Moel Famau & the Jubilee Tower

Every corner of Britain has its default hill — the one you climb after work, take visiting relatives up, and secretly never tire of. For the whole of North-East Wales, that hill is Moel Famau, “the mother mountain”, 554 metres of heather and wind at the heart of the Clwydian Range. It’s the range’s highest top, though for the record it’s a hill, not a mountain.

What it’s actually like

The path from Bwlch Pen Barras is broad, obvious and honest: it goes up, it keeps going up, and twenty-five minutes later the gradient relents onto a whaleback ridge where the whole of the Vale of Clwyd unrolls to your left. On a sharp day the panorama from the top runs from Winter Hill above Manchester, across Liverpool’s cathedrals and the wind farms of the Irish Sea, to the entire northern wall of Eryri — with Snowdon’s summit poking over the Carneddau if you know where to look. You’re stood on the Offa’s Dyke Path up here too, the old England–Wales border, which is a strange thing to remember while eating a sandwich.

The Jubilee Tower on the summit is a proper local oddity: begun in 1810 to mark George III’s golden jubilee, designed as an Egyptian-style obelisk, never finished, and toppled by a storm in 1862. The stump that survives makes a perfect windbreak, picnic platform and orientation table. Regulars will tell you which of the plinth’s corners is out of the wind in any given gale; the answer is usually the north-east one.

The way I actually go up

Everyone climbs Moel Famau from the east; I go from the west. The little free car park below Moel Arthur on the B5429 is quiet, the lane to it is quiet — you’ll rarely meet anything coming the other way — and the route front-loads its climbing, which means you’re warm within ten minutes of a cold start rather than thirty. From there it’s a ridge walk with the Vale of Clwyd falling away beside you, down into a saddle between the first climb and Moel Famau itself — on a sunny day this is the best moment on the hill, with the summit and its tower sat squarely ahead of you the whole approach. Denbigh Gliding flies from the valley below, and on good days you’ll look up from your boots to find a glider drifting alongside you in complete silence. The path is less trodden but impossible to lose.

The honest trade-offs: the car park is small with no toilets, and it’s a longer round trip than the Bwlch Penbarras motorway. What you get back: options. Back at the car with legs to spare, Moel Arthur’s hillfort is a short pull straight up from the car park — two summits in a day. And if you’re feeling greedy, keep going north to Penycloddiau’s ramparts instead, through the trees and out to an uninterrupted line of sight across to the Great Orme. That extended ridge is the route we trained on for Kilimanjaro; it’s that kind of leg-stretcher.

Which car park should you use?

There are four honest starts, and the one to pick depends entirely on what you’re after. Every number here was checked in July 2026.

Car park	Cost	Spaces	Toilets	Best for
Coed Moel Famau (south)	£6 all day	~100	Yes	Kids & pushchairs
Bwlch Pen Barras (top)	£6 all day	~50	No	The quickest summit
Moel Arthur (north, B5429)	Free	~10	No	Avoiding the crowds
Cilcain viewpoint laybys	Free	~5–10 each	No	A quiet start

The short version: quickest summit → Bwlch Pen Barras (it’s the closest car park to the top, and there’s usually a coffee van); with kids or a pushchair → Coed Moel Famau (the toilets and the marked accessible paths are here); avoiding the crowds → Moel Arthur or the Cilcain laybys (free, small, and you’ll want to get there early to grab a spot). Bwlch Pen Barras also shares its car park with Foel Fenlli, the Iron Age hillfort across the pass, if you fancy two summits in a morning. The free Moel Arthur car park to the west — small, no toilets — is the quiet start I use most, walked through above.

One quirk worth knowing: Coed Moel Famau uses ANPR. There’s no barrier — a camera reads your plate on the way in and you pay on the way out, by card or contactless only (no cash), with no overnight parking. Don’t rely on the postcode either. CH7 5SH covers a wide area and won’t deliver you to the entrance; use the grid reference in the facts panel.

How long does the walk really take?

These are our own timings, walked and dated — not a route-app average. Distances are round trips from each car park.

Route	Distance	Our walked time	Best for
Jubilee Tower circular (from Coed Moel Famau)	3.5 mi / 5.5 km	~2 hours	A steady, waymarked forest climb
Direct from Bwlch Pen Barras	~9 km	~3.5 hours	Quickest to the summit, busiest
Northern route from Moel Arthur	~8 km	~3.5 hours	The quietest, most rugged line
Loggerheads circular	~13 km	~4 hours	The longest, with the most variety

Third-party estimates vary a lot: AllTrails, for instance, averages roughly 1h40 for the popular out-and-back. Ours are longer because they’re the whole day as we actually walked it — stops, photos, sandwiches and all — and they carry the date above so you know how current they are. Our full Jubilee Tower circular route writes the first of these up step by step, including the Foel Fenlli extension.

Before you go

The single-track lanes. Every one of these car parks sits at the end of narrow lanes with passing places and blind corners. The trick is to stay calm and drive gently, whatever the speed limit says: make a mental note of each passing place as you go by it, and if you meet an oncoming car where the road is tight and there hasn’t been a passing place for a while, pause and give the other driver a moment to remember theirs and reverse. Be generous — but don’t let yourself be bullied into reversing a mile, either. On busy days the pull up to Bwlch Pen Barras is where this bites; getting there early, or parking at Moel Arthur, sidesteps it entirely.

Paying and toilets. Coed Moel Famau is card or contactless only — there’s no cash option on site. Its toilets are the only ones on the hill, open 8am–6pm October to March and 8am–9pm April to September.

Dogs and livestock. Sheep graze the hill for much of the year and there are ground-nesting birds on the tops, so keep dogs on leads.

Weather at the top. The summit is exposed and the temperature up there rarely matches the car park. Layer up — your body warms fast while your ears stay cold. We went up one November fully kitted and spent the day cycling through t-shirt, then hat and gloves, then back again. A Canadian friend’s advice has stuck with me: start cold. You always warm up once you’re moving, and the last thing you want ten minutes in is to stop and stuff a coat back in the bag.

Make a day of it

You’re on the Offa’s Dyke Path here, and the ridge invites greed: Foel Fenlli’s Iron Age ramparts are twenty minutes south of the Bwlch Pen Barras car park and turn the walk into a two-summit horseshoe. Push further north along the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley skyline and the hillforts keep coming — Moel Arthur and Penycloddiau chain the ridge towards the sea. Off the hill, Ruthin — its crooked medieval square, craft centre and gaol museum — is ten minutes’ drive, and the Loggerheads Country Park café at the foot of the Old Bull Road does the post-walk cake economy proud.

Common questions

How long does the Moel Famau walk take?

The shortest push to the summit, from Bwlch Pen Barras, is about 45 minutes each way. Our walked circulars run longer: about 2 hours for the Jubilee Tower loop from Coed Moel Famau, up to about 4 for the Loggerheads round.

Which Moel Famau car park is free?

Moel Arthur (the north car park on the B5429) and the Cilcain viewpoint laybys are free — both small, so arrive early. Coed Moel Famau and Bwlch Pen Barras are £6 for the day (checked July 2026).

What's the quietest route up Moel Famau?

From the free Moel Arthur car park on the B5429, to the west. Most visitors come from the east, so this side stays quiet even on fine weekends — a ridge approach with a fine saddle before the summit. Small car park, no toilets, but you'll usually get a space.

Are there toilets at Moel Famau?

Only at the Coed Moel Famau car park on the south side: 8am–6pm October–March, 8am–9pm April–September. Bwlch Pen Barras and the northern car parks have none.

Can you drive up Moel Famau?

No — there's no road to the summit, you park and walk up. Bwlch Pen Barras (the top car park, £6) leaves the shortest climb; Coed Moel Famau, Moel Arthur and the Cilcain laybys are the other starts.

Is Moel Famau a mountain?

No — it's a hill, not a mountain: 554 metres (1,818 ft), and the highest point in the Clwydian Range.

Is Moel Famau suitable for kids or pushchairs?

Yes for kids — it's a popular first hill, and a determined five-year-old regularly beats us up it. For a pushchair, start from Coed Moel Famau, which has the marked accessible paths; the other approaches are too rough.

Can I take my dog up Moel Famau?

Yes, but keep it on a lead: there's sheep grazing for much of the year and ground-nesting birds on the tops.

How hard is the walk up Moel Famau?

From Bwlch Pen Barras it's a steady, obvious ridge path of about 1.5 miles with 240m of climb. Boots are nice but trainers survive it in summer; the last pull to the tower is the only properly steep bit.

What is the Jubilee Tower, and can you go inside it?

It's the ruin on the summit — begun in 1810 for George III's Golden Jubilee, never finished, and mostly destroyed by a storm in 1862 (it's now Grade II listed). There's no interior to enter, but you can walk onto the surviving base, which is exactly where the view and the interpretation panels are.

What can you see from the top of Moel Famau?

On a clear day: across the Wirral to the Main Stand at Anfield, both Liverpool cathedrals, and the Irish Sea. You're also stood on the Offa's Dyke Path — the ancient England–Wales border that runs the length of the country.

Is Moel Famau good at sunset?

It's the best easy sunset summit in North Wales. The trick locals use: go up an hour before sunset, watch it drop behind Snowdonia, and descend the broad path by headtorch — it's wide and unmistakable even in the dark.

Staying over?

Ruthin has beautiful scenery, a castle and a very good bakery — what more could you ask of a base?

Browse places to stay near Ruthin ↗ opens Booking.com — needs signal