Some Favourite Things: Walking Offa's Dyke Path: Craignant to Llangollen

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Walking Offa's Dyke Path: Craignant to Llangollen

The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was a highlight of Offa's Dyke Path. This amazing structure, built during the turn of the 19th century - 1795 - 1805, so without the help of modern technology, was the brainchild of Scottish civil engineer, architect and stone mason, Thomas Telford, who also built roads, canals and other major pieces of infrastructure. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct has UNESCO World Heritage status and is well-visited by people from all over.

The canal part of the Aqueduct is a cast-iron trough held up by 18 stone piers above the River Dee more than 120 feet below. There is a railing along the pedestrian side of the structure, but none on the canal side and I imagine that travelling across in a longboat or paddleboat must be much more frightening than the walk beside. There are no restrictions on the type of boats that go across - the only delimiter is size - so there are canoes, kayaks, paddleboats and so on in addition to the traditional canal narrowboats.

You can tell that I was completely wowed by this wonderful marvel of engineering. Here are a few more pics. Since I couldn't decide which to leave out, I include them all here (obviously from various sources, none, mine)

Llangollen is a completely charming Welsh town. I was so lucky to be able to spend a relaxing day there in fine weather. I walked around town, visited a shop full of local crafts and looked in many store windows admiring the sausages and baked goods then walked out along the river to the town park where I treated myself to an ice cream cone and sat on a bench enjoying all the goings-on. Returning to town I visited the horse-drawn canal boat pier and then stopped at the train station, where, after I watched a train full of sightseers departing, I bought a soup and sandwich at the cafe located in the old train cars set up beside the track. Then, back to the B and B to enjoy this takeaway lunch in their quiet front garden. All in all, a relaxing day.