WALKERS have gathered to take part in hundreds of treks across rural Denbighshire.

The seventh annual Corwen Walking Festival was held on Saturday and Sunday, September 1-2, which saw over 280 walks taking place across the area.

Corwen is a 'Walkers are Welcome Town' and has run its walking festival since 2012, with participation increasing every year and a 16 per cent rise on the 2017.

The festival is totally run by volunteers from the town and is managed by the Corwen and District Business Association. The aim of the festival is to highlight the quality of walking that is available in Corwen and to encourage tourism.

Tish Aldridge, chairs of the Business Association in Corwen, said: "Since our launch in 2012 we have more than doubled the number of walks that our participants take part in, but more importantly, we have seen Corwen become a destination for walkers throughout the year with regular coach parties using Corwen as a place to start their walks from."

The 2018 festival offered 28 varied walks over the two days with walks ranging from the high mountains of the Berwyn Ridge, such as the mighty Berwyn Peaks of Cadair Berwyn, Moel Sych and Cadair Bronwen, to a family walk down to the River Dee via Gro Isa.

The festival runs from the Sports Pavilion in Green Lane and also involves a 5k run up to Caer Drewyn Hill fort and a pop up Cotswold Outdoor shop on site.

A spokesperson for the Corwen Walking Festival said: "This year for some of our longer walks we had six minibuses taking participants off to their start points so they could walk back to Corwen from some of the more far reaching places like Pistyll Rhaeadr, Glyn Ceiriog and Llangollen but many of our walks are circular and start and finish in Corwen.

"Our Local Beauty walk is now in its fifth year and with this walk participants are bussed to a high point around Corwen so they can walk back down. This walk allows people to experience the magnificent views that Corwen offers on its doorstep without having to walk up hill and was introduced as a way of allowing even more participation in the festival from less active people.

"Once the walkers are back from their days out, the evening activities kick in with a navigation workshop and two evening walks. Our famous or infamous Ghost Walk around Corwen was very well supported and this year we did an evening walk to the summit of Caer Drewyn hillfort to watch the sunset, which was again well supported.

"Plans are already forming for the 2019 festival with some new walks being added, which we do every year, to allow our participants to try something different. We are also planning to extend our runs with a 10k run being added. Our aim for 2019 is to have 300 participants."

The eighth Corwen Walking Festival will take place over the August 31 and September 1 in 2019 with two days of walks and two runs.