Llangollen draught

[cuthound]

Because the hire fleets hire from Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays, it is always quieter at Llangollen at weekends, so try to plan your trip to arrive at Llangollen at a weekend, rather than midweek.

 

When travelling up towards Llangollen, beware of speeding hire boats unable to stop athe bridgeholes be a useful of the slight flow.

It is a great canal, and should be pretty quiet in March.

[Quaffer]

More important question, what are the pubs like?

 

 

It all depends on what you like in a pub.I try and seek out the best pubs for real ale,and on that count the Llangollen is tricky IMHO.A lot of the canalside pubs are quite food orientated,but I really like The Bhurtpore Inn,which is a good walk from Wrenbury Heath.http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/61339/

 

On my last trip I didn't investigate Whitchurch,which might work on the ale front.I spent an evening in Ellesmere and was disappointed.The two in Llangollen worth a visit for real ale are The Ponsonby Arms and The Sun Inn,owned by the same chap and both solid boozers.

 

If you do come across any gems on your voyage into Wales,it would be good to share for the next time i'm up that way.

Edited February 19, 2017 by Quaffer

[mark99]

The bit going up to the end in parts is very skinny. Make sure you drop off a crew member to walk ahead and keep in contact with a mobile.

Edited February 19, 2017 by mark99

[Mike Todd]

Been up to Llagollen a couple of times. The canal has a significant flow from Llangollen to Hurleston, you will notice it at the down stream lock by-washes that will push you across as you enter the lock, you will need to go in at a reasonable speed and compenste by steering into the flow. The tunnels and bridges will also slow you down, and the feeder channel fron Trevor to Llangollen which is both narrow and shallow will make it slow going even in a shallow drafted boat. We waited at the top of the narrows for a Hudson to come up that drew close on 3ft, they were very slow but they did make it ok.

 

My top tip if you are there when there are a lot of hire boats is to time it so you have Sat/Sun or Sun/Mon in Llangollen as most of the hire boats turn round on Fri or Sat and arrive in Llangollen Tues or Wed. Even in August the basin was less than half full if you time it right, at least that was our experience.

The hire boat timings is the the most important factor - for much of the main season the hire companies would hope to have the majority of their boats out and price accordingly so that the school hols is not quite such a big factor, although it may impact private boats usage.

 

More important, however, is the time of day. Most people on a schedule do not like to 'waste' time so pour into Llangollen late in the day (we were there last year in Spring Bank Holiday) so if you are prepared to work around that factor it is not too bad. Of course, the locks, especially Grindley Brook, can be a cause of delays as well, but treat that as an opportunity to go out and help people who are still in the learning phase (aren't we all?)

 

We came out of Llangollen basin around 4pm (for complicated reasons) and moored by Plas-y-Pentre Bridge 34W which is a good spot and has a view of the aqueduct in the middle distance. We arrived around 6:30 and were somewhat astounded by the number of boats that passed us through the evening on the way into Llangollen, until after dark. Where they moored we knew not!