River Alyn

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This article is about the river in Wales. For the river in Romania, see Alun River.

Alyn (Afon Alun)
River Alun
River
Countries	United Kingdom, Wales
Regions	Denbighshire, Wrexham

Cities	Mold, Llandegla


Source
- location	Llandegla Moors, Flintshire
Mouth
- location	confluence with River Dee

The River Alyn (Welsh:Afon Alun) is a tributary of the River Dee. The river Alyn rises at the southern end of the Clwydian hills and the Alyn Valley forms part of the Clwydian Range Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The main town on the river Alyn is Mold, the county town of Flintshire.

The River Alyn crosses the carboniferous limestone from Halkyn Mountain and North through the Loggerheads area before heading southeast making through Mold before making its confluence with the River Dee at grid reference SJ398561 to the northeast of Wrexham.

Between Loggerheads and Rhydymwyn it runs through the Alyn Gorge, which is the site of the caves Ogof Hesp Alyn, Ogof Hen Ffynhonau and Ogof Nadolig. The river mainly runs across a limestone surface, creating potholes and underwater caves, into which the river flows through through some of the summer, when river levels have decreased significantly. For parts of this stretch the river bed is dry for most of the year.

Flows in the River Alyn are significantly affected by mining, particularly the Milwr mine drainage tunnel which diverts a sizeable amount of the River Alyn out of its catchment and into the estuary of the River Dee at Bagillt^[1].

[edit] References

^ * Appleton, Peter (1989). "Limestones and Caves of North Wales", in Ford, Trevor D.(ed.): Limestones and Caves of Wales. Cambridge University Press, pp. 233–7. ISBN 0-521-32438-6.