Erbistock / Erbistog

Hello again people and pooches. Joe the Cocker here after another local hike. We have walked in this area a few times, but on this occasion, we decided to follow a route that we found online. At only 4 miles from home, Erbistock is a lovely area to walk in. Our starting point was The Boat at Erbistock, a beautiful pub on the banks of the River Dee, Afon Dyfrdwy.

The beer garden overlooks the river, and pooches are welcome both inside and outside. The food is lovely, as are the staff.

The 17th century Boat is two cottages combined to make one inn. Its name derived from the ferry that crossed the Dee at this point. A windlass is still in place that pulled a ferry across the river but is not used nowadays. This later addition was popular during the 18th century when visitors came to the picturesque area.

Here is a link to the walk that we took (with a few minor deviations).

/https://www.love-wrexham.com/2022/02/25/a-stroll-along-the-river-dee-then-over-the-hills-to-erbistock/

There are usually plenty of parking spaces in the car park just past The Boat. So, my human organised his rucksack, ensuring that my treats and water were in it, and off we went through the gate and followed the path to the right.

The first couple of miles are easy to navigate as the path hugs the northern bank of the river.

The path is often muddy, and even during dry spells, there can still be some claggy sections. Initially, to the right is large open fields and on the right, bushes leading to the river.

On the opposite bank of the river, we spotted a tiny beach where, if we were on that side, l could have a dip from. Ah well, it wasn’t to be.

We passed through a wooded section of the walk where I could smell the wild garlic. It smelt like the big feller after he had eaten one of his curries.

As we walked, the wild garlic not only tortured my very sensitive nostrils, but it took over the entire woodland floor.

We soon came across a weir with the weir control house on the opposite bank.

At this point, the footpath goes downhill by a series of wooden framed steps. At the bottom of the flight, the path became very muddy. The orange clay mud was lovely for me to walk through. For the moaning one, it’s not so good. He should have worn boots instead of hiking trainers. He never learns!

A small footbridge took us over the next muddy and eroded section. We believe that this bridge has recently been repaired.

The bridge took us to a sandstone outcrop where I had to pose in front of a bend in the river.

The sandstone juts out from the right bank of the river and could possibly be a bit slippery for humans in wet weather.

Shortly, we came across another small wooden bridge that passed over a stream.

The footpath narrowed as we passed through more pungent wild garlic.

Once we had left the woodland, we entered a very large meadow. The indistinct path hugged the riverbank alongside a row of oak trees.

We had a five minute rest at this lovely spot by a large tree stump. The river was flowing gently, and a song thrush was singing nearby. It was a really tranquil spot that my human had to spoil by taking photographs of me. I don’t think that I had changed much in the five minutes since my last photo shoot, so why take more?

After our short break, we continued to follow the river along a more obvious footpath.

‘Keep up, old timer!’

Our last view of the river was as it turned left, and we turned right at a wooded fence.

We negotiated the kissing gate in our routine manner. He opens the gate and walks into the middle section while I wait. He closes it as he passes through.  Once inside, he opens it to let me join him in the middle. Then he opens it from the other side, goes through,  closes it, opens it to let me through.  Did you follow that? It all works well as we have done it so many times. It didn’t use to work as I tried to go through with him. I would get tangled up and trodden on leading to much moaning and groaning from him. I thought that you would like to know 🤣🤣

The route took us into Manley Wood via a forest track heading gently uphill.

Shortly, we joined a narrow lane, which we followed to our next waymarked point.

This is where Mr. Dopey took us the wrong way. Instead of reading the description of the route, he saw the footpath sign on the left of a fence. So, we followed the left of the fence until we met a very nice man who said that the footpath was on the opposite side of the fence. We retreated with his, not my, tail between his legs!

Once we were back on track, we followed the stone covered track towards Wyffydd Pen y Lan. We met the nice man again as we passed on the correct side of the fence. He smiled and asked if we were OK. We were. No thanks to my embarrassing human.

To the right, there is a pretty thatched-roof cottage with a farm.

The track veers off to the right, but we followed, correctly this time, the footpath to the left of the barn.

Immediately after the barn, we passed through a gate and a large pool of mud into a field.

We could see a feint outline of the path across the fields, but my human checked on his map to make sure we didn’t go the wrong way again. We were following Wat’s Dyke Way and we soon came to an obvious section of the dyke.

In this section of the walk it was easier to navigate by spotting the waymarkers as the dyke was overgrown and steep sided in parts.

Some of the path was well-trodden and obvious. I led the way because I, for one, didn’t want to get lost or end up in someone’s garden again.

A gate provided an exit from the earthworks and led past a cottage nestled in woodland to a narrow lane.

For the previous half hour or so we could hear a cock crowing in the distance and as we walked up the incline of the lane the sound was getting louder.

There it was, sitting on a fence a few yards from us. Wow, he was loud.

We plodded on along the lane. Well, he plodded as I sniffed everything in sight, as are our ways when we hike. At a t-junction, we turned right into Cae Adda lane.

We continued to road walk and fortunately there wasn’t any traffic. My human said that there were some nice views across the rolling hills as he peered over the hedgerows. I obviously couldn’t see them as I continued to sniff in the undergrowth. That was until I disturbed a pair of pheasants. There was an almighty commotion and flapping of wings as they took off. I don’t mind admitting that they frightened the life out of me, too!

The road divided into two at a y-junction. We took the left turn and headed towards the hamlet of Erbistock.

A right turn took us past some lovely old houses as we headed towards The Boat.

Stone built houses with neat gardens were dotted along the lane. 

We passed Mill House, a large black and white timber framed house.

The road dropped slightly as we approached the river lined by a few 17th-century buildings barns with first storey doors. With Wingetts Garden on our left, we arrived at St. Hilery’s Church.

The beautiful church was built in 1861 to replace previous places of worship on the site. There has been a church on this site since at least the 13th century.

The lawns between the lane that serve The Boat are neatly cut with seats to read on and admire the peaceful setting.

A windlass is situated outside of the pub that used to wind the rope that pulled the ferry from the opposite bank of the river.

When we arrived back at the pub, the outdoor seating area was full of visitors tucking into their Sunday lunches. This meant that there would be no cold pint of Guinness for the big feller this time. So, we were back at the car. The walk was about four and a half miles. We both enjoyed it and would recommend it. Watch out for the mud after rainfall. Till next time!