Llangollen (thlang-GOTH-lehn) is a red-brick riverside town that’s strikingly set in a gorge with a rushing river. It has an impressive history (thanks to its clever canal, a symbol of the Industrial Revolution) and a handful of great sights, including a fascinating manor house called Plas Newydd.
This is my first visit to this part of Northeast Wales, so I have been looking forward to this for some time. 🙂
It’s also a popular launch pad for hikes, boat trips, and steam train journeys.
The town is family for its weeklong International Musical Eisteddfod, a very popular and crowded festival held each July.
The town feels equal parts blue-collar and touristy.
With about 3600 people, little Llangollen is easy to get around. We were able to wander its main streets a bit, but did not get a chance to see the famous Llangollen Canal, except thru the trees by the road and the viaduct from the same vantage point.
At the turn of the 18th century, famed engineers Thomas Telford and William Jessop built this remarkable industrial canal, with a horse-drawn towpath for hauling cargo running its entire length. It was originally intended to connect to a network of canals linking all the way to the big port at Liverpool, but the entire run was never completed.
The ingenious design – which begins at the River Dee’s Horseshoe Falls two miles west of town, and crosses the towering Pontcysyllte Aquaduct four miles east of town – was engineered to drop less than 20 inches over its entire 11-mile length.
Before climbing to our next stop, we grabbed a quick little lunch at a popular counter to get a “BAP” What is a “BAP” (other than my initials)? According to Google, at its simplest, it is a bread roll. At its most complicated, it is a tender pillow of dough, often made with milk, lard, and butter. A more humble, Scottish version of the brioche. The BAP is the ideal bread for a simple meat sandwich. I agree!
