Clocaenog

Clocaenog (pronounced klok-EYE-nog) is a village and forest on the Denbigh Moors, 7 miles west of Ruthin. The village is small and remote; the forest — Coed Clocaenog — is a large upland conifer plantation managed by Natural Resources Wales, with walking and mountain biking trails through some of the most isolated country in North Wales.

Coed Clocaenog

The forest covers approximately 2,400 hectares of the Mynydd Hiraethog upland plateau. It is not scenic in the conventional sense — the plantation is mostly Sitka spruce, the moorland is bleak, and the roads through the forest are gravel forestry tracks. But it is genuinely remote, the walking is good, and the ride trails (Clocaenog Trail Centre) are well-regarded by mountain bikers. In winter the upland weather here is severe.

St Foddhyd's Church

The small church at Clocaenog village, dedicated to the obscure saint Foddhyd, is a medieval building in a circular churchyard — the circular enclosure suggesting a pre-Norman foundation on an earlier sacred site, a pattern common in Wales. The village itself is a handful of houses on the moor edge.

Getting There

From Ruthin, take the B4501 west towards Cerrigydrudion. The forest car parks are signed from this road. The drive across the moor takes about 20 minutes and is itself part of the experience: the Denbigh Moors are entirely different in character from the Clwydian Range — wider, bleaker, less defined.