Am so way behind with this blog - anyway towards the end of May we spent our last couple of days in north Wales in a Hotel recommended by Kevin and Margaret nestling in the lovely Dee valley near the charming town of Llangollen.
She had wonderful gardens overlooking the surrounding vales - on a clear day!
and sat just above the delightful Llangollen Canal
We checked in early - donned our rain gear and set off along the tow path
for a 45 minute walk
of course - stopping to watch every narrow boat
cruise silently under bridges
and passing others
till we reached the village of Trevor
the mooring basin for the Pontcysylite Canal
That required a Pub lunch at the Telford Inn at the mooring basin
We shared the special of the day - Beef and Ale Pie - it was a monster, and sooh good.
We ventured back to the docking wharf
to join the narrowboat "Eirlys"
for our cruise across Telford's famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
- a UNESCO World Heritage Site destination (I pinched the photo above ).
It is 307 metres long
and towers 37 metres above the River Dee
The great Civil Engineer - Thomas Telford built the Llangollen Canal for the Ellesmere Company to feed water from the River Dee to the Shropshire Union canal - he also built this magnificent aqueduct,
which has been carrying the canal over the River Dee since 1805
Thomas Telford lived in the house above (with red door) - keeping a close eye on the construction.
He also designed a water collection device - now called "Horseshoe Falls" to divert water through sluice gates into this new canal.
The little chap above is ageing - his owner told us, so the basket was his way of seeing the Aqueduct and its canal.
This canal was a thriving thoroughfare for carrying commodities such as slate and lime out of Llangollen and salt and coal coming in.
another 45 minute walk back to our hotel
and still no rain!!
The following day it was "spitting with rain" so we decided to drive into Llangollen, rather than do the 1 hour walk in the other direction along the Canal.
This morning we decided to catch the old Llangollen steam train
up past the Horseshoe Falls
to the village of Carrog
and it's delightful "waiting room - love those old bags.
Carrog's 17th century bridge
over the River Dee
The "Grouse Inn"
Back to Llangollen again.
Queen Victoria visited here in 1889 and from the journal of Queen Victoria, 26th August 1889 she wrote "After luncheon we all started for Llangollen, going by rail, and had a beautiful afternoon - the station was very prettily decorated." Victoria's Tearoom is located on Platform 1.
We walked across the bridge over the River Dee
to find somewhere to "lunch".
We had a wonderful munch at the old Corn Mill above
then back up to the Llangollen canal wharf
colourfully decorated
to venture on a horse drawn boat trip along the Llangollen Canal
This young horse above is in training!
This is our "gentle giant"
who gently pulled us along the canal
no great pressure for the horse - note the rope above is not taut.
So relaxing for us
cruised past another canal basin - lovely reflections of the narrow boats
and quaint cottages
Quick stop for a feed at "turnaround"
In 1884, Captain Jones started running horse drawn boats along this Canal
Using his pension from the White Star Line of "Titanic" fame he purchased two wooden lifeboats from a liner in Liverpool docks,
and a couple of horses
and over 125 years later the horse drawn trips are still running.
*****
A DELIGHTFUL DAY - it didn't rain, should've done the Canal walk again!
