Llangollen to Pontcysyllte Aqueduct - Friday 21 March 2025

Route 

Llangollen Pavilion - Llangollen Canal - Llangollen Wharf - Trevor - Pontcysyllte Aqueduct 

Parking

There is plenty of parking in Llangollen. We parked at the Llangollen Pavilion on Abbey Road (Charge). The Grid Reference is SJ 21035 42530 and the nearest postcode is LL20 8SS.

Mileage

5.5 miles

Terrain

Canal towpath for the vast majority of this walk  

Weather

Sunny spells and overcast

​Time Taken

3hrs 10mins

Total Ascent

Flat as a big flat thing in Flatsville, Flatlshire, Flatland

Map​

​​​OS Explorer 255 - Llangollen & Berwyn​​​

Walkers

Dave & Angie

GPX Files

​From 1 March 2025 GPX files will not be available directly from the walk page as there is difficulty in using a downloadable version from the website. To that end, if you require a GPX File please get in touch via the Contact Form below and we will gladly forward it to you - thank you.

​Route Map

Whilst there is plenty of parking in Llangollen, we always park at the Pavilion on the A542 just half a mile west of the town. The Car Park is large, reasonable and as you can see here, pretty quiet during the week.

​We were staying in Llangollen as we were visiting Robbie's breeder who lives not too far away. After this walk we were off to meet him for the very first time at just 4 weeks old............................

...... and here he is

The 14ft high stainless steel Welsh Harp crowned by doves of peace situated at the entrance to Llangollen Pavilion

From the Car Park it is a very short walk to join the towpath of the Llangollen Canal at Pen-y-Ddol Bridge. We are looking down the canal in the direction of the Horseshoe Falls - we would be turning right towards Llangollen.

Bridge No 46W, Pen-y-Ddol - we would pass underneath and continue along the towpath

Bridges on the Llangollen Canal are numbered in two directions, starting from Frankton Junction in Shropshire. The ‘E’ numbers count eastwards and ‘W’ numbers go westwards. 

"Why stand when you can sit"

This sculptured stone piece of modern art is in memory of Alan Bird, an actor & writer who lived in Llangollen. It sits on the towpath of the canal overlooking the Llangollen Pavilion.

The Llangollen Pavilion - the venue is home to the annual Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod

Llangollen Canal Basin - it was quiet here today

The path continues on past the RAF Association Club complete with Bowling Green

The signpost at Llangollen Wharf - from here it was a lovely flat wander to the Aqueduct

Llangollen Wharf and its very nice Tea Room taken from Bridge 45W Siambr-Wen

The house with the castellated frontage over on the other side of the canal from the towpath is Siambr Wen. It is thought to have been built in the 18th century and rebuilt with its Gothic frontage c.1800.

The route continues along the delightful towpath

The towpath passes along a very narrow section of the canal. In busy periods of canal traffic this must be a nightmare to navigate through, as there is only room for one boat at a time. It must be particularly difficult for single crewed narrowboats who don't have the facility to send someone on ahead.

Llandyn No2 Lift Bridge

Just under 3 miles to go but to be honest we weren't counting the miles on such a lovely day

Bridge 41W Sun Trevor Bridge - so called because The Sun pub is above and can be seen to the left

The Sun at Trevor - cross the bridge then the A539 if you want to visit the pub

Passing the former Bryn Howel Hotel - now left to decay sadly after entering administration in 2022

Approaching Bridge 37W Plas-Isaf as a narrowboat passes us at a heady 4mph, the maximum speed allowed on any inland canal.  We stopped and gave them a wave, in true "gongoozling" style!

Bridge 35W Millars Bridge

Bridge 33W White Bridge - the Offa's Dyke Path crosses the bridge on its way between Prestatyn (left) and Chepstow (right)

Bridge 32W Postles Bridge - we crossed here to walk up to the entrance to Trevor Basin

The entrance to Trevor Basin

Crossing the Trevor Basin footbridge 

As we passed Anglo Welsh Canal Boats the staff were giving their fleet a good old clean up - must be changeover day

Bridge 31W Rhos-y-Coed to the left at Trevor Basin

This stone stands at the eastern entrance to Trevor basin. It has a quote from Sir Walter Scott, who called the aqueduct ‘the stream in the sky’. Scott wondered at how fishes could swim above flying birds and the sculptor Anthony Lysycia has made that the central image of this sculpture.

A large hand can be seen at the head of the aqueduct towpath, standing two metres tall. It is carved from limestone by Anthony Lysycia. The hand represents the many labourers who worked to build the aqueduct, and the rest of the canal, without modern machinery to help them.  The stone hand is inset with objects from industries that operated near the canal. There are bricks and tiles, and you can see the conical brickwork kilns at the top left. There are also iron tools, chains, hooks and bolts. The ironworks are shown at the top right of the sculpture.

At the western end of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is a stone plaque giving a brief history of the construction. The 19-arched stone and cast iron structure is for use by narrowboats and was completed in 1805 having taken 10 years to design and build at a cost of £47,000.  It is 12 feet (3.7 metres) wide and is the longest aqueduct in Great Britain as well as the highest canal aqueduct in the world. The aqueduct was designed by civil engineers Thomas Telford and William Jessop although the construction was carried out by Telford & supervised by Jessop.
​
The name Pontcysyllte is Welsh for "Cysyllte Bridge" or "Bridge of Cysyllte", Cysyllte being the township of the old parish of Llangollen in which the southern end of the bridge lies.  The northern end of the bridge was in Trefor Isaf township, also in Llangollen parish.

A link explaining how to pronounce Pontcysyllte can be found here

Looking down to the base of the Aqueduct at its northern end

Over we go - passing people coming the other way takes a bit of coordination but on the whole it is pretty safe to cross. It should be noted that we once crossed the Aqueduct in our canoe - as can be seen below.

April 2012

Looking from the Aqueduct down the River Dee to the road bridge over the B5434

Skylarking on the Aqueduct - no pride was hurt during the filming of this clip (Click Play to view)

A narrowboat crossing the Aqueduct - if I was the bloke on the left I'd make sure I didn't step back too far!!

Picture courtesy of Adrian Pingstone

The stone plaque at the southern end of the Aqueduct

The southern end of the Aqueduct - time to go back and visit the cafe I think

A superb view of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct from the air

​Picture courtesy of Anglo Welsh

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