon Clywedog is followed by a track known as Lady Bagot’s Drive. The Bagots were local landowners, and Rhyd-y-cilgwyn was part of their estate.