The Heather and Hillforts area provides ideal fieldwork sites for History, Geography and Science whilst providing opportunities to gather a wealth of information to complement sustainable development, global citizenship, responsibility and other National Curriculum subjects through skills based learning.

The hillforts, such as Penycloddiau near Nannerch, provide learning potential for Key Stage 1, 2 and 3 History, especially Key Stage 2 ‘The Celts’ and the landscape and heather moorland provide a fascinating backdrop to actively learn about ‘Living Things and their Environment’ and ‘Environmental Change’, with habitats, life cycles, ecosystems, visitors pressure and factors within Personal and Social Education.

Outreach

If your school would like to visit the area on a guided walk or would like one of the officers to visit your school, please contact us using the contact details on the website. Although we would love to do this everyday, unfortunately places are limited.

Guided Walk

A half day walk can take about 1½ to 2½ hours. Topics covered on the walk can include land use, visitor pressures, shaping of the landscape, geographical evidences as well as endorsing issues of citizenship (such as the impact of your lifestyle on the environment, sustainability and keeping healthy) and our history and archaeology, providing children with a visit to their Celtic heritage. Map reading activities including grid referencing is also available by request.

Visiting a Site

If you would like to visit one of the sites without us- please feel free! We are currently working on new maps and interpretation for the sites we look after and you can also download Denbighshire Countryside Service’s ‘23 Countryside Sites’ and ‘Explore Moel Famau & Loggerheads’ leaflets. These will provide you with information about toilets, parking and other useful information.

Downloadable Activities

We are adding to our website all of the time, so keep checking the Discovery link and Fun Zone for new educational activities and ideas.

School Events

As part of Denbighshire Walking Festival we will be organising days for schools to book to spend the day with us with fun activities and special events. As places are limited, they will be on a strictly ‘first come, first served’ basis. Dates and details TBA- watch this space!

Teacher Training

So you can feel confident about where you are visiting with your school and for us to show you the best places to bring your students, we will be organising teacher days later this year. We will be in touch nearer the time, but if you have any suggestions or comments for us to include, to make visiting the area with your school as easy as possible, please let us know and we will endeavour to help as much as we can.

Other Resources

Remember, there’s plenty more to do in the area so we hope you will visit us more than once!
Other things to do include:
• Loggerheads Country Park- book your school in for some river dipping in the River Alyn. Call , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
• The Forestry Commission- Fun outdoor activities for all ages! For a trip to Moel Famau or Loggerheads Country Park, call the Woodlands for Learning Team on .
• Download the Loggerheads Country Park Geodiversity Education Pack at the Denbighshire County Council website in the Countryside Education section www.denbighshire.gov.uk/countryside.

School Loan Resource Chests

We are currently working on two new resource chests that will be available for schools to borrow through the Denbighshire and Flintshire Schools Loan System in Mold. With the help of local teachers and Careers Wales, an Iron Age Hoard and a Moorland Treasure Chest are in development. Once they have been tried and tested, we hope to launch them early 2010. Contents will include fun activities, pictures, sounds and pdfs to download, a handling collection and information on how to visit and what to do on site with your school. Downloads from the chests will also be available on the Heather and Hillforts website once they have been developed.