We were 20 metres above ground as we crossed the border. The wide valley of the turbulent River Ceiriog below tried its best to demarcate where England ended and Wales began, but it was no match for man’s ingenuity. As we walked the towpath of the Chirk Aqueduct there was a steady flow of Welsh water down the canal to our left, helping narrowboats navigate their way south into England. And just beyond it, a train nosed north over the Chirk Railway Viaduct where its journey between the English cities of Shrewsbury and Chester took it through Wales.

This was my third visit to Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal – the third different area of the site and the first deliberate one. The site is a linear 11-mile stretch of what is now known as the Llangollen Canal, but was previously a branch of the Ellesmere Canal. My first was July 2009 when, in our early days of dating, my then girlfriend, knowing of my mild mania for all things UNESCO, brought me out to the newly-inscribed Pontycysyllte Aqueduct for a walk and a picnic. Reader, I married her. My second was again with her, but also with our 20-month-old son, on a sunny Summer day trip to the pleasant and touristy town of Llangollen. Put off by the price of a ride on the heritage steam railway we instead booked a trip on a horse-drawn boat up and down the narrow cutting from Llangollen Wharf. It wasn’t until later that I realised that this was part of the inscribed canal. And then the third was a hike with my now 7-year-old son, following the line of the canal from Gledrid Bridge in Shropshire over the aqueduct and through the tunnel into the town of Chirk, before looping back round again.

There have been a number of good reviews of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Trevor Basin by other reviewers, so I’ll focus on the southern end around Chirk and the site’s other aqueduct. To be honest, for anyone just wanting a quick tick Chirk is the most convenient location to get to, as it is less than 15 minutes by train from Wrexham. And Chirk station itself sits right above the northern end of the Chirk tunnel – at a decent pace you could loop from the station, through the tunnel, across the aqueduct, into England, down into the Ceiriog Valley, back into Wales and then up through Chirk back to the station in around 45 minutes. For the monumentally lazy, don’t even get off the train – south of town the track to Gobowen and Shrewsbury runs adjacent to the aqueduct over a viaduct through the core zone.

As it happens, we came by car and parked in the free public carpark at Gledrid Bridge (next to The Poachers pub). The bridge itself, a narrow hump-backed affair, isn’t much to look at, but there is a metal World Heritage shield in English and Welsh sunk into the towpath to its south. From here the canal curves its way towards the aqueduct. Why inscribe this section lying in England? It seems rather non-descript but it does demonstrate the engineers’ dedication to keeping a level route as it curls round the side of a hill. The hill had to be terraced and banked to permit the canal to pass and today the roofs of houses lie below you to the right, whereas across the canal to your left there are stepped gardens leading up to back yards far above. The Chirk Aqueduct is the first real noteworthy feature, 10 arches, 20m high, running across the Ceiriog Valley, with the higher Rail Viaduct shadowing it to the west. The Chirk Aqueduct was completed 4 years earlier than that of Pontcysyllte and you can see several differences between them. At its highest point Pontcysyllte is almost twice as high above the Dee Valley as Chirk is above the Ceiriog. Pontcysyllte is also around 75% longer than Chirk. The Chirk Aqueduct just looks stocky compared to the tapering piers of Pontcysyllte. Also,the canal at Pontcysyllte is borne in an iron trough, whereas Chirk Aqueduct encases the canal in the more usual stonework (originally only the base of the canal was lined with iron here). What is rather special about Chirk, though, is that immediately north of the aqueduct the canal enters the quarter-mile long Chirk Tunnel. Bring a torch if you want to walk through and pay attention to the warning signs at either end (maximum height and breadth of watercraft, sound horns, keep lights on, do not light fires, and beware of dragons…). Photo is looking south from the tunnel to the aqueduct.

If in the vicinity it is worth visiting Chirk Castle, the gates of which can be seen from atop the northern entrance to Chirk Tunnel. It sits in the buffer zone but it was a castle constructed by Edward I (albeit not in Gwynedd…). At the time of construction of the canal it was still inhabited as a private residence, and the nomination file notes that this did impact the route chosen (“The cuttings and tunnels enabled the canal to take a direct route through higher ground rather than a long detour to the east while satisfying the desire of the landowners to preserve the approaches to their estate”). A second buffer zone location worth seeking out is Plas Newydd in Llangollen which was inhabited at the time of the canal’s construction by the ‘Ladies of Llangollen’, two well-born gentlewomen that essentially eloped together from Ireland and lived together as a couple here from 1780 to 1829. Their guests ranged from poets like Byron and Wordsworth to politicians like the Duke of Wellington and Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau of Muskauer Park fame. Sadly there is no record of Thomas Telford popping in for tea.

Taking an objective view of the site, yes, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is very impressive – do try to descend to Cysylltan Bridge downstream to see it towering overhead while the Dee churns between rocks. There is definitely a reason to inscribe the longer section of the canal from Horseshoe Falls to beyond Chirk Aqueduct, showcasing water-management weirs, cuttings, docks and wharfs, tunnels and aqueducts and terracing designed to keep the route level, though this all pales somewhat compared to the main attraction. What I think is notable is just how narrow the canal is. It is wide enough for two canalboats to pass side by side – and there are frequent pinch points where it narrows yet further. It makes you wonder just how much cargo could have been carried across the canal network. No wonder, then, that it was soon supplanted. Pontcysyllte Aqueduct opened in 1805. Twenty years later the Stockton and Darlington Railway in north-east England commenced operation. And then the Chirk Viaduct opened in 1848 as direct local competition. The Ellesmere Canal had less than 50 years before the steam railway rendered it all but obsolete.

World Heritage-iness: 2.5

Our Experience: 2.5

(Visited July 2009, August 2017, March 2023)