June 2010 - Walking - Offa's Dyke

Stepping stones near World's End

Part 2
Sunday 6th June 2010

We desposited one car at Chirk, then drove up to Llandegla, our intended start point, with me getting excited when I saw the restaurant where I abandoned ship last time although it's now closed down. We were booted up and ready to go at 12:05, and after a false start due to me being at the wrong crossroads in my head, we were soon passing an old farmhouse, failing to spot the old iron gate with engraving, and heading into the Llandegla forest. An atmoshperic trot up through the woods brought us out into open moorland which was absolutely covered in bilberry bushes - shame the fruit weren't ripe. We had been warned to expect bogland and later noticed the book said the same, but must have done this section of the route at the right time as they've laid boardwalk all the way from the forest to the road. We covered a lot of ground in a seemingly short time as there was nowhere you could go wrong so we covered an extra map section before even turning the page.

It started drizzling when we reached the road so I threw up my umbrella and we followed it to World's End, the northerly end of the limestone crags that stretch out round the wide, flat topped hills above Llangollen. We passed some mountain bikers and rained off climbers, hopped over some uneccessary stepping stones then took a footpath past the escarpments. This was quite a long but enjoyable stretch of the walk on an exposed but safe-feeling flat path on the side of a steep hill. The long low crags dominated above and a variety of colours of trees drew our attention to the valley below. We passed two of only a few other walkers and saw a bit of wildlife and a stuck sheep, but mostly just enjoyed the views and solitude whilst trying to maintain our 2.5mpg average pace. Fortunately the rain eased off and the thunder rumbles off the the west didn't signal any further doom.

Dinas Bran and Llangollen

We lost count of how many scree patches and stream inlets we had passed, so encountered the next stretch of road somewhat suddenly, a quiet lane that becomes the Precipice Walk, although it's not remotely precipice-y. A track then led off this down through Trevor woods and popped us out on the busy road north of Froncysyllte. The rushing civisilation making a stark change from the peace and quiet of the hills. There was a brief hidden away stretch of canal where we stopped for a soup break and got some advice from a friendly dog walker, before we found ourselves crossing the impressive Pontcysyllte aqueduct with various tourists (this isn't the official route, but an accepted alternative and a choice the dog walker had steered us towards). The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is a feature of the walk whether you're viewing it from afar or walking over it, it is the longest and highest aqueduct in Britain and it was opened in 1805 by Thomas Telford and carries the canal in a cast iron trough. There is only a handrail on the side of the towpath, not on the other side, so the people in the boats get an impressive drop away to one side!

Llangollen canal

The path continued for a mile along the canal, through the biggest kissing gates ever and path some intriguing looking canal traveller permanent mooring kind of place on the other bank with someone sawing wood in an alcove in old castle walls. Then there were the comical rusting canal boats singing into the water, filled with rubbish, spray painted with "no rubbish" and "no tipping".

After the canal we took a kink southwards, up until that point (if following Offa's Dyke from Prestatyn rather than Chepstow) the path heads generally South West. A couple of fields saw us at a small section of road where I kept thinking I'd found horseradish to decide it wasn't that at all. A couple more fields and as we approached a stile we noticed some cows off to our right and realised we'd walked through a field of them without noticing - much better than the alternative, not knowing from the start and me getting all panicky and fearful. My heart fell as we noticed the field ahead had several large bullocks in it, and I started a pre-emptive discussion with Craig where he assued me they'd be placid and I worked out how to tell him there was no way he'd persuade me through and we'd be taking a detour... then my heart leapt again as I realised our path re-joined the road before that point thus avoiding the bulls, I felt thoroughly vindicated!

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Soon we met our second route choice and this time we opted for the official path with views of Chirk castle, rather than heading through the grounds. By this time we were too tired to really appreciate anything, but we did pause to marvel at the view behind us when we realised we could spot World's End and the Eglwyseg crags as hazy spots in the absolute distance, and for a couple of photo opportunities climbing over an uneccesary stile (no fence either side) and inside a hollow tree. The final hill went on for seemingly forever with legs creaking and tweaky, but suddenly the car popped into view and we reached it at 19:25. All that was left to do was stretch out the legs then paddle in the stream to ease my aches, through in the water the soles of my felt like they were burning!