Circular Hike from Llangollen
If you enjoy a circular hike with plenty of views, points of interest, and varying terrain, then you’ll love this route starting from Llangollen.
Our circular route ~10 miles | ~4.5 hours
The elevation on our route
Whenever you’re lucky enough to get a warm, sunny Saturday in mid-October in the UK, we believe you must seize the day and get outside doing something you love - we did just that! We completed a ~10 mile circular hike from the picturesque town of Llangollen, up the steep ascent to Castell Dinas Bran, through the woods and over the fields to Trevor, then back along the canal to Llangollen. The walk was packed with different types of scenery, terrain, and some amazing points of interest, which we’ll go into more detail about during this post.
After leaving the town centre, we started our treacherous climb up the 1000ft hill towards Castell Dinas Bran. It looked so far away from the bottom, but believe me, it looked even further by the time we were 75% of the way up the hill! All I can say is, I’m glad we got the big climb out of the way within the first hour of our hike. It only took around 40 minutes to reach the top from our starting point, but it was one hell of a warm-up!
I thought the climb was so worth doing, though, when I looked around at the panoramic views the castle has to offer - it was absolutely stunning! In one direction, you could see the town of Llangollen, which looked tiny, another direction was a hill with its many layers of rock exposed, another you could see the forest and in another direction - farmers' fields for miles.
The castle itself is perhaps diluted by the views around, but it is still very impressive. You can imagine just what living all the way up there must have been like back in the 12th Century before the likes of delivery services and the internet - life must have been pretty isolating. The remains create some beautiful frames for taking pictures of the landscapes surrounding it, but apart from that, there’s not a great deal of the castle left to explore. If you want to read more about the castle and its history, Castle Wales has some great images and gives a lot of insight into its past.
Following the photo break, we headed down the other side of the hill which was a lot less steep, although quite slippery on some of the slate steps and loose stone sections. The next section of the route took us to the road where many people had parked to enjoy the hikes in the area. It isn’t just the castle hike you can do, there are a lot of trails around here - the main one being the Offas Dyke Path.
After the road section, we got into Trevor Hall Wood; a beautiful woodland with an abundance of tree species, and some lovely views through the trees and down to the valley below us. We popped out of the woods onto a small road where I saw my first slow worm. We weren’t sure if it was dead or not, but after a few minutes of staring intensely at it, it started to move… slowly.
The final part of this half of the hike took us across a couple of fields with some overly friendly horses in them (but they were no bother really), and down to the Shropshire Union Canal where we had a couple of pints and some chips in The Telford Inn. The Telford Inn is named after the renowned Scottish civil engineer, Thomas Telford, who was prevalent in the area due to his work on our next point of interest: Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is an outstanding example of British civil engineering, even by today’s standards. However, Thomas Telford designed this aqueduct way back in 1795 and it was opened in 1805 - only 10 years later. The scale of the aqueduct is ridiculous and it blows my mind that it was designed and built over 200 years ago!
Today, the aqueduct transports canal boats over it, and has a path for pedestrians to the side of the canal’s waterway. The views from the top are insane. You can see right down into the valley where the River Dee runs fiercely through. As well as canal boats, you can also kayak along the canal, or rent a canoe.
Back down from the aqueduct, we rejoined the canal which took us all the way back to Llangollen. It was probably four or five miles back to town, and although quite monotonous at times, it was a pleasant and easy walk back with plenty of kayakers and narrow boaters to wave at along the way.
As you can see from the image below, Llangollen is such a pretty little town and has a lot going for it. From independant craft shops, to an array of cafes, bars and restaurants, it’s the perfect place to start and end any hike you choose to do in the area.