Castell Dinas Bran and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

July 12 and 13 - fair warning - I have a LOT of pictures here.  Wales is eye-candy, pure and simple . . .

WOW!  What a fantastic couple of days we’ve had here in Wales.  It’s simply a beautiful country . . . at least the bit we’ve seen so far.  Yesterday, we decided to get up early and head up one of the local hills to an old castle wreck called Castell Dinas Bran.  The hike up there gives the Grouse Grind ( https://www.grousemountain.com/grousegrind  for the non-Vancouverites reading this) a good run for its reputation.  Not quite so bad, but pretty steep in places.  There is no wasted space in this country - so the trails we walked had a number of sheep grazing on them.  They are a bit of a minefield of sheep sh**, so as much as I like to look around, I need to keep my eyes on the ground as well!  (My Gramma always said it was best to keep your eyes to the ground, as you find lots of money that way - ha!)  The constant baaing of the sheep is a kind of musical accompaniment to any hikes in this area.  

Castell Dinas Bran - you can sort of see it at the top of the hill in
the distance.  We're just headed out of town on the way up the hill.

Classic "Robin Hood" tree on the trail.  So pretty.

Just because there was actually a signpost for the trail.  We have
found that these are not very common in England.  Wales does a
better job!

Cow on the hill on our way up the trail.  The trails
go right through the cow and sheep pastures.

The trail to Castell Dinas Bran is marked by these "crow" gates.

Once we reached the top, the views were 360 degrees, and just so pretty. Wales is a very green country - seems water isn’t an issue around here.  We took the long road back down, so our round trip wound up being about 3.5 hours.  It was a great hike, and some much-needed exercise after being in the car all day yesterday.  

About 1/3 of the way up.  We're in the sheep pasture now.  Castell
DB is at the top of the hill

Watch out for sheep droppings - the pastures
are a minefield of these little goodies.

Spectacular views of the hillsides on the way up

Almost there.

Castle walls - built right on the edge of the precipice

Quite a large area to roam around.  And yes, this is still sheep pasture.

You can see the village of Llangollen far below.

Some info on the castle.  It was only used for 20 years!!

There were four sheep up here with us.  This one likes to live dangerously.

The stone used for the castle left this large dugout area - maybe it was a moat?

Just to prove I was there :-)

Heading downhill in another direction - we took the long way down, so
we could see the castle from a different angle. It's quite a steep slope up
the hill.

We kind of had our groove on at that point, so we decided to walk the towpath of the Llangollen Canal up to the headwaters.  This canal is one of the main feeders of the canal system in England.  The Dee River was diverted at a place called Horseshoe Falls, so that part of it is now the head of the canal system.  Anyone who has been to Niagara Falls probably has some sort of internal thought of what “Horseshoe Falls” looks like.  So when we reached it, we almost walked right by without recognizing it!  

A falling-down house on the trail

Another sheep pasture.  Glen's checking the bottom
of his shoes!

Nursing sheep baby

Young ram following his mama around.

End of the crow trail.

A hiker we met on the path.

We stopped for a drink and a footrest at the Chainbridge Hotel near the falls.  The hotel is named for this truly awful looking bridge which could have sat in on many a bridge nightmare of mine.  I seem to have bad dreams about bridges a lot.  This one has been closed for twenty years and the town is trying to raise the funds to bring it back to a functioning state.  I read a bit on the internet about it, and the estimate for repairs seems to go up by Ł100,000 per year.  As of 2013, they thought it would be Ł465,000.  Seems excessive as it’s not that big a bridge.

Kayak lessons on the river.  There is some fairly mild whitewater
along this course, but the river is quite shallow, so a great place
for beginners to learn river kayaking.  The colourful kayaks looked
so pretty.

Rock 'patios' in the river.  Very inviting.

Horseshoe Falls on the Dee River in the back, and in the foreground
is the diversion for the head of the Llangollen canal.

The chain link bridge.  I've had numerous nightmares
about bad bridges in my life, and this could have been any
one of them.  It's closed right now, but I wouldn't have crossed
it anyhow.

Glen at the Horseshoe Falls

On our walk back, we saw a horse on the towpath pulling a tourist-filled canal boat the old-fashioned way.  It was fun to see a boat cruising without help from a motor!  Unfortunately, horses tend to leave rather large messes along the towpath.  Yuck.  I really don’t understand why dog owners are required to pick up after their pets, but horse owners are not.  

Horse on the towpath, pulling a canal boat.

We decided to make it a ridiculously full day and signed on for the “Rail and Ale” steam train tour which takes an old train up the tracks for about 3/4 hour, and back again - twice.  The gimmick was a local brewery sponsored it, so we were all given a pint glass with the Welsh lion (?) on it, and a pint of “free” beer.  The cost of the train trip was Ł3 more than normal, so I don’t really think it was free.  It was warm - bleah!  The train trip was a nice way to end the day.  Beautiful scenery and lots of people to wave to on our way.  We pretended to be the Beatles in Hard Days Night! on the train. :-)  

In the train compartment.

Llangollen rail station

The steam engine.  This picture is mostly for our friend Ron

One of the conductors standing beside a display of antique luggage

This has nothing to do with our rail tour, except that it was a fence we noticed
made of woven twigs and branches and we thought it was pretty.

 

Well, it's almost CARROLL, so we decided maybe G is pronounced LL
in Welsh.  Ha!

An ashtray in the washroom on the train.  When was the last time
you saw an ashtray in any public place?  The world sure has changed
since this car was built!

Glen on the train.

Just because of the name.  

Again, nothing to do with the train ride.  Llangollen has
a huge music festival every year and these little music
notes are set into the sidewalks so you can follow them to
the music pavilion.

Today we got up a little later.  Our intention was to take a canal boat day cruise up to the Pontcysyllte Aquaduct, get off at the end and walk the 4 1/2 miles back to Llangollen.  Great idea . . . but because of the festival in town, there are hundreds of people here and a lot of them had the same idea.  It was fully booked up when we got there, so we decided to walk the towpath to the aqueduct, and then catch a bus back.  

Canal-side artwork - mostly old bricks and bits ofmetal machinery. 

More canal-side art.

This canal is very popular - there was a steady stream of boats going back and forth, and the towpath is very active with walkers, cyclists and runners.  It took us a couple of hours to walk up there, and then - the Aqueduct.  Uh oh!  Another test for my fear of heights.  As soon as we arrived, the wind came up.  Of course.  But I’m here, and I’m going to do it.  It’s 1007 feet long,126 feet high and holds 1.5 million litres of water.  The water runs through an iron trough that is11’ 10” wide and 5’ 3” deep.  It took 10 years to build and was completed in 1805.  It’s been standing a long time, so I don’t think it should pick today to fall down while I’m on it.  Of course it just might happen though.  

Did it!  I was pretty sure we could catch a bus on the other side of the bridge.  But no, we had to go back across.  The wind was howling and I had the feeling it might blow me right off.  Good thing I’m nice and heavy.  We made it back safely.

Side view of the aqueduct

Canal boat coming through

Walking the aqueduct

Aquaduct info

The bus ride home was the equivalent of $4 each for a 10 minute ride.  The bus driver was late, so he was driving like a maniac.  Even Glen was looking a little green.  So I’ve had a few good doses of adrenaline today.  Now we’ve had dinner, I’m sitting safely on the couch and the World Cup final has just started.  Not sure who I’m rooting for.  It’s just so much fun to watch the skill of these players.  

This has been a magical stay in a beautiful little town.  I wish we’d planned to be here longer, but we have a reservation at a B&B in the Lake District tomorrow.  We’ll head to the town of Chester for the day to follow the recommendations of our friend Paul, who grew up there, and then drive on to Keswick for a few days of hiking.

Our first experience of house-sharing has been a very good one.  Lynn and Damien are so easy to get along with, and sharing the facilities has been a pleasure.  It’s really fun getting to know people as we travel.  I’m so glad we chose to travel this way - it’s an experience I highly recommend.

The sitting room in Llangollen

Lots of stairs up to our third floor bedroom!