9.30am, Prestatyn Hall, ready to meet walkers who are enrolled on the Gop Cairn and Moel Hiraddug hillfort walk.  I’m jointly leading the walk with Garry Davies, Warden for the north of Denbighshire.

The hillfort is not one covered by the Heather and Hillfort Project and is very different from those in the project area. For a start the geology is different; it is limestone and most of the ramparts are made from limestone blocks. It’s also different in that there have been quite a lot of excavations there over the years, the main reason for this is that for a good many years a quarry nibbled away at the fort, now about a third has disappeared although thankfully the quarry has stopped extracting stone.

There are over 20 people on the walk and the weather bodes well for a pleasant walk.  We are at Gop Cairn by lunchtime. This is a fascinating place, a massive mound seemingly with no purpose! It too has had some excavations, this time in the 19th century by Professor Boyd Dawkins from Manchester. Archaeologists now think it may date to the Neolithic, about 5500 years ago when people first started to settle and become farmers. There was nothing to date the mound itself although a little downslope are some caves and Boyd Dawkins found human burials from the Neolithic in them.

It is a bit wild and wet at lunchtime and we are all quite pleased to reach the road and get out of the wind. By the time we get to Moel Hiraddug it is even wilder but fantastic fun! Provided you can keep on your feet! The views from the top are fantastic and we are so lucky because it is clear. The people in the Iron Age, 2500 years ago new how to pick the best places!

The final part of the walk is all on the level, along the Prestatyn Dyserth way, the old railway line. It’s just what we need at the end of a long day. Everyone in the group seemed to enjoy themselves, and after 10 miles we all felt we had earned the scones and cream, complete with fresh strawberries!