What a difference a day makes! On Thursday we were due to do a short Historic walk in Rhuddlan but called it off the day before and it was a good decision as the weather on Thursday was atrocious with gales and torrential rain.
On Friday when we did the walk, the weather was perfect, sunny, warm and dry and we could see the effects of the previous day's rain as the River Clwyd was in full flood. There were just the two of us on the walk as old Uncle Albert was unwell and Rhuddlan seems to have retired from our walks now which is a shame.
We did the No 7 Historic walk in Rhuddlan but did it slightly different from the official walk and started from the Rhuddlan Nature reserve. It's a wildlife haven for birds and animals and has been built on the site of the old Rhuddlan Railway Station. Leaving the reserve, we crossed over the river on the footbridge and it gave us good views of St Mary's Church, Rhuddlan Castle and the River Clwyd. Turning into Castle Street it wasn't long before we came to the old National School which was built in 1829. It's now a private residence and by coincidence it's a property we looked at in the 1970's with a view to buying it. It was then priced at ?9K but now it would cost a lot, lot more.. Just a short distance away in a prominent position are the impressive ruins of Rhuddlan Castle where we stopped to take some photos and then moved on to Twthill passing an old thatched cottage on the way It's the first time I had seen this Motte and Bailey castle and the location is perfect with commanding views across the Vale of Clwyd.
From there we carried on to Abbey Farm, making a short diversion to see the 14th century effigy that is set into the wall of the farm, The building was originally a Dominican Friary and was built before 1258,
Travelling back towards the village we went past the Banquet House. There were stories about a secret passage that led from the Banquet House to the Castle but in the Rhyl Journal many years ago I read that the owner had apparently found the tunnel and photos were shown in the paper but I've not heard anything else since. Tellytubby and I carried on to the High Street and went past the Parliament House and turned right into Church Street and went into the grounds of St Mary's Church. There we sat on a bench at the side of the Church and had our refreshments in the warm sunshine. No one else was there until a young man came past speaking on his phone to someone, he disappeared around the corner out of sight but we could still hear him on the phone Even though he must have been 30 yards away the unmistakeable smell of waccy baccy drifted around the corner. Luckily we had just finished our meal or otherwise we would have been as high as a kite if we had stayed there any longer. We left the happy chappie there and headed back to the Nature Reserve and to our cars. It was a short but interesting walk and nice to get out and about again and see each other
