Llangollen

When: 28th September - 2nd October 2021

Where: Gales Hotel, Llangollen

Who: Jo Bird

What's included: Bed, breakfast and packed lunch (evening meals additional) plus three and a half days guided walking

Women only

Level: moderate

Cost: £565 double room (for single occupancy)

Fabulous Llangollen has just about got it all! A ruined hilltop castle, the magnificent River Dee, Offa’s Dyke path, a dramatic limestone escarpment, Plas Newydd (home of the Ladies of Llangollen) and the lush meadows and woods typical of the Welsh Borders.

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Join Jo at the comfy Gales Hotel in the centre of this pretty bustling welsh market town for some great walking and good cheer!

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WALK 1 - This is the walk that cannot be missed! We will walk over the river and canal and climb steeply up to explore the atmospheric castle ruins of Castell Dinas Bran which overlooks Llangollen. We will then walk onto the section of the Offa’s Dyke trail known as the Panoramic Walk which has great views over the Dee Valley and the surrounding hills and moors. We will then circle back to Llangollen on the canal. This walk is approx 6 miles and with some time to spare we will hopefully walk through Llangollen to visit the very pretty half-timbered house which was home to the famous Ladies of Llangollen where there is also a very tempting garden café!

Total ascent/descent 320m

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WALK 2 - This is a great day’s walking. We head out of town on the Llangollen canal walking a couple of miles to the horseshoe falls on the River Dee where the canal begins. We then circle around Velvet Hill, passing by the remains of Crucis Abbey (and the nearby Abbey Farm café!) and head onto the Clwydian Way which has really lovely views over the Eglwyseg valley and up to the dramatic limestone escarpment that runs north from Llangollen. We will head back on another section of the Offa’s Dyke path and back into Llangollen for refreshments and a well earned rest.

8 miles, 200m ascent/descent

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WALK 3 – No trip to Llangollen is complete without a visit to the amazing Pontcysyllte Aqueduct which is a world heritage site. The aqueduct takes the canal high over the River Dee and it is quite a spectacle to watch canal boats and even walk along the tow path if you have a head for heights. We will take a bus there from Llangollen and spend a little time exploring the site, and then do a lovely walk back to Llangollen, first along the canal and then taking footpaths across fields on the hillside which has lovely views all the way.

Approx 7.5 miles, 100m ascent

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