The Llangollen Canal Holiday Guide and Map

The Llangollen Canal

The Llangollen Canal leaves the Shropshire Union Canal just north of Nantwich in rural Cheshire and climbs through deserted Shropshire farmlands to cross the border into Wales near Chirk. It then cuts through increasingly hilly countryside to finish alongside the River Dee tumbling out of Snowdonia, just above Llangollen. It is 41 miles long and takes at least three days to cruise (one-way), more when busy.

The Llangollen, or just The Welsh as it is known to enthusiasts, is arguably the most beautiful canal in Britain, certainly it's the most popular. The scenery varies from isolated sheep pastures to ancient peat mosses, from tree lined lakes to the foothills of Snowdonia.

Towns along the way include medieval Whitchurch with its half timbered buildings, the interesting market town of Ellesmere set in its own "Lake District", the fortified border town of Chirk with its National Trust Castle and beautiful gardens and Llangollen itself, sat astride the River Dee, an ancient gateway to Wales beneath the ruins of Castel Dinas Bran. In Llangollen you can enjoy a horse drawn boat trip to the end of the canal, which isn't accessible by canal boats, or ride behind steam trains to Corwen on the Llangollen Railway.

The Llangollen Canal is very popular and this can mean some peak time queing at locks, especially New Marton and the Grindley Brook staircase, though the lock keepers and volunteers at Grindley Brook usually manage to keep boats moving through in a sensible way. The marina moorings at Llangollen have made it easier to moor up and spend time exploring the town. Generally the top end of the canal is busiest midweek, at many other times the canal can be as tranquil as any other! And if you find there are too many boats around you why not just moor up for a few hours, relax and enjoy the stunning scenery?

The canal has three major engineering feats, two old, one modern. The 'pioneering masterpiece of engineering' by which the early civil engineers crossed the difficult landscape between Chirk and Llangollen has resulted in the 18 kilometre length being awarded World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 2009.

The aqueducts at Chirk and Pontcysyllte were built by the engineers Thomas Telford and William Jessop and were among the first to use cast iron troughs to contain the canal.

At Chirk Aqueduct the trough is supported by conventional masonry arches and hidden inside the masonry, almost as if the engineers were not confident of their new material.

But at the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct the trough is exposed and sits atop 120 foot high slender masonry towers. When you cross it by boat there is an exhilarating sheer drop on the non-towpath side! You should stay below decks if you don't have much of a head for heights, but do try to look through the windows, otherwise you will miss some amazing views!

The modern engineering feat may seem a little tame by comparison but required considerable twentieth century engineering expertise. Constant landslips on the stretch from Trevor to Llangollen, one of which derailed a train on the railway below, eventually meant closing the section for two years to rebuild long stretches of the embankments above the River Dee and encase the whole length of canal in a concrete trough. The trough is fairly shallow and deep draughted boats may find going slow here.

The Montgomeryshire Canal ran from Welsh Frankton Locks near Ellesmere, where it left the Llangollen Canal, for 38 miles down the beautiful and isolated Welsh Borders through Welshpool to Newtown. It was abandoned in 1944 but about 10 miles are now reopened and there is a 17 mile detached section around Welshpool.