Found a walk on alltrails which hit a few boxes, good length, hilly and places of interest! We parked up in Abergele Library, free for three hours, super quiet on a Sunday afternoon. Felt that three hours should be enough for around 8miles of walking, there are other options including pay and display car parks around this area if this is full, or if like us, you might want/need longer than three hours! We wandered out of the car park, heading across the road and down a small alleyway, leading to a church, you wander through this, with a cematery on one side, and the church on the other.
This path headed towards Abergele Park- Pentre Mawr Park, some road walking but not too busy on this day, Flo was full of beans so nice to have minimal road with her whirling and swirling! The park is lovely, we have wandered around before, there is a huge lake, lots of birds and always lots of people enjoying it. It looks like there are some ongoing works around the middle where there are lots of trees, also it has its own stonehenge!
I do love a little research- the stone circle was erected in 1995 for the Eisteddfod which was held in 1996, there are eleven standing stones around one central stone. Whilst looking into what this stone circle was, I fell down a rabbit hole of all these stone circles which are dedicated to the Eisteddfod and Gorsedd- Eisteddfod is the competetive music and poetry competition which tends to be held in Wales- I remember reading a welsh poem at one of these as a young person in primary school! Also, I say tends to be held in Wales as the website notes several occasions where it was held in England, shock horror!haha. Gorsedd is a society of welsh speaking musicians, poets, writers and those that have contributed to the Welsh language, all linked with the Eisteddfod. Amazingly, this website notes all of these stone circle dedications from 1795, wows that is incredible! It tells you where they are/were and if there was extra information in that particular area. Every day is a school day!
For this trail, we skirted around the edge of the park and around the football pitch, following along and sticking to the park path until we got to an opening leading to the bottom of a bridge going over the railway line. Here is where we parted ways and headed to the beach!
Once you head over the railway bridge, you are on Pensarn Beach. You can see Gwyrch Castle in the background, way off on the hillside here. We decided to walk along the uneven grassy, pebble beach, though over the stone wall, there is a lovely flat path along the caravan park, but was nice to wander along the seafront, though was hard to get speed up with the uneven footing. Once you get to a rocky section which could be tricky, we walked up a ramp over the wall and on to the nice flat path, meandering round. Ty Crwn, the renovated building on the seafront, with a really cool wood burning hot tub and patio area which looks like a castle, it is owned by Gwyrch Castle and they rent it out- on googling, it is on airbnb, I enjoyed a nosy and it looks really well renovated inside, would be a cool place to stay for sure.
You can see Gwyrch Castle on the hillside at times, from the picture above, I knew we were heading to that right hand side, I remember thinking how steep it looks! As you wander along the seafront- also part of the Wales Coast Path, you come to a caravan park with a cafe called Tides. We stopped here for a quick wee, and husband got a coffee- I really struggle with walking and drinking so decided to give a drink a miss, would come here again though. At the cafe, we followed the road under the bridge, wandering around up the the main road through Abergele- on the way out of town. Crossing here, we wandered up a small section of road, before a path opened up on the left into the woods.
The path was pretty dry, I can imagine it would be very slippy if there had been recent rain. Love a good woodland, we followed a path up, zig zagging gently upwards, but not too steep at this section. Did see a few people up ahead, but didn't catch up to them, so it was like we had it all to ourselves.
I was very excited about the thought of finding caves, I had read about them, and a work colleague had recently been that way and found them, though did say it was muddy and slippy. It is strange, but I have seen one of the caves from the A55 for so many years, and had not realised that you could actually get there! Anyway, off we wandered, up up and away! Bumped into two teens who were covered in mud coming out of one of the lower level caves, they had been adventuring and had a great time. We wandered in- we brought our proper head torch as had read phones wouldn't light enough, this was true, without the head torch would have been hard to see. We didn't climb up the mud bank in the first one, just wandered in, the same in the second. When we looked up to the right, there was a wall and I believe another cave- we didn't climb to try and get to that one, this was enough excitement for me!
We continued back along the path, and could see the A55 cave up above us. Deciding to follow the steep windy path up, we got to the cave- the thought of going back down terrified me though, and if it had rained recently, I think this would have been deadly! The photo with the husband Flo does show a little bit, how steep this section was. This cave was huge with two entrance parts, neither seemed to go very far, but we also didn't want to try climbing- some holes up in the ceiling, maybe people would climb up there with the right gear. Tried to look online for information around these caves, but it seems to be limited. Found an archaeological evaluation paper on the interweb, some bits of information about these caves and others in the area. The hill we walked up is known as Cefn Yr Ogof and the area is made of limestone, I believe the caves are called the Tan Yr Ogof caves.
We noticed what looked like a trail at the same height we were at, we decided to follow this so I wouldn't have to go back down the steep bit, I was convinced I would fall! This trail was pretty good, it got very narrow in a few spots and I did envision taking a nose dive off the edge several times, but made it in one piece. Lovely section, all woodland and leaves everywhere. Husband is pointing at a buzzard in the photo above, it was so close, but phone camera was not able to catch a good enough shot. Lots of downed trees in the area, presumably from the many storms we seem to have had. Many years ago, we came across the film Troll, it is a wonderful documentary style film, the expert talks about fallen trees being because of trolls, so now I shout troll when I see fallen trees... watch it if you like a good documentary style film, it is dubbed, just a heads up! I am pretty sure people have been out clearing these sections, as there were definitely cut trees at some sections, which is fab.
We wandered under Lady Emily's tower, I am sure we could have found a route to get to it, but not today. This also showed just how much elevation we had to go to get to the top of the hill, as the tower isn't at the top. We were following our own path at this section, but it was near the alltrails path, I felt confident we weren't going to get lost.
On the Gwyrch castle website, it does say that the tower is in disrepair and is at risk of falling, it is not open to the public. It does outline a plan to save the tower, noting a phase 1 emergency plan, which would mean stabilising the walls, windows, fireplace and localised pointing- there is also a point made about theft and vandalism happening at the tower over many years, but they hope to reopen the grade 2 listed building to visitors again- that would be great! It does look right on the precipice here, I imagine there has been erosion over time.
It would also appear that the castle is noting that there are no permissive rights of way through the land, but they would like to reinstate old paths to allow visitors to the castle to explore. It is well trodden so I imagine that even though it says no public right of way, there is no one stopping this?
A little blurb about the tower, it was designed by Lloyd Hesketh Bamford- Hesketh, for his wife Lady Emily and their children. It was built between 1830 and 1840, to provide beautiful views- a belvedere- as well as place to banquet! The views from this tower are meant to be absolutely stunning, apparently on a really clear day you can see all the way to the Isle of Man!
Although I did say there is no one stopping walkers, it apparently is a bone of contention between Gwyrch Castle and locals- there is a facebook page and lots of information about areas being shut off and a footpath being closed? We did follow and wander along the trail, having made our way back to it after our detour, and it headed closer to the castle, one section had a big metal fence but was wide open- no private signs to be seen, so we wandered down and got to another section very close to the castle that was close off with a big metal gate. There was a group of people with gardening equipment, turns out they are volunteers at the castle, one man, who was lovely, stopped and chatted with us about the area, saying he does occasionally do tours that last around 5hours covering all areas of the castle, including the caves- we would definitely go back for this! We did not go any further, felt wrong to find our way around the barrier, so we headed back on ourselves. This whole section is woodland, just beautiful. There are lots of mountain bike trails, so just be mindful! We did happen across some people on electric bikes and one trail bike, they were all polite and went past respectfully, we did put Flo on the lead!
We enjoyed a lovely stroll through the woodland, not too steep but continuing up up up. Flora had a great time here, flying around exploring! There was some ruins nearby to the path, we had a nosy and it could have been a building at one point. I am sure these woods have lots of fun places and secrets to offer. We continued up, I believe there is a trig point around here somewhere- or am I making that up?? As we rounded the top, we came across an area on the map that said 'viewpoint', and it was an incredible viewpoint! So pretty, especially coming out of all of the wonderful woodland. Husband also found a cool stick, so wandered with that, before leaving it in a safe spot for another traveller to use.
As you come back down the other side, just past the viewpoint, you go through all the woodland again, such an enjoyable walk. You end up in the small town of Rhyd- Y-Foel, you follow around the base of the hillside to the left, wandering along a very quiet country lane. There is a hill on the road, which was so so steep, I did need to stop and catch my breath on a few occasions. I did talk with husband about how frustrating I find it, that I am exercising and training, but hills still feel so hard. When will I finally be sort of fit??? He did point out that my recovery time on the breathing breaks is a lot quicker, and my need to stop is less often, sometimes we don't see that ourselves. This whole last section is road based, meandering back round to Abergele town. Still very pleasant, met 3 cars in total, and a couple of people out walking.
Annoyingly, we did have to stop as my middle toe on my left foot started to rub, I did have a cut on it once I got my shoes off, so had to plaster it. So annoying, what an odd spot to rub! I did ask my stepdad about this- he is a physio- he reckons the toe box might be too small on my walking shoes, so this is forcing the middle toe to be squished. The nails on both my middle toes have a dent and the nail has gone white around this.
Almost back in town, and we spotted a T-rex and Diplodicus! Keep your eyes peeled, you never know what you might see. The T-rex does blend well, but can be spotted through the trees. We wandered through the housing estate to get back to the car, avoiding too much main road. Our route took us just over 8miles and was one of the best walks I have done. It gave us a park with a stone circle, a beach front, woodlands, caves, castles, ruins and a countryside stroll back to town.
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