Today we decided to pay a visit to Loggerheads Country Park in Mold as it had been recommended to me by a few people I chat with online. Situated below the dramatic limestone cliffs of the Alyn Valley this country park is absolutely beautiful with its thick woodlands giving way to near sheer rock faces it is an amazing place to visit. In fact we were in such awe of the place that we didn’t actually take that many photographs, which is most unlike us.
To access one of the many pathways that run through the country park you first have to walk through the grounds of the Tea Gardens which is an attractive lawn area with a nice cafe, a small museum and a little art gallery. Passing these buildings you then walk across the bridge which spans the River Alyn and straight into a wall of limestone cliffs. We followed the pathway which skirts one side of this impressive rock face and then proceeded to climb the many, steep steps cut into the hillside which take you to the top of the cliff and when i say they are steep I am really not joking. We were completed knackered climbing these steep steps and had to stop numerous times along the way to regain our breathe, it is definitely not for unfit. Once the steps were out of the way we walked through a beautiful, gently undulating woodland filled with bird song and that lovely musky woodland smell. Being the growing ‘fungifanatic’ that I am it was not too long before I started to spot some interested ‘shrooms’.
Before long the pathway had taken us to the top of the rock cliff and the views from there were breathtaking. We sat down for a short while to take in the scenery and also to watch a buzzard circling on a thermal not far from the rock we were perched on. Continuing on our way the track started to descend into the wooded river valley and along the way was a nice viewpoint where you could see Moel Famau in the distance, it looked impressive.
Following the path further we came to a crossroads where we could either go back to where we started or walk further on to Devils Gorge. We opted to visit the gorge and the scenery was amazing along the way. Unfortunately the gorge itself was rather underwhelming but that was probably because we visited at the end of summer so there was no water flowing through it, I would like to visit again but maybe tab the beginning of Spring when the river is running heavy from the winter rains. Tracing our steps back we passed the crossroads again and descended further down towards the river.
On the way we passed a couple of fallen trees which visitors had been pushing coins into over the years. Sharon tried to read the dates on some of these coins and I am sure she found some dating back to the 60’s but I,m not a hundred percent sure. We added our own coins and carried on our journey.
We soon crossed over the River Alyn which was dry but a short distance further down river we found the running water, quite fast running at that, and the boys enjoyed having a splash through the cool waters. Apparently the river runs partly underground through the cracks in the rocky before reaching the surface again, and it runs like a river proper when in the wet seasons.
Before too long we were back at the cafe and ordering a nice clotted cream ice cream and a cold drink as the temperatures had risen considerably during our walk. All in all we had a lovely few hours exploring Loggerheads but I really would like to revisit during the colder months when the river is flowing properly.
