Aquaducts, Viaducts & Tunnels; 15 Miles on the Llangollen Canal

Dad: On Friday 21 September we started our one-week narrowboat holiday on the Llangollen Canal which straddles the border between Wales and England. We had flown from France to Liverpool, hired an automobile and overnighted in Chester, England. Chester contains an old walled city which we were unfortunately unable to experience because we were rushing to round up provisions for our boat holiday. Kimberly drove to Trevor, Wales (on the wrong side of the road, mind you) where we began our boat trip.

Our boat, the Saffron, is seven feet wide and approximately sixty feet long. If you’ve ever driven a boat you will undoubtedly appreciate the enjoyment of piloting this beast on canals that range down to six inches wider than the boat. Most places are wider, but maneuvering around moored boats and traveling boats is challenging. Speeds are limited to 3 miles per hour and creating a breaking wake is forbidden. Kim and I share the captain and first mate roles. The boat has all the comforts including the telly, but no internet.

The Llangollen Canal was built in the early 1800s to provide transport of raw and finished materials to the industries of the area. Iron works, slate and limestone mines, and a chemical plant were found locally. Similar canals were constructed throughout the UK to support the industrial revolution prior to construction of the railways. When the railways were built, the canals were largely abandoned until they started being refurbished for recreational use in the 1900s. The boats were originally pulled by draft animals on towpaths adjacent to the canals. The towpaths are now used for walking and biking, and boat users can hike along for a bit or bring their bikes tied on the top of the boat.

The biggest attractions and technical wonders of the Llangollen Canal are the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Chirk Aqueduct both designed by Thomas Telford noted as the greatest civil engineer of his time in Britian. The aqueducts are constructed of welded cast iron troughs supported by columns of locally quarried sandstone. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is 120 feet tall and 1,007 feet long and allows the canal to cross the River Dee Valley from Trevor to Chirk. It is eight feet wide, has a walking path with railing on one side, and nothing but the side of the iron trough on the other. It gives a top of the world feeling accentuated by the ultra-green valley and river below.

The Chirk Aqueduct is shorter in height and length, but a railroad viaduct constructed adjacent to the aqueduct and about 35 feet higher gives a striking experience of disorientation, scale and perception. The sense of height and vulnerability of being on the aqueduct, the imposition of the massive stone columns and arches of the railway viaduct, and the calm of the green pastures below is intensely otherworldly. Pictures can’t do it justice.

The canals also have hand operated locks and drawbridges.