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Passers-by have been bemused by the appearance of a phallic symbol on a Welsh mountain which is quickly becoming a tourist attraction after going viral on social media.

It is not known how long it has been there, but it has been shown up in all its glory thanks to the recent ice and snow.

The symbol appeared on the Clwydian Hills at Llandegla and has become a social media hit.

Tractors are often used to cut tracks out of the bracken to aid wildlife in the local Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

They create a patchwork look on the hills, which puzzle the thousands of walkers who follow the 177-mile Offa’s Dyke footpath from Presatyn to the Severn Estuary each year.

But local farmers say that they are baffled at the shape of the latest cut-out, which has been shared many times on Facebook and Twitter.

“It’s very artistic and it is very clever, but it is not the sort of thing that I would like to cut out of the mountain for all to see,” said one of the mountain graziers.

“I don’t know if someone has done it as a joke or whether it was accidental.

“But it looks like the real thing from down below.”

At the Mountain Bike Centre in Llandegla, which is opposite the symbol, owner Ian Owen said it had been pointed out to him by a neighbour who took a photo of it and put it on Twitter.

He said: “It’s created quite a lot of interest.

“I saw it as I was leaving work. It think it’s excellent, quite funny.

“It’s good for Llandegla to be famous for something.

“It is putting us on the map like the large chalk man and chalk horse on the mountains in Dorset and Warwickshire.”

Photographer Andrew Price said he could not believe what he saw as he drove from Ruthin to Wrexham.

“There it was, very large for all to see,” he said.

“It must be about 100 feet high.

“They tell me it is becoming something of a local tourist attraction.”

Countryside officials have investigated but stress the land is privately owned, is not part of the country park and is nothing to do with them.