Don’t let your kids read this one.

Come with me on a walk today to experience some stories from Abergele’s ‘X Files’.
Head up the Gele river, along the footpath parallel to The Ditch. According to my old Sunday School teacher, DE Jones, The Ditch used to be the main road for coaches and horses from Abergele to Llanfair TH. Through the gate near Mr Knowlson’s house to the 1st field. (Today there are houses built on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fields.) The 4th field has a footbridge up to the base of Tower Hill. Don’t cross that. Keep walking through the 5th to the 6th field. That’s the one with the gas pipe crossing the river and another footbridge up to Tower Hill. Don’t cross this bridge either. Instead, climb over the fence at the corner of he field and follow the Gele upstream.

What’s that ragged book with pages flapping in the wind? (Close up). It’s the rare occult book The Sacred Book of Magic of Abra Melin the Mage. Weird.

Reach the Wishing Pool with a small waterfall. Hang a left to the ruins of the hospital. They’ve built on that too now.

Climb Tower Hill. There are remains of two Chest Hospital summer houses on its slopes. That’s where people with TB were sent to be healed by a mix of medication and Abergele’s renowned fresh air. The first summer house is easy to find: at the top of Red Rock, facing Tan y Goppa. The second is overgrown, behind the Tower itself. Walk past this ruin to a mushroom-shaped tree whose canopy shelters a compost carpeted clearing. That’s where, as children, we whispered stories of witches dancing naked in the full moon…

It’s just getting dark. Be careful as you turn around and walk home through the trees. Abergele’s most feared bogeyman lives on Tower Hill. Watch out for him. He’s called ‘The Man With the Big Silver Boots’.