Motte

I spent the day in Mold, which for all its proximity to where I grew up, is not somewhere I've spent much time in, other than visits to see films at Theatr Clwyd.

I found an attractive and relatively thriving market town, and had fun pottering about taking pictures and visiting small shops. There was one classic 'Aladdin's Cave' collectibles shop, with stock piled high and randomly across several rooms and two floors, which I could have devoted the whole day to, but I restricted myself to a half hour of vinyl crate digging.

At the edge of town is this storied motte & bailey castle, built around 1100 by Normans and then changing hands many times between Welsh and English over the next couple of hundred years. The Gorsedd circle in the foreground is a more recent addition, being installed for the 1923 National Eisteddfod, so 100 years ago last year.

From the top of the Bailey I could look down on my next destination, the home ground of Mold Alexandra, who play in the Cymru North, the second tier of Welsh football. There was a good holiday crowd in attendance for the visit of neighbours Flint Mountain. It finished 2-1 to Alex, enabling them to leapfrog Mountain in the table.

Having journeyed across on the 'direct' bus from Denbigh, I returned via Ruthin, which made for a grand circle of a good stretch of the Clwydian range. The buses seem well co-ordinated, with my 1bws ticket enabling me to travel by three different operators and with good connecting services.