A Guide for the Chirk and River Ceiriog Walk
This walk goes from Chirk to Chirk Castle, crosses the parkland, descends to the Ceiriog River and continues and along the river back to Chirk. There is variety in this walk: open pastures, woodland and riverside. It is about seven miles long and takes approximately four hours.
How to Get There: From Wrexham
Go south along the A483 to the junction with the A5, take the third exit at the roundabout and, at the next roundabout, take the first exit to Chirk, turn left just before the Hand Hotel, and then right into the car park. You can also get there by the No 2 (Oswestry) bus from Wrexham: there are buses every 30 minutes or by train to Chirk station.
Leave the car park at the far end, walk through the hotel car park, cross the road by the pelican crossing and turn left. Walk to the end of Castle Road, turn right and walk to the railway station, go left over the railway bridge, right towards where the canal exits the tunnel and immediately turn left onto a footpath. Also, the path goes through the trees above the canal, after 155 yards on it turns left, crossing a field to a road. Almost opposite is a footpath to Chirk Castle.
Excellent Countryside Views!
Turn right and walk along the road until you see a ‘Footpath’ sign on the right. Walk up the bank, over the stile, cross the two fields onto the road. Immediately ahead of you walk across the field which joins a grassy lane. Follow this until you reach an offset crossroad, go straight ahead. Here you meet the Offa’s Dyke Path (ODP), turn left onto this path. The walk now continues upwards through the pasture; follow the ‘Acorn’ waymarkers. At the top of the rise, you should get some excellent views of the surrounding countryside.
The path meets a stony track: turn left still following the ODP down to the road at Castle Mill. Before crossing the road, bear left a little way to see three display boards describing the battle of Crogen that took place here in 1165. Now cross the road: be careful as traffic is fast along this stretch. Cross over the bridge into Shropshire and at the top of the rise is a T-junction. Leave the ODP, turn left along the lane (signposted for the Maelor Way). On your right, you will eventually come across some old lime kilns. Continue along this lane for nearly half a mile.
After you pass ‘The Old School’, turn left down a drive signposted for the Shropshire Way. This track turns into a footpath.
The Rare Black Poplar – A Very Large Tree
Look out for a very large tree, a rare Black Poplar; this could have been a drovers’ track and tall trees planted to guide the way. Follow the waymarked path along a steep wooded bank above the river; there are glimpses of a fish farm on the other side. Go over a stile and across a large water meadow, leading to a lane. Turn left and, after a short distance, go left over the Pont Faen bridge.
At the end of the bridge, turn right onto a footpath across another large meadow following the river. The railway viaduct and the canal aqueduct loom far ahead. Pass under these magnificent structures and exit onto a road. Cross the road carefully towards ‘Divine Dreams’ and take the path to the left. This path leads up to the road near the church. At the road, turn right and head back into Chirk. The car park is to the right of the Hand Hotel. Before leaving, you may have time for refreshments; there are two tea rooms, the hotel and a bakery.
Route taken from https://www.wrexham.gov.uk/assets/pdfs/walking/chirk_directions.pdf (I chose the dark-blue dashed route). There is also a map at https://www.wrexham.gov.uk/assets/pdfs/walking/chirk_map.pdf.
