Loggerheads Country Park sits in the Alyn Valley on the eastern side of the Clwydian Range, its dramatic limestone scenery long a draw for artists as well as visitors — Richard Wilson, sometimes called the father of British landscape painting, was among those who found inspiration here.
The valley's more recent history is industrial. Loggerheads was once an important lead-mining area, and traces of that past survive within the woodland, most visibly a watercourse, or leat, built around 1824 to carry water the length of the Alyn Valley to the lead mines at Mold, on land owned by the Grosvenor family. The site was also home to Pentre Mill, an early 19th-century corn mill powered by a water wheel on the River Alyn; the wheel fell out of use in the 1940s before being restored in the 1990s.
Loggerheads' life as a visitor destination began in earnest in 1926, when the Crosville Motor Bus Company acquired land here and built tea rooms and gardens for day-trippers who arrived by bus — an early example of the same tourist trade that shaped so much of North Wales in the 20th century. The park is now managed by Denbighshire County Council as a rural country park combining industrial heritage with woodland and riverside walking.
Loggerheads Country Park occupies a dramatic wooded gorge cut by the River Alyn as it flows beneath limestone cliffs on the eastern flank of the Clwydian Range, and its name is said to derive from a long-running boundary dispute between two local landowners, immortalised on an old inn sign nearby showing two men literally 'at loggerheads'. The park's mix of caves, cliffs, mixed woodland and riverside paths has made it a popular destination for walkers and families for generations.
A network of well-maintained trails winds through the gorge and up onto the open moorland of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with views towards Moel Famau and the Jubilee Tower. The park's visitor centre, café and adventure play areas make it an easy, accessible day out for visitors of all ages staying in or around Denbigh.