Time’s been at a premium this month, and opportunities for escape and exercise have been limited. But it’s Autumn. So a short wood or forest walk, when time allowed, made perfect sense.

Three times, as it happens.

Coed y Brenin

I took the ‘King’s Champion’ waymarked route from Ty’n y Groes car park, about 3 miles north of Dolgellau at Ganllwyd. It’s an uphill route, described on the noticeboards in the car park and on websites as giving a ‘real feel of mountain walking’. There’s a fair bit of hyperbole in that description – the highest point of the walk at Mynydd Penrhos is only 233m, but it’s a pleasant enough route with good views down the valley and across to Y Garn, so I won’t really argue too much. And I’ll concede that, on the day I was there, the drizzle bathed the summit and gave that part of the forest a misty, eerie quality that you wouldn’t normally find at that height. Those sort of weather conditions must be fairly regular here, as the dampness has clothed every inch and every branch in that upper part of the forest in moss a foot thick. That alone makes it a special place, and well worth a visit if you have an hour or two to spare.

Macclesfield Forest and Shutlingsloe

An old walking friend of mine, now in his late seventies, had posted some photos of his walk on Shutlingsloe recently (he goes up there most mornings at 7am!), so it popped into my mind when looking for a covid-safe afternoon out with a friend from Manchester. As her train from Piccadilly rolled into Macc Station, I was waiting (with uncharacteristic perfect timing!) on the forecourt for the short drive, masked up and with windows open, to the car park at Trentabank Reservoir in the middle of Macclesfield Forest. Navigation is simple in good visibility – the waymarked path takes you uphill through the forest then out onto open moorland with the target clearly visible ahead on an easy stoned path. It’s only 506 metres high, but gives 360 degree views to Cheshire one way, and to the ‘gateway’ area of the Peak District National Park to the other. That western part of the Peaks is a newish area for me (just one visit years ago, that I don’t remember too well) but with easy access to railway and road networks, I can see myself heading back there soon, probably for the Roaches or Shining Tor nearby.

Nant y Ffrith, Bwlchgwyn, Wrecsam

Next up, and the final one this month was a real ‘quickie’ to make the most of a weather window before a predicted downpour next day. Coed Mawr in Nant y Ffrith is just a few miles from home (so in my neck of the woods, so to speak) but in a ‘cobbler’s shoes’ sort of way, had been repeatedly overlooked as I drove quickly past on the way to Meirionnydd or the high hills of Eryri. The wood’s a bit of mix – the higher slopes are bland & boring commercial coniferous forest, but in the valley below and on the margins there’s a bit more diversity, and a bit more life. And at the top of the wood, after following the forestry tracks there’s a faint path (on the left, just after the electricity pylon and large sandbank) which leads to the trig point at Pen Llan y Gŵr with great views to Denbighshire, the Clwydians, and Deeside and the Wirral. Not the most exciting walk I’ve ever done to be perfectly honest, but still worthy enough to add to the list of short local walks for an afternoon or summer evening, along with favourites like Waun y Llyn on Hope Mountain, Plas Power Woods and Trevor Rocks