We report on the synthesis, crystal structure and magnetic characterisation of the trinuclear, fluoridebridged, molecular nanomagnet [Dy(hfac) 3 (H 2 O)-CrF 2 (py) 4 -Dy(hfac) 3 (NO 3 )] (1) (hfacH ¼ 1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoroacetylacetone, py ¼ pyridine) and a closely related dinuclear species [Dy(hfac) 4 -CrF 2 (py) 4 ]$ 1 / 2 CHCl 3 (2). Element-specific magnetisation curves obtained on 1 by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) allow us to directly observe the field-induced transition from a ferrimagnetic to a ferromagnetic arrangement of the Dy and Cr magnetic moments. By fitting a spinHamiltonian model to the XMCD data we extract a weak antiferromagnetic exchange coupling of j ¼ À0.18 cm À1 between the Dy III and Cr III ions. The value found from XMCD is consistent with SQUID magnetometry and inelastic neutron scattering measurements. Furthermore, alternating current susceptibility and muon-spin relaxation measurements reveal that 1 shows thermally activated relaxation of magnetisation with a small effective barrier for magnetisation reversal of D eff ¼ 3 cm À1 . Density-functional theory calculations show that the Dy-Cr couplings originate from superexchange via the fluoride bridges.