Worlds End Limestone Escarpments near Llangollen

Walk: Worlds End Best Bits

Distance: 6.5 mls

Parking: Free - but location isn't easy to cite. Google Worlds End LL11 3DE to locate it - even that will show the location as 'unnamed road'

Bus Route: Not applicable to this one

No bus rides on this one but plenty of boot action. It is a circular walk that includes a spectacular section of the Offa's Dyke Path (on the way back, or way out depending how you like to do your circles) in a rather beautiful remote location between Llangollen and Llandegla, aptly known as World's End. I'm guessing it would be a memorable and much photographed part of the the Offa's Dyke long distance path but mostly it remains unknown and therefore unspoilt. It's a diamond of a place. The walk above and below the limestone cliffs is a firm favourite of mine and so is the one I'll describe.

Some things are easier done than said (like tying shoelaces) and so it is with parking for this walk. It's obvious when you are there but difficult to explain without just saying how to get there, so that's what I'll do. There are two ways, from Llangollen via Eglwyseg from the south or Coedpoeth via Minera from the north. Whichever approach you use, it is accessed on single track roads and, where the moorland gives way to trees, feels like being abroad. It's only 15 miles from where I live and I approach from the north so that's how I'll explain where to park.

If you google Worlds End and use a satnav (or old school map) to approach from the north, you will find yourself passing the old lead mine buildings (ruins) in Minera. Digression Alert! The Romans exploited the lead deposits here. Carting (literally) the ore or processed metal off to the then port of Chester for shipping back to the Mediterranean. A few years ago, the Minister for Holidays and I visited Pompeii where some Roman leadwork still remains. I read there that a lot of this lead came from Britain and it was easy to imagine the lead that I was looking at in the shadow of Vesuvius being shipped from Chester almost 2000 years ago, having been extracted from here in Minera and the moors above, under the watchful eye of blokes wearing skirts and carrying short but very sharp and well used swords. It's entirely credible.

After the first lead-mine buildings on the B5426 coming from Minera (having just passed over the small bridge over the river Clywedog), there is an abrupt turn taking you steeply uphill above the buildings you have just passed. Helpfully, it is signposted Worlds End. From here it is pretty much exactly 4 miles of sheep-covered single track road over the moors to the trail head parking area. You'll know you are getting close when there is a quite steep downhill that flattens out with a pretty epic view of the escarpments that are the source of joy (and excitement) for our walk.

There used to be a wreck of a car in the little valley to the right (as you descend) which acted as the perfect reminder to take it easy on this bit.

The parking places are roadside just a couple of hundred meters from the bottom of the steep bit and just before you get to the cattle grid and the trees. You can see some cars parked there in this picture taken from about a mile into the walk. You start on a well defined track just behind the trees on the right of the parked cars on this picture.

For your first go at this circular walk, it's easier not to go the wrong way if you go above the cliffs first and come back underneath them. The first (and last) bit of the walk, however, are the same. So, thinking out loud, the walk is more of a P than an O, but having thought it through I'd go for a Q. So it's a Q shaped walk. The initial track you follow leads over the heather moorland keeping the trees to your right. The moorland is home to my (and my walking companion Rosie's) favourite critically endangered ground nesting bird - though I reckon Rosie (Spaniel) imagines her Black Grouse with some Fava beans and a nice Chianti, rather than the haunting gurgling call and the fancy lekking displays - so she stays under very close supervision for this bit.

There are two or three paths that go over the top of the escarpment, it is the one that is closest to the cliff edge that affords the best walking, views and epic-ness. To get there keep heading around to the top of the escarpment with the forest a couple of hundred meters away on your right. Somewhere below, on the fence-line into the forest, is a stile - which is the final one of two stiles over which you must wrestle any 4 legged (or particularly short-legged) companion on the final section of the walk - not a big drama with my present (<20kg) walking companion (who anyway likes the cuddle that this manoeuvre entails).

Eventually you'll leave the trees to your right behind you. Follow the path as it now descends alongside a fence and then levels once more on the well defined path (see the picture) striking a direct route ahead, near to the escarpment edge. Quite soon (half a mile further on maybe) you'll come across a path coming up towards diagonally from below. Don't go down this. Keep on the tops for approximately 2 miles more before eventually descending to pick up the path at the bottom of the cliffs for the return trip. Note: about 1 mile after you have left the trees and fence behind, just after you contour the cairned peak of Craig Arthur, the footpath does actually descend slightly into a V shaped cutting/valley into the escarpment. There are marker posts here that take you into the V across a stream (sometimes dried out) and out again uphill on the other side. I mention it as it had me second guessing whether I was on the right route. I was on the right route.

The next significant V and stream after this (another mile on) is where you descend and begin the trip back. So after about 3.5 miles of walking from the car, soaking in the fine views into the Dee Valley to the south, it's time to go downhill. The turn is obvious in that it is a T-junction (although the path you are on isn't that distinct - this is the reason I think this is the best way around to do the Q shaped walk first). Turn right at the T junction, alongside the stream (may be dried up), heading for the obvious cut in the escarpment that affords the access to the route back. Descend steeply and enjoyably - presuming you still have some grip left on your boots - into the cleft forged by the stream over the last 300 million years or so - and on until eventually joining the Offa's Dyke Path near a property that stands above Rock Farm (which sits on the bend on the lane below). I really like this bit.

Don't go down the track to the lane; rather, turn right, staying above the building and start the dramatic contour of the scree slopes below the cliffs marked with the acorn sign of the Offa's Dyke Path.

If you stop for a bite to eat, and have time, it is well worth having a mooch in the scree for fossils of the creatures that were subsumed into the sediment of a subtropical sea that ended up being thrust northwards and upwards to form the landscape in which you now sit. We've found quite a few over the years - they're cool. The picture here is of one found by our Swedish friend Ingela on a walk around here some years ago.

This is the only bit of the walk you are likely to meet other people on, they may be two and a half days from completing the whole Offa's Dyke path from south to north. Respect.

Although you are only half a mile from the path you walked on in the other direction (blowing a hole in my 'Q' shaped walk theory), the walk back is totally different and totally stunning.

Keep below the cliffs on the well defined path and enjoy the scenery. When offered the chance to climb diagonally to the top of the escarpment again on the path mentioned earlier, don't. Carry straight on (angling downhill slightly). Down to the left you will see the top of a beautiful timber framed building that has been sensitively restored/refurbished. I was once told that this location (and maybe even the previous semi-derelict property itself) was a hunting lodge for the Princes of Wales. If true some 12th century equivalent of the presenters of Location, Location, Location did a fine job.

The path drops slightly to find a kissing gate that takes you into the forest, descending gradually toward the lane (still the Offa's Dyke path). Exit the gate at the lane end and walk the 20m or so up to the ford. This is the area known as World's End with Craig y Forwyn poking out above the conifers. It is much photographed so I won't add to that catalogue. As teenagers, a group of us used to spend weekends here rock climbing. A valuable lesson in the porosity of limestone was learned one memorable night during a fierce summer thunderstorm. There is much education in the first kick of a mule.

The Offa's Dyke path (on my map at least) continues over the ford (stepping stones to the left are a lot less slippery than the road - another mule-kick lesson) and up the lane to where the cars are parked. My preferred route however is not to cross the ford but cross the stile that leads onto a path that climbs up into the small wooded valley with Craig y Forwyn on your left. There are remains of lead mines here that you can enter with care. On a sunny day World's End is like a trip abroad without the hassle of Manchester Airport Security. The path climbs steeply through the forest until it tips you out (over the second stile) onto the moorland, eventually to re-join the tail of the Q on which you started the walk.

The route between the stile and the original track is pock marked with craters. There were musings that these were bomb craters from WW II where the young crews of German bombers were tricked into dropping their payload early on their night out to Liverpool by setting fires to the moors to make them look like a decent target. This definitely happened in this area but I think the consensus is that these craters are ground excavations seeking lead ore and other minerals - could be both.

If the bomb story is true, the Black Grouse must have been furious.