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Llangollen Canal Holiday from Chirk Marina


Hrk1ng

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Just now, haggis said:

At the locks coming up we met a boat going down with what they said was a stag party BUT there was a female on board. A bit unusual I thought.?.

We have just come back from Llangollen and it took us two and a half hours to Chirk marina. A bit quicker than going up and we were following a not particularly speedy hire boat. 

 

Haggis

Perhaps she was the "entertainment" ?

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/06/2021 at 16:50, Hrk1ng said:

 

Thank you both re the Llangollen basin.
Do you know you can/need to book a mooring in the basin? Definitely want to spend a few nights here as want to explore Llangollen and would love to do the horse drawn trip to the Horse Shoe Falls, also wanted to go on the steam railway but the website states they’ve gone into liquidation which is incredibly sad. Must be another victim of the dreaded c word! 

Llangollen railway reopened today

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1 hour ago, booke23 said:

 

Did you have a good trip?

We absolutely loved the Llangollen section from chirk up to Llangollen and adored the town itself. We also went down the Monty which was amazingly beautiful and peaceful. The Shropshire union was a bit sketchy at times! Other hire boaters might have been better on lake Windermere 🤔🤔. We were pulled out of our mooring pins a few times!! 

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3 minutes ago, Hrk1ng said:

We absolutely loved the Llangollen section from chirk up to Llangollen and adored the town itself. We also went down the Monty which was amazingly beautiful and peaceful. The Shropshire union was a bit sketchy at times! Other hire boaters might have been better on lake Windermere 🤔🤔. We were pulled out of our mooring pins a few times!! 

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for coming back and letting us know

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On 11/06/2021 at 11:14, haggis said:

At the locks coming up we met a boat going down with what they said was a stag party BUT there was a female on board. A bit unusual I thought.?.

We have just come back from Llangollen and it took us two and a half hours to Chirk marina. A bit quicker than going up and we were following a not particularly speedy hire boat. 

 

Haggis

Haven't you ever been on a stag party? If not you haven't lived.

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We had to abandon our trrip due to engine issues, having spent two days at Ellesmere waiting to get it sorted we then only went up to Frankton Junction.  I was surprised how many hire boats went through Frankton locks on the Sunday morning. Chatting to the CRT lock keeper he said the Monty had become very popular with hirers.

Judging by the number of boats we passed between Frankton Junction and Ellesmere we were glad we didn't rush on up to Llangollen.

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4 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

We had to abandon our trrip due to engine issues, having spent two days at Ellesmere waiting to get it sorted we then only went up to Frankton Junction.  I was surprised how many hire boats went through Frankton locks on the Sunday morning. Chatting to the CRT lock keeper he said the Monty had become very popular with hirers.

Judging by the number of boats we passed between Frankton Junction and Ellesmere we were glad we didn't rush on up to Llangollen.

I think there was only one owned boat on the Monty when we went down. However speaking to other hire boaters most had been hiring for some time or ex owners. We also saw the hotel boat and its butty which was amazing to see it manoeuvring etc! We loved it as you could take it nice and slowwwwww😊

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I wonder if the Railway might have been in administration rather than liquidation, or if someone new has acquired it as a going concern. They certainly has to sell off some of their assets: at least one of their coaches was bought by another preserved railway.  Good news that they are opening again.

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40 minutes ago, Cathylw said:

Hi

 

we are doing the canal in Aug, how long will it take from Lions Quay hotel to Llangollen?
I know it’s the busy bit

cathy

 

It's about 10 miles with no locks, but with a couple of tunnels and aquaducts. Should be doable in 5 hours, maybe 6 if you have bad luck and have to wait at every tunnel/aquaduct and at the narrows on the approach to Llangollen. 

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9 hours ago, Cathylw said:

Hi

 

we are doing the canal in Aug, how long will it take from Lions Quay hotel to Llangollen?
I know it’s the busy bit

cathy

Less than a day.  We have just done from below New Marton locks to Llangollen basin in a day both ways.  Actually on the way out we stopped overnight on the feeder by the lift bridge (about half a mile short of Llangollen), to make the 2 nights you get in the basin be the two we wanted.  
 

In reality there is not that much in the way of nice mooring between New Marton and Llangollen, and the few decent places are likely to be rammed.  Lion Quay is one (assuming you want to eat at the hotel), just on from there there is Chirk Bank, then everything from there to pontywhatsit is gloomy either in a cutting or heavy tree cover or both.  There is Trevor, which is only a few boats space and was full, then the couple of spots up the feeder.

Edited by john6767
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On 09/07/2021 at 20:20, Hrk1ng said:

I think there was only one owned boat on the Monty when we went down. However speaking to other hire boaters most had been hiring for some time or ex owners. We also saw the hotel boat and its butty which was amazing to see it manoeuvring etc! We loved it as you could take it nice and slowwwwww😊

We have just had a few days on the Monty, I would say about 50% of the boats were hire boats while we were there, so if you ignore the 3 boats permanently moored on 48hr moorings, that is about 2 private and 2 hire down to Maesbury Marsh per day.  We came back up yesterday, there were only two up, the other left Maesbury the night before , we left at 7:30 in the morning.  The one coming down (hire boat) arrived as we were coming up the staircase at 11, and the CRT guys were going to lock up when they got him down.  It is not busy, there were plenty of moorings available at Maesbury Marsh while were were there, on two different 48hr moorings (perhaps that is cheating I don’t know).

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12 hours ago, Cathylw said:

Hi

 

we are doing the canal in Aug, how long will it take from Lions Quay hotel to Llangollen?
I know it’s the busy bit

cathy

Hi Cathy, 

 

I would say it will very much depend on the time of day you intend to travel. Advice would be to get up early and beat the crowds. It's true there are no locks etc, however the stretch in question was very full of inexperienced boaters when we went back in June. Canal plan is bringing back a time of 5 hours 16 mins from Lion Quays to the basin. I would add on 2 hours at least in August. We went in June and that stretch was very busy so should imagine now the kids are off it will be busier. Things we encountered along that stretch: 

1. A couple moored up on the pins before the Chirk aqueduct having coffee and croissants causing a huge traffic jam as no one could pull in etc to let others pass - they were completely oblivious and when we spoke to them about it possibly not being the best place for breakfast they said they'd been there all night and there were pins so why couldn't they stay there and couldn't understand why there was a massive queue of boats...

2. A group of ladies on a hire boat with one lady operating the tiller and the other on the throttle... made fore very interesting watching! Zigzag boating at it's best (or worst). 

3. Above ladies stuck sideways across the canal. 

4. Numerous crashes under bridges and various Mexican stand offs as to which boat was going to reverse first. 

5. A man swearing profusely at the lift bridge because he couldn't 'find the f***ing button' to lift it...

 

....Possibly add 3 hours in August 😂

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14 hours ago, john6767 said:

 Lion Quay is one (assuming you want to eat at the hotel),

If you don't want to use the Lion Quay moorings, just moor on the towpath side opposite, depth is pretty good and Armco to tie up to.

Edited by jam
spellchucker
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On 02/08/2021 at 12:53, Cathylw said:

I thought as much, we are booked in the restaurant at Lion Quays, then another next night in Llangollen, however if it too busy we can always moor up and cycle

Blimey, I've just been tackling the hire-boat carnage on the south oxford, the Llangollen sounds even worse.  I hope things are back to normal by next year.

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3 hours ago, Cathylw said:

Only open Fri, Sat and Sun and it’s a retro diesel rather than steam

And only to the first stop close to the chain bridge.

1 hour ago, doratheexplorer said:

Blimey, I've just been tackling the hire-boat carnage on the south oxford, the Llangollen sounds even worse.  I hope things are back to normal by next year.

It is very busy and of course all the hire boats are out, but there are only so many of them and you would expect them all to be out this time of year anyway.  I was surprised as to how many boats ABC actually have at the 3 (I think) bases on the Llangollen.

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1 hour ago, john6767 said:

And only to the first stop close to the chain bridge.

It is very busy and of course all the hire boats are out, but there are only so many of them and you would expect them all to be out this time of year anyway.  I was surprised as to how many boats ABC actually have at the 3 (I think) bases on the Llangollen.

We are currently based at the ABC base at Wrenbury.  They have 18 boats there, and when we were out the other week, all the boats were in use.  With the current staycation situation, I reckon it's just as busy  on the canals, even outside of school holidays.

Edited by davem399
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We live at Grindley Brook and some days it's been 3-4 hours for boats to get through the staircase. It's been hectic at times. I can say though you should definitely stop and explore Whitchurch, we have some great places to eat and independent shops and there is a popular pub at Grindley Brook called the Horse and Jockey so even if you don't pass the locks the Lockside Cafe and pub at Grindley Brook are worth visiting.

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9 hours ago, EnglishRose said:

We live at Grindley Brook and some days it's been 3-4 hours for boats to get through the staircase. It's been hectic at times. I can say though you should definitely stop and explore Whitchurch, we have some great places to eat and independent shops and there is a popular pub at Grindley Brook called the Horse and Jockey so even if you don't pass the locks the Lockside Cafe and pub at Grindley Brook are worth visiting.

 

Having got stuck at Grindley Brook once for 5 hours (because the lockie wasn't there and until I dispatched Mrs Hound to sort things because there was a constant stream of boats coming down because no one would turn the staircase locks and allow the boats going up a turn), I now overnight there and go up or down very early in the morning. 

 

Much better for my blood pressure. 😁

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