This blog was originally part of Rico Reviews – it was originally posted on 2nd February 2020. Don’t panic. We have not been naughty and broken the covid rules!
What is it?
Dog walk, tea rooms, restaurant and an 18th century country house (except dogs aren’t allowed in there which Rico gives a big paws down to!).
Where is it?
Erddig National Trust
Wrexham
LL13 0YT
Rico’s Rating?
We had an absolute blast!
There was everything Maisy and I enjoy!
There are designated off lead areas, where Maisy even got to join in a game of chase with a young German Shepherd and a poodley doodley thing. They were a bit big for me, so I stayed near the river with Dad pretending to look for fish.
There’s also some weird water fall thing that you have to make sure your humans don’t fall in. I’m not too sure what it is, but it was something different to look at on our walk for a change, so I went over and gave it a good sniff.
I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun on a walk. There are open fields which are great to run around, woods for sniffs, squirrels to spot and a river to plodge in. We went at the very start of February so it wasn’t really the weather for a proper swim but Mais was brave and stuck her face in to fetch sticks with Mum and Dad.
If it wasn’t for the fact I had to go in the dreaded b – a – t – h when I got home I would probably have given this a big 5 out of 5.
Rachel’s Rating?
Actually getting to Erddig wasn’t the easiest. Before we set off I went on the National Trust website, and I didn’t see any notes to advise that sat navs may not actually get you to main entrance, but we used the postcode provided on the National Trust website and ended up on a road that has been made into a public pathway, so had to resort to trusty Google maps to get there.
I should probably explain that as we are members of the National Trust, this trip with our dogs didn’t cost us anything (until I got hungry) and from what we could see there were various local car parks that you could start your walk from without actually paying the National Trust entrance fee. However that would mean you don’t have a coffee shop or toilet for use!
If we did pay, the entrance fee is quite expensive for access to limited facilities as dogs are not welcome across the whole estate and can’t even walk around the edge of the house to view it from the outside.
The coffee shops and restaurants also aren’t actually dog friendly, so if you want to avoid the cold or the wet, you can’t bring your dog in with you. Instead we opted to sit outside with our sandwiches on a damp bench. National Trust venues are never the cheapest for lunch, so we were prepared for the prices. If you haven’t been before, to give you an idea – we paid over £13 for 1 mocha, 2 small sandwiches and a bottle of water.
Due to the bad weather we have had recently, and the time of year (winter) the main paths were all very muddy underfoot and despite my faithful walking boots I did slip a few times. The dogs were filthy, so if you don’t want muddy paw prints then avoid this as a walking area until it is drier!
I can imagine when the weather dries up the walks will be much better. With the river for the dogs to cool off in, and the shade of the woods in the summer it will be fantastic. I am looking forward to taking the dogs back when the sun finally returns!
If you’ve been to visit Erddig with your dogs and have any thoughts, please do pop them in the comments below. Rico and Maisy would love to hear from you!