Craig y Forwyn (meaning "Maiden's Crag" in English) is a

crag Crag may refer to: * Crag (climbing), a cliff or group of cliffs, in any location, which is or may be suitable for climbing * Crag (dice game), a dice game played with three dice * Crag, Arizona, US * Crag, West Virginia, US * Crag and tail, a ...

Conwy County Borough Conwy County Borough () is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the north Wales, north of Wales. It borders Gwynedd to the west and south and Denbighshire to the east. The largest settlement is Colwyn Bay, and Conwy is the administrativ ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, located less than a mile south of

Llanddulas Llanddulas is a village in Conwy county borough, Wales, midway between Old Colwyn and Abergele and next to the North Wales Expressway in the community of Llanddulas and Rhyd-y-Foel. The village lies beneath the limestone hill of Cefn-yr-Og ...

, near the village of

Rhyd y Foel Rhyd-y-foel is a small village near the coast of north Wales in the area of Rhos in the County Borough of Conwy, Wales. It is named after the old ford (Welsh: ''rhyd'') over the River Dulas. It lies at the foot of the western slopes of Pe ...

. The cliff is composed of carboniferous limestone and is of interest to geologists as a source of

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

s and to rock climbers as a fine cliff with many interesting climbing routes.

Rock climbing

Craig y Forwyn reaches a height of , and

rock climbers Rock climbing is a climbing sports discipline that involves ascending routes consisting of natural rock in an outdoor environment, or on artificial resin climbing walls in a mostly indoor environment. Routes are documented in guidebooks, and o ...

have identified and rated more than 160 routes for ascending it. The rapidity with which the rock dries makes the cliff a useful climbing venue after rain has fallen.

Location

The cliff lies on the west bank of the Afon Dulas, which reaches the sea at

, and is slightly inland of the belt of carboniferous limestone that runs along the coast from

Great Ormes Head The Great Orme () is a limestone headland on the north coast of Wales, north-west of the town of Llandudno. Referred to as ''Cyngreawdr Fynydd'' by the 12th-century poet Gwalchmai ap Meilyr, its English name derives from the Old Norse word for ...

Point of Ayr Point of Ayr () is the northernmost point of mainland Wales. It is situated immediately to the north of Talacre in Flintshire, at the mouth of the Dee estuary. It is to the southwest of the Liverpool Bay area of the Irish Sea. It is the site ...

, about three miles west of

Abergele Abergele (; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community, situated on the north coast of Wales between the holiday resorts of Colwyn Bay and Rhyl, in Conwy County Borough. It lies within the historic counties of Wales, historic county b ...

. The Dulas passes through a gap in the limestone belt, the strata of which dip from the north or northeast. This band of limestone is less than a mile wide. The summit of the hill is above sea level.

Geology

The cliff's carboniferous limestone is underlain by a seam about a foot thick of impure

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

and a narrow stratum of bituminous

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

. This bears impressions of fossil plants including ''

Lepidodendron ''Lepidodendron'' is an extinct genus of primitive lycopodian vascular plants belonging the order Lepidodendrales. It is well preserved and common in the fossil record. Like other Lepidodendrales, species of ''Lepidodendron'' grew as large-tree ...

'', '' Poacites'' resembling leaves, and

encrinite Encrinites are a type of grain-supported bioclastic sedimentary rock in which all or most of the grains are crinoid ossicles. In older literature, the word is sometimes used to refer to individual fossil crinoids, but this usage is obsolete. Di ...

. Another stratum lower down the cliff is of pebbles of a greenish sandstone, and this contains fossils of

bivalve molluscs Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed by a calcified exoskeleton consis ...

as well as more sections of encrinites. Nearby is

quarry, which produces a particularly porcelain-like limestone that has been used architecturally for such buildings as St Margaret's Church,

Bodelwyddan Bodelwyddan () is a village, electoral ward and community in Denbighshire, Wales, approximately 5 miles (8 km) south of Rhyl. The parish includes several smaller hamlets such as Marli and Little Pengwern. Bodelwyddan is home to over si ...

, commonly known as the "marble church".

References

External links

The Climbers' Club: Craig y Forwyn Guidebook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Craig Y Forwyn, Conwy Landforms of Conwy County Borough Cliffs of Wales