January's hike: Millennium Walkway, New Mills
We drove here on a very cold Saturday, planning to do this 4 mile loop walk. We parked up and walked down to the Torrs Hydro, across the Millennium Walkway itself and through some woody areas - however, we didn't plan particularly well and definitely didn't end up doing the loop - we actually just walked back on ourselves, so we were totally off route. We still managed to get a good 5k steps in, and the views were great, it just wasn't exactly the hike we had planned!
February's hike: Helsby Hill, Cheshire
This was a nice early morning hike, only around half an hour from home. We parked up in the nature reserve car park, then headed up the (very steep) road to the bottom of Helsby Hill itself. It's not too much of a steep hill, and the views at the top across Cheshire, Wirral and Liverpool were brilliant - it was fairly windy but the sun was shining, and we did end up walking through the nature reserve too which was cool and well worth combining with the hill hike. Only around 3k steps so not a huge hike by any means, but a really enjoyable one.
March's hike: Moel Famau, Flintshire
Our biggest yet - alarms set for 4.30am, we drove into Wales to walk the Jubilee Tower circular at sunrise. We arrived at the carpark at 6am, and it was already looking super cloudy. Nevertheless, we set out on the 5.5k circular route, taking the 'less steep' option where we could. Mind you, this is still incredibly steep in a lot of places, with plenty of heather and bramble and narrow paths to navigate. The higher we got, the foggier and cloudier it became meaning we didn't actually see anything in the way of sunrise - and when we got to the tower itself, we couldn't see a thing. However, it was a great sense of achievement to complete the hike! It was also the first time we'd taken Daisy (my parents' dog who we often look after) on a hike with us, and she loved it.
April's hike: Castell Dinas Bran
The hike we originally had planned for April was cancelled, so last minute my fiancée and I decided to travel up to Llangollen to hike up to Castell Dinas Bran. We actually got engaged in Llangollen so it holds a special place in our hearts, and we've never had the chance to do this particular hike - it's a train and bus away from us, taking around 2 hours to get there, but was so worth it.
We had glorious blue skies without a cloud in sight, and we did find this hike a challenge; it's so vertical, meaning we had to stop a good few times, but it really is worth it. The views were absolutely mesmerising, and we felt so good having done it. The full hike, up to the top and back down, is around 3.5km with 214m elevation. This took us just over an hour, with a nice stop at the top to admire our surroundings. I'd highly recommend this one if you want to challenge yourself!
Stay tuned to see the rest of my 2025 hiking routes, and follow me on Strava if you're interested in seeing more!
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