North Wales Pilgrims' Way - Stage 2 (Trelawnyd to St Asaph)

Here goes again.

Started at Trelawnyd where we'd left off from the first leg - me and Skip making our pilgrimage across North Wales! Vicky dropped us off at Trelawnyd and the plan was to go as far as we could without flogging it too hard - we need to live to fight another day. Not the mist that we'd seen a couple of days previously and the rain was holding off so we set off in good spirits, charging over the first few fields albeit it was a bit heavy underfoot. Then the going got heavier, and heavier. Many of these fields were yet to be ploughed so I did my best to guide us down between the  cut down stalks of maize without tripping over them.

Why have we stopped?

A welcome break arrived at the Flash, this was a small patch of woodland that was very well maintained, in fact a number of trees that had recently fallen across the path had been cleared up quite nicely allowing me and Skip to make up time - apart from the time spent taking photos. This was soon over unfortunately and we were back in the mud. The OS map that we were trying to follow shows clearly designated paths across the agricultural landscape. The problem is that so often these paths don't appear to be there, a signpost will point across a ploughed field with no indication that anyone's been walking across it in the last few days so you have to take a compass bearing or an educated guess. What makes things worse is the fact that often stiles, etc, are poorly maintained and I frequently have to lift Skip over a padlocked gate on a public right of way.

On the other hand some landowners are doing the right thing and, once over the A55 near Rhuallt, we came across an airfield. We might not have known that it was an airfield but for the informative sign on this rerouted footpath on the other side of a properly signed sturdy stile. It was basically a large, not altogether flat field with no sign of any planes, no fuel depots, not even a wind sock! A large shed, perhaps housing a small plane stood in the corner next to a fairly grand farmhouse. Oh and there was also a large green dinosaur in the distance (it's there in the photo). The footpath took us around two sides of the airfield and down a grand driveway to exit through a small pedestrian gate within a much larger wrought iron affair.

We were on the road for a short while and glad of the opportunity to stretch legs out and make up a bit of lost time. Just before we left the road and reverted to footpaths we spotted some giraffes looking over a tall hedge - just what you'd expect near the top of the northern Clwydian Hills. Another fairly grand farmhouse, this was surrounded by big laurel hedges and, inside the perimeter, were an assortment of life-size figures of various animals, creatures from outer space (e.g. Darth Vader) and Michelle and Barack Obama! 

Moving on from the bizarre to something more normal for this part of the world, we reached the top of Moel Maenefa, at almost 300m high. This provided us with glorious views of the Vale of Clwyd and the North Wales coast over towards the Great Orme - magnificent! A lovely steep descent through bracken and gorse brought us onto  more frequented tracks and we saw four walkers, the first people we'd seen since we'd left an hour earlier. The pilgrims' route then took us south to the village of Tremeirchion. Our trail led to the back garden of the Salusbury Arms, a fine pub now owned by a microbrewery who sell their own Dove ales, yummy! The pub itself is one of the oldest in Wales and parts of it are at least 800 years old, furthermore it's haunted. An exorcism a few years ago succeeded in getting rid of four ghosts but it seems that three remain!

Which do we go in first, the church or the pub?

Next door to the pub is an even older church dedicated to Corpus Christi, a common enough label in the Catholic church, but this is the only non-Catholic church or chapel with this name. We missed out on calling in to St Beuno's college a couple of miles away - that's a visit for another day - but St Beuno's Well is also in Tremeirchion. Beuno was a Welsh saint who was uncle to our friend St Winifride and we'll hear more about the pair of them as the pilgrimage goes on. Apart from the antiquity of Tremeirchion the other thing that we'll firmly remember about the area is the mud, virtually all of the remaining section of the route to St Asaph was a slog through thick glutinous mud. It might have been appropriate to show a dramatic picture of my muddy legs and shoes but instead here's a picture of a wet dog in front of the cathedral at St Asaph.