Horseshoe Pass (Bwlch yr Oernant)

The Horseshoe Pass above Llangollen hands you a ready-made cinematic subject: the A542 sweeping around the head of a huge grassy cwm in a near-perfect horseshoe, with slate spoil, sheep-cropped slopes and the Eglwyseg limestone escarpment glowing white to the south-east. Park at the Ponderosa cafe on the summit — free, big, and open year-round — and you can TOAL from the open moor a short walk from the car park. Tracking shots following bikes and cars through the double hairpin are the classic material here, and they work because you can keep the drone over open hillside rather than over the road itself. Wide frames south take in the Vale of Llangollen, Castell Dinas Bran's conical hill, and on clear days the Berwyns rolling away behind. Two aviation notes: gliders from the Llangollen area and paragliders soar this ridge in the right winds, so scan carefully before and during flights and give way instantly, and Hawarden's FRZ is ~20km north-east — clear, but keep it in mind if you range east. The pass is exposed and often startlingly windy even when Llangollen below is calm; winter regularly brings snow and ice that close the road but produce the best photographs. Sunday afternoons are wall-to-wall motorbikes; go midweek.