Tŷ Mawr Country Park ( cy, Parc Gwledig Tŷ Mawr) is a

country park A country park is a natural area designated for people to visit and enjoy recreation in a countryside environment. United Kingdom History In the United Kingdom, the term ''country park'' has a special meaning. There are around 250 recognised coun ...

and farm park near

Cefn Mawr Cefn Mawr () is a village in the community of Cefn within Wrexham County Borough, Wales. Its name translates as "big ridge".Mills, D. ''A Dictionary of British Place Names'', OUP, p.104 The population in 2001 was 6,669, increasing to 7,051 in ...

Wrexham County Borough Wrexham County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Wrecsam) is a county borough, with city status, in the north-east of Wales. It borders England to the east and south-east, Powys to the south-west, Denbighshire to the west and Flintshire to the nort ...

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

. The country park lies between Cefn-bychan and Newbridge to the north, the River Dee to the south and west, and the Cefn Viaduct carrying the Shrewsbury–Chester line to the east.

Description

Newbridge railway viaduct from Ty Mawr Country Park - geograph

The country park lies on the banks of the River Dee and its

SSSI A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

, within the Vale of Llangollen in the Dee Valley. It is situated next to and underneath the stone-built Cefn

Viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...

carrying the Shrewsbury to Chester railway line. It is situated south of

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

. The park is downstream from Pontcysyllte Aqueduct has been within the boundaries of the buffer zone of the aqueduct's

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

since 2009, and within the

Clwydian Range and Dee Valley , iucn_category =V , iucn_ref = , photo =Sunny Hillside, Frosty Valley Dee Valley Wales (11014647076).jpg , photo_width = , photo_alt =Image of the view of the Dee Valley from Moel Y Gamelin , photo_caption = ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty since

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. The country park has been accredited with the

Green Flag Award The Green Flag Award is an international accreditation given to publicly accessible parks and open spaces, managed under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, a UK Government department, by Keep Britain Tidy, ...

annually since 2006. The park is connected to the Cefn Mawr Heritage Trail, a longer circular walk, and the Viaduct - Aqueduct Walk. It is also located near the Offa's Dyke National Trail and parts of Offa's Dyke on the otherside of the River Dee. Sculpture of Newbridge from Tree trunk - geograph

Sculpture of Newbridge from Tree trunk - geograph

There is a picnic area with some wooden sculptures which overlooks the viaduct. In 2016, the park had 47,000 visitors.

Farm park

The country park hosts a "farm park" (a petting zoo situated in an organic working farm), home to various farm animals, such as

donkey The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

s and the two llamas in the park, named Carlos and Pedro who guard the sheep from

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

es. The park also contains organic

wildflower A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. The term implies that the plant probably is neither a hybrid nor a selected cultivar that is in any way different from the w ...

meadows, various wild birds, insects and other wild animals which thrive on the park's land due to the absence of any use of chemicals and pesticides. The park hosts Visitor centre and a Barn Centre which serves as the

community centre Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

for the park, used for education, park events, children's birthday parties, or various community or private events.

Sponsorship scheme

Since 2006, there has been a sponsorship scheme at the country park to support the animals within the park. Animals open to sponsorship are: llamas, sheep, goats,

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...

s, ducks, chickens, cats and

guinea pig The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus ''Cavia'' in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word ''cavy'' to describe the ani ...

s. They cost either £10 or £15 annually depending on animal.

Tŷ Mawr Trail

Dovecote in the Ty Mawr Country Park - geograph

The country park contains a circular trail on

tarmac Tarmac may refer to: Engineered surfaces * Tarmacadam, a mainly historical tar-based material for macadamising road surfaces, patented in 1902 * Asphalt concrete, a macadamising material using asphalt instead of tar which has largely superseded ta ...

surfaced footpaths. Starting at the visitor centre and going anti-clockwise, the trail passes a goat field, the River Dee and Aqueduct Path, a riverside beach, then parallels the Cefn Viaduct until it reaches a

Dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...

and the "Mini Beast Woods".

Larry the Llama

On 5 February 2009, "Larry the Llama" (full name Lawrence) who was based at the country park since 2003 was transferred out of the park due to his attacks on the park's sheep. Llamas are housed at the country park to guard the sheep on site from wild foxes. By 2009, the llama was discovered to be biting and chasing the park's sheep, inflicting serious injuries on some. Senior ranger Liz Carding theorised that the events could have been a power struggle over food, with Carding stating that Larry may have realised that if he had scared sheep away there would be more food for himself. Staff at the park initially separated Larry from the sheep, but his behaviour failed to improve, and Larry the Llama was moved to a farm in Powys. Two new Llamas were bought as replacements and delivered to the park in March 2009, the llama half-brothers Carlos and Pedro from

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

References