"Easter Around Chirk" a Chirk Travel Page by nickandchris

This page is about our Easter stay in the small town of St. Martin's, about 5 miles east of Chirk. I think St. Martin's is in Shropshire whereas Chirk is in Wrexham (one of these new-fangled counties that are forever being created.)
We stayed on a Caravan Club CL. just out of the village and spent most of our time walking, mainly along canals.
The area is rather flat compared with Cumbria and it wasn't until we returned home that we realised how much we had missed the hills.Still, it made walking non too strenuous for the likes of Nick and I who definitely don't walk enough!!!

We were disappointed with the architecture around here, most of the towns and villages seemed to be surrounded by the most hideous modern houses.It almost seemed like a competition to see who could come up with the most out of place house. Strange. And all in red brick as well.(So sorry for anyone reading this who may live in one of these!!!) (See Berriew page for a complete contrast.)
We spent happy hours watching the canal boats navigate locks and lifting bridges, thinking it seemed a nice way to travel the country. That was when the sun was shining. Then it rained and blew a gale and we thought maybe not so pleasant in those conditions.Canals abound around here, with the Shropshire Union, Mongomery and Llangollen and rivers are plentiful also, with the Severn, Ceiriog,Perry and Efyrnwy to name a few.
Offa's Dyke is found in these parts, the ancient frontier between England and Wales which runs for 177 miles.It's a major attraction for walkers with many circular walks incorporating the Dyke.

Chirk itself we didn't actually get to have a look round. We were always passing through. One thing that did annoy us was that we couldn't find anywhere to park to have a look at the aqueduct. Infuriating. As for Oswestry, the carpark we came across had a height barrier on it so Nick promptly roared out of the town declaring that Oswestry would never get any custom from us!!! Why do councils do this? Don't they want our business? The strange thing is that nowhere in the entire area, over the 5 days we were there, did we see any signs forbidding overnight parking.
Despite not being able to look round the towns (I'm not a town person anyway) we thoroughly enjoyed our Easter break in our newly acquired motorhome. Still minor problems to be ironed out with the van but overall, a success apart from one night being bogged in.
I'm not sure that we would return to this area, too flat and not architecturally interesting enough, although there are lots of attractions within the area. Also, too far from the sea for our liking. We are undoubtedly "coast" people and suffer withdrawal symptoms when absent from it for any length of time.