On Saturday I had two very interesting walks in St Asaph with my friends. We met at the car park by the Plough Inn and crossed over the bridge and followed country lanes which took us over the A55 bridge and eventually to another bridge which crossed over the River Elwy.
From there we walked alongside the river back to the Plough Inn on the top of the flood defences and watched the Dippers strutting their stuff along the way. The water was flowing fast but those Flood defences are quite high and it's hard to imagine that the water rose so high as to cause such devastation to so many properties and people a short time ago.
From there we headed along the Lower Denbigh Road before turning up the lane to Cefn. Parking the car at a safe spot we followed the footpath and came to a cottage that had a leet flowing underneath it and not far away were the ruins of St Mary's Chapel and well. Across the river and almost hidden by trees was Dolbeldyr. Dolbelydr is to be treasured on two main counts. It is a fine example of a 16th-century, stone-built manor house, which has survived remarkably unaltered. It was also where Henry Salesbury (1561-c 1605), physician and humanist scholar, wrote his Grammatica Britannica, published in 1593. The Grammatica was one of the first attempts to impose formal grammar on the Welsh language. Rhuddlan and Tellytubby my friends on this walk had been in the property previously and the photo of it was taken by Rhuddlan on his visit there.
We carried on walking along a clear defined track in delightful woodland alongside the river, then crossed a field before climbing upwards to the natural arch where the Denbigh to Abergele road once passed through. We then climbed upwards towards the well known Cefn Caves These caves in the parish of Cefn Meiriadog, Denbighshire, have long been places of interest for scientists, artists, poets and antiquarians. Excavations within Cefn Cave in 1832 found bones of straight-tusked elephant, rhinoceros and hippopotamus of last interglacial age (c. 125,000 years old),
Carrying on past the caves we went along the clear footpath and saw many Deer footprints but did not have a glimpse of the White Stag that is seen in this area. Descending along this footpath we then came to the ruins of St Mary's Chapel and the holy well of Ffynnon Fair. It is set on the floor of a broad river valley flanked by steeply sloping woodland well below the level of the road. Beside the well are the remains of the ruined well chapel, encircled by an iron fence
The earliest part of the chapel building dates from the 13th Century. In the 15th Century a chancel was added to the south. The altar was then situated, unusually, below the southern window, traces of its base remain.
The well basin beside the chapel is in the form of a star and the water was flowing freely out of it, underneath the Chapel ruins and eventually into the River Elwy.
We then retraced our way back to the car having enjoyed a very interesting and historical walk.
