Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Posted on by Stephen Edwards

Trevor, Wales, and Froncysyllte, Wales

One of the most impressive engineering structures that I have seen in person is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Designed by Thomas Telford and built over a period of ten years, the aqueduct carries canal traffic across a chasm of over 1,000 feet across the River Dee that flows 127 feet below the aqueduct. While the aqueduct was never used for the intended coal traffic promised at the beginning of the canal, it is extremely popular today with pleasure boaters, as the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is the main feature of an eleven-mile section of Llangollen Canal that is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Small watercraft of all types use the canal and the aqueduct. This canoe was about to make the thousand-foot trip across the valley.
The River Dee is quite picturesque. While this photo was taken in January, it would be great to see how green the valley turns in the spring or how the leaves change in the autumn. Wales is one of the most beautiful places I have visited, and the views from the top of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct did not disappoint.

To visit the aqueduct, there is no cost other than for parking. We ended up walking the towpath across the entire aqueduct. While it is safe to walk on the path, visitors should be careful. It is very easy to step into the canal. If someone does, they will step into over five feet of water. The other side has a small wall, but someone could tumble to the valley below. It is not a good idea to walk the towpath with small and fearless children.

If Henry and Simon had been much younger, I would have been a little bit more hesitant to walk the towpath. Because there is only one towpath across the aqueduct, you have to be careful when you meet someone walking the other direction.
Following Adrienne here, you can see how easy it is to step into the canal if you are not paying attention. When you meet another walker, someone will have to get close to the fence while the other passes.

It is possible to book a pleasure cruise across the aqueduct, but since we were there out of season, we did not book one. The canal is usually closed from January to mid-March for maintenance. If we return to this part of Wales in the future, a canal cruise would be in order.

Many of the cruise boats were closed for the season. With eleven miles of the canal included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, a canal trip is a perfect day out in the Welsh countryside.

A quick stop when in the area is in order for any visitor; the aqueduct is quite impressive to see from the ground and from walking across. Just the thought of a navigable stream of water over a hundred feet above a river is mind-boggling. I also have immense appreciation for a structure that functions just as well as it did on the day it opened over 220 years ago. Telford understood that great engineering flows with the land, and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct does not disappoint.

With 19 arches, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct spans about a sixth of a mile across the valley of the River Dee. The structure is very impressive. From here, you can see one of the boats crossing the canal.

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