Presents The Butcher of Basingwerk – a Poirot Puzzle 2.0 mile 2-3 hrs Parts of the trail involves an uneven path and a few steps which may be navigable by buggy but not wheelchair. The answers to some clues are found within the castle ruins which contains steep steps. Body found on Altar of Basingwerk Abbey! Over the period of three centuries, many murders were committed in and around the grounds of Basingwerk Abbey. Only recently, a spate of murders has occurred once more on this site. DCI Lauren Order strongly suspects that these crimes are copycat murders of old. The latest brutally butchered victim, Earl E. Demize was found lying on the altar of the abbey and the bloody ax found in the Lower Cotton Mill of Greenfield Valley. DCI Order’s sidekick, PC M. Neesia has managed to lose vital evidence. Can you help her to solve the puzzle? She needs the name, age and hometown of the murderer. She also needs to know from which year this murder has been copied from the past. And, bizarrely, there is evidence that the murderer is accompanied by a rather unusual pet! Directions No map is required. Simply follow the clues around the Heritage Park and Abbey from start to finish at the Greenfield Valley carpark on the A548 Bagillt Road, Holywell, Flintshire. There are several carparks around Greenfield Valley. Please ensure that your start following the clues from the carpark situated on the A548. The Abbey is open between 10am and 4pm and the answers to two clues are to be found within the grounds! Please time your visit accordingly! All the answers to each clue will give you an INCORRECT piece of information! Simply cross it from the Answer sheet. In a process of elimination, you will be left with the correct answers! REMEMBER! Take care of yourself and your party! You are responsible for your own safety. Please exercise caution when crossing roads. Please respect historic monuments, private homes, and individual’s privacy when ‘trailing’. RECYCLE your trail when you have finished with it and take all litter home or dispose of it responsibly! THE SMALL PRINT! Treasure Trails are intended for single use only, are subject to copyright and may not be photocopied, reproduced, or distributed. All rights reserved. Every effort has been made to ensure that this Treasure Trail is accurate at the time of printing. We cannot be held responsible for any unforeseen changes that interfere with the easy solving of clues. Customers must accept full liability and are solely responsible for the safety of themselves and their party on the Treasure Trail. We cannot be held responsible for the loss or damage to property, or accident or injury to life or limb incurred whilst on this Trail. THE TRAIL IS ENTIRELY FICTIONAL. Any links to real names, alive or dead, are purely coincidental and there should be no implications/allegations of involvement in any criminal behaviour. ©TreasureTrailsoftheUnexpected 2019 Leaving the car park, walk up the path the leads into the wooded park until you see a large carved totem pole on the right-hand side of the park. Clue 1 There are many animals carved over the entire surface of the pole. One of them will be included on the list of animals on the answer sheet. You can now cross this off the list and eliminate it from your enquiries! Follow the path around to the right. Shortly before you reach the Visitor Centre, you will see a large mural on your left of the North Wales Pilgrims’ Way. Clue 2 Study the mural and you will be able to eliminate one more animal from the list and you can also eliminate the first hometown from the list! The Abbey is free to visit. Enter the grounds through the gate. With a stone wall to your right, walk on the grass until you find an information board entitled: High Culture, Low Morality! Clue 3 There are three dates on the board. Add together the twelve individual digits from each of the dates. The answer will give you the first age that you can eliminate from the Answer Sheet! You now need to walk an entire circuit of the Abbey walls. I suggest you do this in an anti-clockwise direction! Clue 4 You need to carefully count the number of COMPLETE WINDOWS that can be found within all the walls of the Abbey. Only count windows that have all four sides still visible of the stone framework. DO NOT count doorways! This number will allow you to eliminate one more age from the list! Leave the Abbey grounds now. Should you wish to visit the museums and attractions nearby, you must purchase entrance tickets at the Visitor Centre. This is not necessary to complete the trail. On the right, you will see Basingwerk House where the Café in the Abbey is situated. Clue 5 (a) & (b) Read the information board at the front of the house! (a) The house was built in which year? You can now eliminate the first year from the Answer Sheet! (b) A tree was planted in the garden but was cut down after how many years? This number equals an age on the list which can now be eliminated from your enquiries! Leaving the grounds of the house, walk towards the red bricked buildings of Spring Garden School. Look for an old, white Boundary Post next to the school walls. Clue 6 There is a number written on the post. Use this to eliminate one more date from the list! With the school building on your left, walk to the corner of the building and take a few steps around the next corner. Clue 7 Look for a large bronze sculpture depicting scenes from nature. You can now eliminate one more, strange pet from the list of animals. Turn around and, keeping the school building on your right, return to the boundary post and turn right. Continue along a green fenced path and then past a children’s playground on your right. You will walk past some buildings. Look out for a wooden lady and a green signpost! Go through some large gates, turn left and follow signs for the mills. This will take you up a hill and around a bend in the road. Clue 8 On the right-hand side, by some railings, you will see an information board for Abbey Wire Mill. Over the years, wire, copper and brass rods have been made here and was most recently used to manufacture soap. The first batch of soap was sent to which city? You can eliminate this from your list! Return to the tarmac road and walk past 12 stone bollards on the right-hand side and up the hill. Look out for steps leading from the road, down to the right. Go down the steps, cross a wooden bridge, past a pond and follow a gravel path that leads around the stone buildings on your left and some old machinery. DO NOT go through a black gate but turn left. Keeping the stone building on your left-hand side, walk to the end of the building and turn left again. You should now find yourself on the other side of the mill pond! Clue 9 There are three large pieces of machinery. One of them has the name of a town engraved on it. This matches one of the hometowns on your list that can now be eliminated from your enquiries! Walk up steps to cross the mill race and turn right to re-join the road. A little while further on, you will see another information board on your right-hand side. Clue 10 The Lower Cotton Mill only took ten weeks to build during the summer of which year? You can now eliminate this date from your enquiries! With a low wall on your right, walk past two large planters on your left and look for a narrow path that leads up a grassy slope and towards a jetty that juts out into The Flour Mill Pool. Clue 11 Beside the wooden name post on the side of the jetty, you will find some white graffiti lettering. Can you work out which name you can read? This will allow you to eliminate your first suspect’s name from the list! Return to the main path and walk with the Flour Mill Pool on you right. Bear right where the path forks and continue beside the pool. Then take the left-hand fork that goes up a hill. Walk for a few hundred yards until you join a wider road that is, in fact the old Holywell Railway Line! Continue walking in the same direction past a several paths that lead off both sides of the road. Continue walking until you reach a high, stone wall on your left-hand side. Clue 12 Look for four metal access covers situated in the tarmac of the road surface. You will now be able to eliminate one more name from the list of suspects! Continue walking uphill along the road until you go beneath a bridge. DO NOT walk up the zig-zag path with white railings! Instead, turn right and almost double back on yourself to go up a steep path until your reach a set of steps with a red handrail. Clue 13 Climb the steps to reach the store front of Tesco. You are now in Holywell! Did I mention that you should have counted the number of steps that you just walked up? Oops! Sorry! This number corresponds to one of the ages that you can now cross off the list! Walk across the storefront of Tesco.