This pretty town on the River Dee has been drawing visitors
for centuries. It is set beside the river, with tall hills on both sides of the
valley. To the north, the dramatic outline of Castle Dinas Bran, the 'Castle of
the Crows', stands sentinel, while just up the valley stand the pretty ruins of
Valle Crucis Abbey. A short stroll from the peaceful abbey ruins is Eliseg's
Pillar, a carved cross dating to the early 9th century. To the east of the town
is Thomas Telford's majestic aqueduct at Pontcysyllte.
You can take a canal boat cruise along the canal, or enjoy a
horse-drawn boat trip from the dock just across Llangollen bridge, which was
built in 1345 on the site of an ancient ford. The bridge was rebuilt in 1656
and widened in 1862 to make room for a new railway line to pass through its
arches.
The bridge itself was famously labelled one of the Seven
Wonders of Wales.
A short distance west from Llangollen brings you to the
attractive beauty spot of Horseshoe Falls, a curving semi-circular weir where
the canal joins the River Dee.
At the southeastern edge of the town is Plas Newydd, where
the famed Ladies of Llangollen lived. Sarah Ponsonby and Lady Eleanor Butler
escaped from unhappy family life in Ireland and set up house together here, and
became celebrated as the embodiment of romantic friendship, a sort of
intellectual retreat from the pressures of society life. Here they welcomed
literary giants like Wordsworth and Southee, Sir Walter Scott and the like.
The Ladies are buried at St Collen's Church, founded by the
6th-century Irish saint, whose tomb once stood where the west tower now rises.
