St. Martins Moor to Chirk - Llangollen Canal

Passing Ushers

Lovely Night Sky

It was another dry start as we left our mooring and chugged off along the canal.  We went under the bridge and passed Ushers where we stopped for coffee yesterday afternoon.

Another Bridge

Old Man on the Cut!

Nice Bright Day

On we went under a few bridges and past a few canal side pubs and after a few miles, we were approaching Chirk Aqueduct.  It was built between 1796 and 1801 and carries the canal for 710ft on 10 arches and with a span of 40ft.  It is constructed of iron plates bolted together to make water tight trough.  Unfortunately, the iron plated trough was prone to leaking so was replaced in 1869 with a completely cast iron trough.  Running alongside the aqueduct is Chirk Viaduct carrying the Chester to Shrewsbury railway line.

White Geese

Chirk Aqueduct & Viaduct

The aqueduct is lovely and we chugged across. It is a tourist attraction and there were a lot of people walking across.

Over We Go!

Fantastic Views

Immediately at the end of the aqueduct is Chirk tunnel.  Built in 1801, this brick lined tunnel at 459yds is the longest of three tunnels on the Llangollen canal.  Along with Whitehouse tunnel, further to the north, it was the first tunnel in Britain to be built with a towpath as Thomas Telford, the designer and engineer, considered legging dangerous and undignified.

There was two boats in front of us and they went into the tunnel and we followed.  It took an age to go through and at times we had to stop.  I called to the boat in front of us to ask if there was a problem but he said no, it was just the boat in front of him going very slow.

Chirk Tunnel Ahead

In We Go

We are now in Wales!

Nearly There

Eventually we came out into the sunshine and moored up a short way from the tunnel and we are now in Wales as the border is half way across the aqueduct.  These moorings aren’t the best as they are under trees but Chirk railway station is just up the path from the moorings and we want to get the train to Wrexham tomorrow.  Also the shops are near this end so this is really the best place to moor.

Out we come

Castle Bistro

We walked up onto the road, past the Railway station and on into the town.  It is quite small and just a few shops.  We walked to the church but didn’t go in as a service was just finishing.  There was a cache there so we did look for that and found it.

We did a couple more caches in Chirk.  There was a nice park and war memorial.  We went for a coffee in  a nice place called Castle Bistro, they had a lovely courtyard at the back so we sat out there.

Pretty Gardens in the park

We then walked back to the boat and walked up the towpath to Chirk marina.  

War Memorial

We had a few drops of rain but nothing much so we got back to the boat in the dry.  There was a hire boat moored up in front of us on pins and they had gone up to the shops.  Two of the pins had come out and the boat was drifting out so Kev repinned the boat.

The forecast was right and the rain came shortly after we got back and is in for the evening I think.

We are staying here tonight and catching the train to Wrexham in the morning but when we come back tomorrow afternoon, we will probably move to up around the corner to some more moorings where it is brighter and more open.