A Week in Wales

During the school holidays we spent the week in a lovely cottage in Wales. We stayed at The Mill House at Carrog Mill cottages owned by Wirral Mind. Carrog Mill Cottages are self-catering cottages located in the small village of Carrog, Denbighshire in Wales. When you book to stay at these cottages you are directly helping to fund Wirral Mind’s vital services which enable them to support people in Wirral and Merseyside with mental health problems and learning difficulties.

The Mill House was beautiful and so peaceful. It has four bedrooms on the first floor and an accessible ground floor bedroom. There was a well-equipped kitchen with a range cooker, breakfast room, dining room and a spacious living room. We stayed here with Family so it was perfect for what we needed. You can get more information and book stays here Carrog Mill Cottages – Wirral Mind

Just a short walk is the Grouse Inn The Grouse Inn for pub food near the steam railway in Carrog, North Wales (thegrouseinncarrog.co.uk) also set near the river Dee in the small village of Carrog, serving delicious meals. It has indoor and heated and covered seating outside with views of the river and the steam railway. We opted to sit inside as the weather wasn’t on our side when we visited and it was really cold and rainy, but what else is better than a delicious hot meal in a cosy pub? We actually ate at The Grouse twice during our holiday, we had a Sunday roast and then visited again for a 3-course meal. All the food was reasonably priced, and all made from scratch. When we visited mid-week the children ate for free with every full paying adult which was a bonus. All of us a Zippylife can highly recommend booking into the Grouse for food if you ever stay or visit Carrog.

Whilst staying in Carrog we made the most of our time together to go on lots of days out, things that we don’t normally do at home. Whenever the weather was dry, we headed out for walks. Our girls do need some motivation on walks as like most children, get bored and moan. We did a very child friendly walk from Llangollen along the canal to Horseshoe falls, it’s only 2 miles which was the perfect length for our two. We stopped at the Oggie Shop in Llangollen and picked up some lunch to get the girls through the walk. My husband opted for a traditional Oggie that was the size of his head, it looked incredible. The Zippy girls opted for sausage rolls and I had a chicken and bacon bake. The best part about the Oggie shop is that they heat them up for you so you can eat them on the go, which is exactly what we needed. We set off on our walk and tucked into our hot pastries, this certainly kept the kids occupied for the majority of the walk. When you get to horseshoe falls you are met with breathtaking views of the weir. There are information boards explaining how it directs some of the water into the canal and some of the water into the river. The children enjoyed reading about the history.

On one of the days we ventured a little further into North Wales and travelled on the Ffestiniog railway to Porthmadog. The Ffestiniog railway is the oldest narrow-gauge railway in the world with 200 years of history. The Ffestiniog Railway and its infrastructure are now an integral part of the UNESCO “Slate landscape of North Wales” World Heritage Site. I’m not going to lie I wasn’t that excited about going on the train to begin with, this was definitely a day out for my husband and the girls, but it was by far the best day out of the holiday. We drove for about an hour from the cottages to Blaenau Ffestiniog, parked in a long-stay carpark in the village, and walked down to train station. My husband pre-booked the tickets online, we highly recommend this as it was sold out on one of the days, he also booked us an afternoon tea to enjoy on the train. It was really cute, we sat at seats that had a little table and all of the afternoon teas were individually packaged in a card cake box. The views from the train are just out of this world, and the staff are so knowledgeable of the history of the railway. Then we arrived at Porthmadog, you don’t get much time in the village before the train travels back, enough time to have a look around the little shops a get a quick bite to eat. We had already had afternoon tea on the train, but we were a bit peckish. Porthmadog is a seaside village, so we shared a portion of chips on a bench looking out over the harbour. Then we hopped back on the train and travelled back. As much as it didn’t seem like my thing, we all really, really enjoyed it! This we would all highly recommend, can be a bit pricey but so worth it for a wholesome day out. If you would like to find out more about the railway or book a trip visit here Home Page - Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways (festrail.co.uk)

Whilst staying in Carrog we visited the Rhug Estate Farm. This has a little farm shop selling produce from the farm and lots of artisan items. It also has a café, and it serves food from a ‘hatch’ outside and has a little playground for the kids. We ordered a burger each and some loaded fries to share for our lunch. The burgers were delicious, and I think where made from beef reared at the farm. From the farm they have two family friendly walks. We opted for the shorter walk because the girls were quite tired this day. It went right through the sheep fields and long farm tracks. It was muddy but they had a Halloween trail which the girls loved finding all the clues. If you would like to visit or buy produce from the farm you can find more information here Rhug Estate | Organic Farm, Café & Online Shop

On one of the days, we visited Chirk castle, which was really close to Carrog, it’s just outside of Wrexham. This was also a good family day out. We walked round the grounds and completed the kids Halloween trail here. It was stunning, it was like a scene from Alice in Wonderland, the topiaries and landscapes were so well laid out, statues were perfectly framed with the scenery, and this is before you even enter the castle. You can pay a little extra to go inside the castle, which is like a museum, full of artifacts originally from the castle. It was really interesting, but I found myself saying “don’t touch that” many times whilst walking round. The castle is split into two sections, one part is like a museum and the other is in it’s traditional state where you can climb up and down stone steps to visit the dungeons. We really enjoyed this day out too, we took a picnic and bought hot take away drinks. The weather was great this day which I think helped. Chirk Castle's collection | Wales | National Trust

We loved our trip so much that we have booked again for a mums and kids trip and I cannot wait to explore North Wales and find more days out for the kids.