A Walk on the Wild Side

It’s the Corwen Walking Festival in just a couple of weeks’ time (1st – 2nd September) – a fantastic weekend of guided and self-led walks around our local area. Now in its seventh year, it’s no surprise to us that Corwen should be the epicentre of a walking festival given how many stunning and remote walks we have in our area, most of which you can walk directly from The Forge. And what better opportunity for us to share some of our favourite routes with you: from strenuous hikes and fell runs to gentle wanders, here’s our top five:

Cadair Berwyn and the Wayfarers Way: Starting in LLandrillo (a 15 min drive away) you wander up through the valley watching out for black grouse and wild blueberries on your way. As you climb up towards the ridge you can turn right to summit Cadair Berwyn (830 metres) and then come back to get to the top of Cadair Bronwen (785m) before picking up the Wayfarers Walk back down the hill. It’s 21km in total and has spectacular views. Last time I did this route I was also lucky enough to see a pair of red kites and a pair of Eurofighters on exercise!

Liberty Hall and Moel Fferna: this is another stunning walk which you can start from The Forge. Heading up through Corwen you meander up grouse heather moors to the ruined lookout post before heading east along the North Berwyn Way to Moel Fferna (630m). On a good day you can see the whole Snowdonia range and down into Cheshire, Shropshire and beyond. It’s about 23km circular walk (and just happens to come back via the pub, which brings me on to….)

Pub Walk! From our place you can walk off-road all the way, picking up the Clwydian Way to our lovely local pub, The Grouse, in Carrog. It’s about 10km there and back, far enough to justify one of the amazing pies and chips they serve al fresco on the terrace overlooking the River Dee, and perhaps just one or two of their local ales 😊. On a hot day you can cool off in the river before heading back.

Corwen and the River Dee: For an easier stroll, there’s a lovely 3km circular route you can do around Corwen and along the River Dee. Plenty of places to stop for an ice cream on the way through town and if you are lucky you might just catch a glimpse of a kingfisher…

Caer Drewyn hill fort: probably our most favourite walk of all as you can see the top from wherever you are standing at The Forge. A short 2km hop to the top, from there you can see all the way down the Dee Valley and right across to Snowdonia range. It’s one of the best-preserved hill forts in the world with stone ramparts still very much in evidence. It’s also one of the best places to collect blackberries in the autumn so be sure to take some tubs with you!

The super sleuths among you may have picked up on some familiar names in this list…. Many of these walks and peaks have inspired the names of our bell tents and others will become evident as we build more tent platforms and huts this winter so stay tuned!

You can find out more about the Corwen Walking Festival here and due to a late cancellation, we do still have some availability that weekend if you fancy making The Forge your base for some fantastic late summer walking.