Traverse Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal: A UNESCO Heritage “Stream in the Sky”

After a decade of planning and construction, Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was opened on 26 November 1805, a genuinely innovative feat of pre-Victorian, industrial engineering to feed water from one side of the sheer 1,007ft (307m) River Dee valley to another without having to painstakingly build a network of locks up and down the 126ft (38m) deep ridge. When the idea was first floated, the aqueduct was to form part of the proposed Ellesmere Canal which would connect the River Severn at Shrewsbury to the River Mersey in Liverpool and thereby adjoin the mineral and slate industries of north east Wales to the West Midlands’ emergent manufacturing hubs. However, shortly after the unveiling of Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, funding for the project dried up, leaving Pontcysyltte in a transient state of dereliction until it was reassimilated as the incomplete canal’s northern terminus and then integrated into the Shropshire Union Canal in 1846, which wove the waterways of North Wales and Cheshire, the West Midlands, Merseyside, and Manchester together in industrial polyphony. It served as a shipping route until 1944, and then found radiant afterlife in the later 20th century when sections of the Ellesmere Canal were rebranded the Llangollen Canal, a tourist leisure route capitalising on the magnificent natural beauty of North Wales and the formidable architectural sites along the route; it quickly became one of the most popular in the country, and remains so today.

For those wanting to traverse the civil masterpiece that Sir Walter Scott once described as a “stream in the sky”, you have several options. The simplest would be an ambling walk as a narrow public footpath runs alongside the canal on the aqueduct, making all 18km of the UNESCO Heritage Site travellable on-foot. Alternatively, five companies operated within the area and offer boat trips or canal boat hires along Llangollen and over Pontcysyllte. Anglo Welsh has fifty-five years of experience in the field and is one of the UK’s largest and most reputed boat holiday companies, but a full list of providers can be found on the Pontcysyllte website here.

Or, take a ride on the wild side and hop aboard a horse-drawn boat with Llangollen Wharf Horse-Drawn Boats! In operation since 1884, these fairy-tale adventures through magical Welsh countryside are a staple of the canal and allow you to bask in your idyllic surroundings at a gentle, lulling pace that recaptures the pastoral ethos of life a step slower. Adult tickets go from only £10, so book on the website now!

Beyond the trademark Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, the Llangollen Canal is luminous with picturesque landscapes and man-made marvels. Chirk Aqueduct, opened four years before Pontcysyllte across the Ceiriog Valley between England and Wales, is hardly less impressive and soars 70ft (21m) into the sky for 710ft (220m), consisting of ten monumental stone arches that bisect the sleepy rural valley. Nearby Chirk, the neighbouring market town from which the aqueduct takes its name, is a sort of medieval arcadia in the shadows of the Berwyn Mountains and certainly warrants a visit. A former mining town, Chirk boasts both an 11th-century Norman church and a 13th-century Norman castle - Chirk Castle - built by Edward I in 1295 to help retain English rule over Wales. The castle’s estates also features 5.5 acres of award-winning landscaped garden and a further 480 acres of wild parkland and habitat, bisected by Offa’s Dyke and home to the Oak at the Gate of the Dead, a 1,000-year-old oak tree that marks the site of the 1165 Battle of Crogen. Back in the town centre, the Castle Bistro is a gorgeously-furnished spot to eat and offers a global selection of foods; the seafood risotto, sea bass, and homemade Neapolitan-style pizzas come particularly recommended!

Another must-see town along the Llangollen Canal is Llangollen itself, a gorgeous valley town straddling the River Dee and wrapped snugly in the heart of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is a reliquary of historic delights, located in the shadows of the spectral hill-top ruins of the Gothic 13th-century Valle Crucis Abbey and Castell Dinas Brân, or ‘Crow’s Castle’, erected in 1260 for a local Welsh prince. Plas Newydd, meanwhile, is a gorgeous yet idiosyncratic cottage on the town’s outskirts most famously inhabited by the ‘Ladies of Llangollen’, two upper-class Irish women (Elearnor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby) who scandalised their home country by eloping together to North Wales and who received there many notable guests, including Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, Sir Walter Scott, and Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. It now operates as a museum and tea rooms, while another historic dining spot can be found in the Corn Mill, built in the 13th century by the Cisterians of the Valle Crucis Abbey. It is now a spectacular eatery offering classic pub grub and hearty ales with wonderful Dee views; order the mouthwatering slow-roasted belly of porn for a meal you won’t forget.