About the Range
Recent News & Events
Minister confirms AONB designation for the Dee Valley
22.11.2011
Loggerheads hoists its Green Flag as one of the best !
28.07.2011
Clwydian Range AONB Award goes to the Raven Inn.
19.07.2011
More Information
The AONB also provided inspiration for many famous painters and writers such as Richard Wilson, ‘father of landscape paintings’, whose pictures hang in the National Gallery in London, and the poet Gerald Manley Hopkins, who roamed the Tremeirchion hills and wrote poetry about the beautiful scenery around him.
The Landscape
The Clwydian Range is notable for its high ridge of heather clad hills reaching down from the North Wales coast to the edge of the Dee Valley in the South.
Impressive limestone outcrops burst through the surface in a number a places down the eastern side of the range – most notably at Prestatyn Hillside, Llanferres and Loggerheads which boast rich grasslands of orchids and other wildflowers that provide a haven for butterflies.
The hills are cut in places by deep valleys carrying the area's two main rivers, the Alyn and the Wheeler, often disappearing under ground into hidden water courses amongst the limestone.
The varied landscape types within the Clwydian Range AONB support a rich diversity of wildlife species and habitats. Wildlife habitat is determined by topography, the presence of water, soil, climate and agricultural and other land uses. Within the AONB a range of ‘semi-natural’ vegetation occurs including heather moorland, limestone grassland, rivers and woodland.
The AONB has a wealth of archaeological and historic remains which date from the early prehistoric period right through to the Second World War. Sites range from the massive Iron Age Hillforts to the less conspicuous crop marks and finds in the lower areas.
Many of these archaeological sites are Scheduled Ancient Monuments and are afforded protection through Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments. Many other historic features, such as boundary stones, village wells and milestones are not protected and as such are much more vulnerable.
Many of the archaeological sites within the Range are important components of the wider landscape; the evidence of past mining and quarrying, settlements and burials forming a familiar unseen backdrop to our life today.
The archaeological imprints left on the landscape show us that people and communities are as much a part of the landscape as the flowers and wildlife. The Clwydian Range has a particularly rich and diverse culture and many inhabitants are rightly proud of their traditions. Eisteddfodau are held all over the Country and celebrate the Welsh language, music, poetry and culture. The International Eisteddfod is held only a few miles away from the AONB in Llangollen. Welsh choral and church choirs are well known throughout the world.
