#2.Hope Mountain. 8-1-11

My wife Julie has been suffering with a sore throat over Christmas and hasn't had a walk for week's but is feeling better so i decided on a short local walk to build her fitness back up in readiness for the mountain's.We parked in the village of Caergwrle walked along the main road to the Castle Pub and turned immediately right up Bryn Yorkin lane and climbed up through the housing estate to reach the field's beyond.The path then goes down the drive of Bryn Yorkin,a fine Jacobian mansion which is reputed to be linked to Caergwrle Castle by an underground tunnel.After passing the Malt House the path zig-zags steeply up through the field's to reach the lane where we turned left and descended toward's the village of Cymau.There follow's some delightful walking through field's on the original Offa's Dyke to reach the disused quarry above the village of Ffrith.These quarries were worked for 150 year's.Limestone from Ffrith was in demand for road building,the crushed stone was carried across the Ffrith road via an aerial cableway and mixed with tar for surfacing at the Tarmac work's.The path follow's old  Tramway's and passes old lime kiln's.It was raining now so the camera stayed in my rucksack.The next village we passed was Llanfynydd where a nasty snarling Border Collie threatened us on the other side of a stile we needed to cross,i tried being nice to it but it was really aggressive so i hopped over the stile and started shouting and flailing my arm's about and he backed off,so i positioned myself between the dog and Julie to enable her to cross the stile and head off in the opposite direction.The path climbed steeply up through the tree's,now very muddy with the rain and the recent thaw of the snow,at one stage i slipped in the mud,put both hand's on the ground to save me going flat on my face and slid 10 feet back down the slope.The view's to the west were lovely,Moel Famau and it's satellite hill's in the distance and nearer Pen Llan y Gwr above Bwlchgwyn.Finally we reached the road and the short walk to Waun y Llyn Country Park,a quick visit to the trig point and then back to the lane that lead's back to Caergwrle.In contrast to the lovely view's we had to the west we were now looking down toward's one of the worst sight's imaginable,the cement work's at Padeswood and it's massive incinerator tower,the Airbus factory,Deeside industrial estate and the horrible unsightly chemical plant's in Runcorn.A 1 mile walk down the lane and we are back at the car.A distance of 5 mile with 1,350 feet of ascent.

MILES          15
ASCENT       5,050
TOPS            9