Bod Petryal is a sweet little gem of a place within Clocaenog Forest, South West of Ruthin. It’s about a 50 min drive from Chester via the Clwydian Hills, so expect the views to be spectacular, especially on the return trip. The Sat Nav link in the ‘More Info’ section will take you directly to the free car park off the B5105.
I’ve featured another walk in the Clocaenog Forest here. There’s actually quite a few of them dotted around as detailed on the Natural Resources for Wales website. You could make a day of it and explore to your heart’s content!
There are 3 forest walks you can do at Bod Petryal and an information board on the edge of the car park shows the routes. They’re all super easy to follow, just look for the appropriate coloured waymarker.
We started by exploring the yellow routes (Keeper’s Stroll & Animal Puzzle Trail) which start on the left hand side of the car park (as you drive in off the main road).
For the latter walk you can download the Animal Puzzle Leaflet here, we didn’t because my feral lot prefer to just run around, but if yours are a more patient bunch then this would be fun activity to do!
As always with my walks, on these 2 routes there are plenty of trees for the kids to climb on and dens to play in! I think you could just about do this walk with an All Terrain Pushchair, but see the green route below for a better option.
We also spotted some interesting mushrooms growing round the tree (whilst trying to stop the boys feed their innate need to whack them with sticks!) I’m sure I spotted blueberries growing (more on the green walk) although I wasn’t certain, so if anyone knows if that’s true or I’m just imagining things, please let me know!
A small section of the walk runs alongside a pretty lake and this would be a great spot for a picnic (I don’t think from memory there were any benches at this spot so take a blanket).
You’ll also spot the old Gate Keeper’s Cottage (Bod Petryal means ‘rectangular dwelling’ in Welsh and it’s named after this cottage), it’s all boarded up now, but makes an interesting landmark on the walk.
The end of the walk returns you to the car park, where, if you want to do the next walk, the ‘Bod Petryal Trot’ (green route) just cross over to the top left hand side.
This is less exciting a walk than the others for the kids, however it is on a forest road so if you want a quiet forest walk with an all terrain pushchair then this is for you! It is still a working forest so you will see timber stacked alongside the path, just try and keep the kids from climbing on these as it can be dangerous.
If you don’t want to do the full loop (2 miles) then you can take a cut through path halfway way round, I’m afraid I forgot to take a photo of it (sorry!) but if you track yourself on Google Maps then at the point the paths on either side are at their closest there will be a small path to divert onto. Do note though this bit isn’t pushchair friendly.
Walking back to the car park it was nice to hear the stream below us (it runs into the River Clwyd which starts in the Clocaenog forest) although there weren’t any easy access points.
Finally do keep an eye out for the elusive Red Squirrel! The Clocaenog Forest is one of the last well populated areas in Wales for them.
