Over 200,000 are said to visit Moel Famau's summit every year. That's equivalent to over 550 a day. The chances are that everyone reading this will have been there and many more times than once.You can see Moel Famau from much of west Flintshire, west Wirral and, on a good day, from Cumberland and the Isle of Mann but nothing, nothing at all, surpasses the brooding, furrowed, rugged view of Bryniau Clwyd/Clwydians from Rhuthn/Ruthin and Dyffryn Clwyd/Vale of Clwyd.
Celebrations start this evening for the 200th anniversary of the Moel Famau jubilee tower, with a "sunset walk" to the summit. As you can see from the photos, your blog author's also made a recent journey, preferring the relative emptiness of a sunny early morning to a crowded group gathering. Besides, there'll be a chance of rain later.200 years ago this October came the foundation stone in commemoration of the golden jubilee of King George III. A storm of 1862 demolished the structure leaving its base, at 1,818ft ASL.
There's nothing spectacular or particularly attractive about the remains. But they do allow you to reflect on a time when construction of such a feet (sic) was completed without motorised mechanical equipment and when the horse was the main method of travel.It was a time before modern, pluralist democracy had taken hold and when reverential royal symbols were important, indeed essential. This in spite of George III's recurrent mental illnesses resulting in 1810 (the very year of the jubilee) upon the appointment of his son George Prince of Wales, as prince regent. What memorials did we build for the current monarch's golden jubilee, in 2002?
The 19th century was also a time of the latter enclosures, with a resultant rural depopulation, towards the new urban mills. Always sparsely populated, we wonder how the view from Moel Famau has changed as regards field patterns and trees. There were certainly no wind turbines then.There's another significant anniversary this year. The Clwydian Range area of outstanding natural beauty celebrates a quarter of a century.
Ironically, this year the AONB and Moel Famau face what some say is their greatest threat ever, with (misguided?) proposals by Go Ape for several long zipwires across its wooded slopes. If agreed, the sounds of crazed, yelping visitors will merge with a considerable increase in traffic volumes along Bwlch Penbarras possibly to destroy this peaceful upland solitude and convert it into nothing short of a mini Alton Towers.Try the BBC for more on Moel Famau
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Clwydian Range