Moel Famau has been on my radar for a while.
I've lived in Liverpool for a fair few years now and throughout those years I have heard more and more about the 'Scouse mountain' that everyone in this city and its wider region simply has to conquer. So with a rare day off in the week, myself, my wife, her parents and my dog decided it was time to take the ultimate Scouse rite of passage.
Moel Famau, which means 'Mother Mountain' in Welsh and is the highest summit in the Clwydian Range, rising up to 554m (1818ft) at its highest point. This means it is classed as a hill rather than a mountain, even if it may feel more like the latter to ageing journalists as they wheeze their way up after a few too many beers the evening before.
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Moel Famau has been dubbed as the 'Scousest mountain' because of the sheer volume of Liverpudlians and Merseysiders who regularly head up it to enjoy the spectacular views. Travel there on any given day and you are more than likely to hear a few Scouse accents from your fellow climbers. There is even a road in south Liverpool named Moel Famau View.
The main reason for this connection is that Moel Famau is about an hour's drive away from Liverpool city centre and even closer to other parts of Merseyside like Wirral. It's the perfect day out for anyone from this region looking to get a bit of exercise and enjoy some delightful Welsh scenery.
On our Tuesday jaunt, with the roads clear, it took us roughly an hour to drive there from our base in south Liverpool. Once you are out of the Wirral and over the border into North Wales, you are very close to your destination.
As we began our journey, I thought it would be an interesting social experiment to see how many people from Merseyside I could spot along the way.
I had managed barely a couple of hundred yards before a man appeared in front of me clad in an Everton tracksuit. Mike and his partner Vicky told me that with the kids in school and a couple of days off, they felt Moel Famau was an ideal day out.
Vicky said she had heard actually first heard about the walk from her sister who had stayed at the nearby Ruthin Castle and recommended it. She pointed out that I was actually pronouncing Moel Famau incorrectly and that it should be said moyl-va-mai. Lesson learned.
I asked Mike if he had come to Wales to escape Everton's precarious league position but he was less inclined to talk about this and headed off. Fair play.
A little further up the hill I bumped into Gary, not strictly a Scouser but from nearby St Helens. He said it had taken him just 45 minutes to get to the famous hill and was now on his way down from the summit. "It's a nice location, it's just really nice to get some fresh air up here," he told me, refreshingly unperturbed by the strange man trying to interview him up a big hill.
After about an hour of hiking - which had more of an impact on my legs and lungs than I was prepared to admit out loud - we were at the summit and ready to enjoy the remarkable views that have made this hill climb so popular over the years.
At the very top of the hill is what remains of the Jubilee Tower. It was built in 1810 to mark George 11's Golden Jubilee and was designed to look like an Egyptian obelisk. However it was never finished due to lack of funds. A storm brought down the structure in 1862. Just the base remains.
But that base is still a good vantage point from which to enjoy stunning views of Snowdonia and much of Wales on one side and plenty of Merseyside on the other.
It was a clear and sunny day and we could just about make out Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral as well as most of the city's famous skyline at the Pier Head. I could also see the striking red cranes of the Liverpool Waters development just north from the city centre. It is a view that somehow makes you feel just moments away from the city we love and a million miles away at the same time.
After a few minutes enjoying the views/catching my breath/looking for some sort of winch to get me down, it was time to make our descent.
With knees like mine, going downhill can actually be tougher than the climb up, but any lactic acid build-up was offset by more stunning scenery on the way down, with luscious green valleys sweeping beneath us as we tumbled down.
As we got to the bottom of the hill we bumped into perhaps the most Scouse climbers we had met yet. Dad and lad Terry and Callum had travelled from Toxteth and admitted that their sporty outfits were a bit of a giveaway. 'How did you guess we were Scouse?' laughed Terry.
The 56-year-old said the last time he had been up Moel Famau was about four decades ago when he had done the walk as part of a stay at the nearby Colomendy camp - another rite of passage for many a Liverpudlian.
He said today's climb was a little tougher, but still managed to keep pace with his 24-year-old son Callum.
Terry said: "I'm on my holidays and he had a day off so we thought we would come here. It was a bit breezy but good - we got up and down in about two hours."
They won't have been the first or the last Scousers up Moel Famau that day. It's easy to see why so many people from our region enjoy this stunning walk and I will certainly back once I've had a hot bath and a few weeks lying down in dark room.
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