I’m sure most of you have taken your kids up to the top of Moel Famau, I on the other hand have not attempted it with them because I know they’d a) moan about the constant uphill and b) the lack of trees to climb. So to make life easier we always do a short circuit on the lower slopes which I’ll share with you here. In my opinion it’s one of the best family walks to do as there’s a great playground and water play for the kids as well as a scenic forested walk for the grown ups. It’s only 1.9km and on hard standing paths so you’ll be fine with an all terrain pushchair, but I warn you the first part is uphill!

My route mostly follows one of the official routes (the red signposted Forest Tracker Trail) but I deviate from it slightly because on that route you encounter the water play first and I know from experience never to let them near water at the start of a walk! So on my route you’ll finish at the water play.

Parking at the large Moel Famau Lower Car Park is £2 all day and you’ll need the correct cash (card payments aren’t accepted). As always, the Sat Nav link on the Info Bar will take you right there.

Next to the car park you’ll immediately spot the children’s playground. Despite there being only two bits of equipment, we can easily spend 30 mins here as they absolutely adore the large play frame which is designed to look like a giant hawk’s nest.

To start the walk, look for this path to the left of the playground (with the car park behind you).

So you can see where it is in relation to the playground, I took the below photo, looking behind me standing at the start of the path.

Head up the path and at this fork, take the left hand path.

You’ll follow this all the way uphill, it is fairly steep so be prepared to get a little puffed!

At this junction, keep following the path round to the left (follow the red arrow) - ignore my boys going in the opposite direction on this photo!

There’s lots of places to duck into the trees and have a play. There’s a few little wooden sculptures, a small stream and a den area to find.

As the path takes a sharpish turn to the left here

You’ll then come to this junction where you turn left, walking on a path which runs parallel with the path you just came up on.

Follow this path, the sides are quite steep so the kids might enjoy climbing up them. One word of caution to add, there are usually several stacks of timber logs piled up on the sides of the paths, don’t let them play on these as they can be very unstable.

The views are beautiful looking down the valley.

When you see this left hand path, follow it downhill.

At the very bottom cross over the road and you’ll come to some old hollow cedar tree trunks. Inconspicuous as they are my kids will spend a surprisingly long time playing on these. I haven’t tried to climb in them but if you’re that way inclined I reckon they could squeeze an adult in!

From here, walk across the grass (with the tree trunks behind you), cross over the road head to the left of this picnic bench where you’ll cross over the wobbly bridge.

This water play area, called ‘Stones Flow’ is such a lovely little spot, on a sunny day it’s idyllic. Bring wellies for them and they can occupy themselves playing in the water whilst you sit and have a breather.

There are loads of picnic benches dotted around here and as there aren’t any eateries within walking distance it’s a good idea to bring some food.

After all that, if you want to get a glimpse of some great views without climbing to the top of Moel Famau, then turn right out of the car park and follow the road all the way until the main Moel Famau car park, where you can see some amazing views across the valley.