Twenty circular walks exploring the contrasting countryside around the historic market town of Holywell, nearby attractive villages and Halkyn Mountain, part of an ancient urban upland common, providing a great insight into their fascinating social and industrial history.

Holywell, which takes its name from the famous St. Winefride’s Holy Well, whose reputed healing powers have attracted pilgrims here for centuries, lies at the top of the wooded Greenfield Valley, now a Heritage Park. The valley contains various ancient monuments, including the 8th C Wat’s Dyke and 12th C Basingwerk Abbey, as well as the remains of mills and factories that made the valley a major industrial centre in the 18th C.

By contrast Halkyn Mountain is a narrow upland plateau of carboniferous limestone, with its highest point being Moel y Gaer Iron-Age hillfort (994 feet), consisting mainly of grassland grazed by sheep. Scattered settlements lie within a landscape of capped shafts and old workings - a legacy of its intensive exploitation for lead and quarrying. During the 18th and 19th centuries Halkyn Mountain became a major lead producer. Its designation as an Open Access area and its network of paths used by miners and commoners provide a great opportunity to explore this wonderful unique open upland landscape.

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