Archive Council News

03.10.06

Rangers Alison Whitley and Sion Roberts try out the new walk from Coedpoeth

New "Country Walks Around Wrexham" on Website

Another three refurbished walk guides are now live on the www.wrexham.gov.uk/walks website. The walks start from Coedpoeth, Bwlchgwyn and Rhosllanerchrugog and vary between 4 and 6 miles long. The guides offer easy walking and provide a wealth of information about the history and wildlife of the area.

Modern trail guides are produced by the Council with the website in mind so that it is easy to download and print the information. However, there are also a large number of guides produced a few years ago using line drawings and hand-drawn maps. These are usually unsuitable for the web in their original form.

A good example of these old publications is the popular series of walks guides originally called 'Walks Around Wrexham Maelor' dating from 1988 to 1991. A great deal of time was spent on these guides and this is reflected in the amount of detailed information within them.

The intervening years has seen changes on the ground and some of the walk directions in the old guides are no longer reliable. It was decided not to republish them on paper.

It seemed a great shame to lose these well-loved walks. The solution came when, with the help of the environmental charity Groundwork Wrexham and Flintshire, a grant was secured from the Countryside Council for Wales to refurbish the paths on the ground, rewrite the text where necessary and republish the guides on the website.

With the new title "Country Walks Around Wrexham" the first three revised walks were put on the website last year and they have been well received. Now that there are six walks in the series and also The Clywedog Trail and Explore Rossett are on the website it is well worth a visit by anyone contemplating a local walk. A further four walks will be added later this year.

Anyone without access to the Internet can telephone Rights of Way section on 01978 292057 and a copy of a Country Walk Around Wrexham of their choice will be printed out for them. The Tourist Information Centre in Wrexham still has a big selection of other walk guides not available on the Internet.

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