Buckley Heritage Trail
Distance: 4.5 km/2.8 miles
Time: Allow 1.5 hours
Parking and start: Etna car park on Globe Way (SJ286653)
Grade: Easy, little climbing, good surfaces, few stiles
Facilities: Pubs and farm shop/cafe nearby
The secret of Buckley's successful pottery and brickmaking industries lay below ground. Buckley Mountain was coated with thick, clinging clay that was ideal for pot making.
Pot Clay is like plasticine. It can be easily moulded into shapes and is termed ‘Strong Clay’. Below the Pot Clay were much older seams of coal and a hard gritty, sandstone-like clay, called ‘fire clay’.
Read more: Buckley's industrial reputation built brick by brick
This could not easily be moulded. The old potters called it ‘Weak Clay’, but it was ideal for brick making. During the 1800s Buckley grew into a thriving industrial town, drawing workers from other pottery making areas in England and overseas. This cultural mix created the distinctive character of Buckley today.
Buckley Heritage walk map.
The Walk
1. From the car park, cross road to start of Heritage Trail, through Kissing Gate and head downhill towards Globe Pool. Follow path to the Left before sculpture. At stile turn Right down the Byway. Follow the Byway as it turns right and continue down here for 275m in a general northerly direction before turning right over a stile. Continue along this track for 500m until you come to a kissing gate at the end of the track.
Proceed through kissing gate and across the field towards point 2.
2. Ascend wooden steps and boardwalk through the amphibian and reptile conservation area known as the Standard pools and turn right at the end after the wooden kissing gate. Follow the path 200m. At junction with path on the left keep right and continue on the tarmac footpath towards Mount Pleasant Road at point 3.
3. Cross Mount Pleasant Road and follow the edge of the playing area heading towards the Burntwood Pub. At the end of the playing area take an sharp turn right and follow the path through another gate and continue on until you come out onto the open fields. Head straight through the middle of the fields and take a right turn on the footpath that heads towards the industrial estate at point 4.
Along the Buckley Heritage walk.
4. Heading up the field towards the rear of the houses, follow the path to the right to the industrial estate on an enclosed footpath. Turn diagonally Left after exiting the path onto the industrial estate and continue onto Drury Lane. Turn right onto Drury Lane and head up towards the old railway bridge and the now old pub which used to be known as the Glynne Arms. Take a left through the kissing gate and continue ahead for 160m along the former railway line, ignoring small footpath the right 75m after gate. Follow the path as its forks off to the right diagonally at the marker post and continue uphill for 200m, arriving at sculpture 7 overlooking the form brickworks site and clay pit which now forms part of the Heathlands Nature Reserve. At this point turn back on yourself right and follow the path which takes you back up to Drury Road.
5. Go through kissing gate onto Drury Lane and cross the road and follow the access onto Mount Pleasant Road across top of triangular island. Go down Mount Pleasant Road for 100m. Turn left through a large metal Kissing gate just after house named “Rosedene” onto the Globe Way Amphibian and Reptile Nature Reserve.
Continue ahead through the reserve and follow the path as it veers off to the left until you come to a kissing gate. Continue through kissing gate and after 10m turn Right into Etna Park. Continue through Etna Park and one of two tracks available on a loop. Several paths loop around Etna Park which makes for a pleasant short walk in itself but if you continue through either route through the park you will then arrive back at the car park at the start of the walk.
• This walk is courtesy of Flintshire County Council.
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