Explore Mold to Holywell
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Mold is a friendly market town where family-run businesses and leading High Street names rub shoulders. Street trading has been a feature of Mold life since the 17th century and continues today with a bustling street market every Wednesday and Saturday. |
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Overlooking the High Street is the beautiful church of St Mary the Virgin. Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor, commissioned it as an offering to God for the victory of her son over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. |
Leaving Mold on the A541 Denbigh Road travelling west, turn right, at sign number 2. At this point consider a short detour by continuing along the A541 for half a mile to the village of Rhydymwyn , from where the Leete Walk runs through a green and peaceful valley to Loggerheads Country Park. The composer Mendlessohn was inspired to write “The Rivulet” while walking along the Leete. Return to the Rhosesmor turn (sign 2) and continue. |
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| Views across the River Dee | |
As you pass through Rhosesmor, look out for the iron age hillfort of Moel y Gaer to the left before entering the vast landscape of industrial history that is Halkyn Mountain, with its stunning views across the Dee Estuary and the Mersey to Liverpool where the twin cathedrals can usually be seen. Underneath Rhosesmor is an underground lake, reputed to be the largest in Europe. A few hundred metres after sign number 5 in the village of Pentre Halkyn, you pass directly over the Milwr Tunnel. This tunnel complex was a massive engineering project built between 1897 and 1957. Details on the 'Links from this section ' page. Lead mining began here in Roman times and continued from the 13th century until the last mine closed in the 1970s. Halkyn Mountain is common land on which many local properties have the right to graze animals. Brynford is set 750 feet above the sea, surrounded by several tumuli, cairns and earth circles. In the old village school, the famous explorer HM Stanley, of “Dr Livingstone, I presume?” fame, was a pupil teacher. From Brynford, you descend a steep hill to Holywell with superb views across the Dee Estuary |
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It has a wealth of history to do with its strategic importance on the England-Wales border. A motte and bailey Norman castle once stood on Bailey Hill at the top of the High Street, while in 1833 a fabulous gold ceremonial cape of beaten gold thought to date from around 2,000 BC was found on the skeleton of a man buried near Mold. There is a replica and many other Bronze Age treasures in Mold Museum in EarlRoad, which also has a display devoted to Mold’s most famous son and father of the Welsh novel, DanielOwen.
