Touring Routes

Swanley Bridge is in the perfect location for touring both the Llangollen and Shropshire Union Canals. Below we provide some suggested touring routes and information about what you can expect to experience on both canals.

Llangollen Canal

The Llangollen Canal leaves the Shropshire Union Canal just north of Nantwich in rural Cheshire and climbs through deserted Shropshire farmlands to cross the border into Wales near Chirk.  It then cuts through increasingly hilly countryside to finish alongside the River Dee tumbling out of Snowdonia just above Llangollen.  It is 41 miles long and takes at least three days to cruise (one-way).

The Llangollen Canal is probably the most beautiful canal in Britain certainly it is the most popular.  The scenery varies from isolated sheep pastures to ancient peat mosses, from tree lined lakes to the foothills of Snowdonia.

Towns along the way include medieval Whitchurch with its half timbered buildings, the interesting market town of Ellesmere set in its own "Lake District", the fortified border town of Chirk and Llangollen itself sat astride the River Dee, an ancient gateway to Wales, beneath the ruins of Castel Dinas Bran.

The canal has three major engineering feats, two old and one modern.  The aqueducts at Chirk and Pontcysyllte were built by the engineers Thomas Telford and William Jessup and were among the first to use cast iron troughs to contain the canal.  At Chirk the trough is supported by conventional masonry arches but at Pontcysyllte the trough is exposed and sits atop 120 foot high slender masonry towers. (Link to Aqueducts) When you cross the Pontcysyllte aqueduct by boat there is an exhilarating sheer drop on the non-towpath side!  The modern feat seems tame by comparison but required considerable twentieth century engineering expertise.  Constant landslips on the stretch from Trevor to Llangollen meant closing the section for two years to rebuild long stretches of the embankments above the River Dee and encase the whole canal in a concrete trough.

Pictured second from the top on the right of this page is a view across the 190 year old Pontcysyllte aqueduct, known as one of the canal wonders of the world.  The towpath on the right is suspended over the water and has a cast iron handrail that most walkers seem to find reassuring.  When you cross by boat there is only a lip a few inches high on the left between you and the drop to the River Dee 120 foot below!  You should stay below decks if you don't have much of a head for heights, but you will miss some amazing views!

The canal is unusual amongst Britain's artificial waterways in having a strong (up to 2 miles per hour) flow.

Shropshire Union

The Shropshire Union Canal runs from the edge of urban Wolverhampton through some of the most underpopulated areas of England to the River Mersey at Ellesmere Port, about sixty miles in all and taking a fairly leisurely four days to cruise.  The scenery is often quite dramatic, with sweeping views across to the Welsh Marches and the strangely shaped ridge called "The Wrekin" from the long embankments and with the atmospheric heavily wooded deep cuttings, a number of which were reputed by the old boat people to be haunted.  These days this is also UFO territory!  Strange visions are also likely if you have had a few pints of "6X" in the Anchor Inn at High Offley, an old boatmans pub that has survived almost unchanged. (Link to Pubs)

Market Drayton and Nantwich are medieval market towns which still have some half-timbered black and white buildings.  However the jewel in the Shropshire Union crown must be Chester, a Roman fortress and port which has many Roman ruins, as well as an almost complete set of medieval city walls which tower above the canal and the unique "rows", shops on two levels overlooking the street which date back to the middle ages.  Chester has many visitors year round, with museums, fine cathedral, good hotels, town-crier and street theatre, but it still manages to feel friendly and small scale.  The northern end of the canal is at Ellesmere Port which was a transhipment port from canal to sea-going ships.  The old docks now house The Boat Museum which has a unique collection of ex-working boats and waterways exhibitions.

The canal was one of the last built and borrowed from the latest railway building methods, taking a direct line across country, on embankments and through cuttings.  These were massive undertakings, Shelmore embankment took six years to build and Woodseaves cutting is 100 feet deep.  Nearly all the locks are bunched together in "flights".  This made for quicker working by the boat people because locks could be easily prepared in advance of the boats.  The Shropshire Union was formed by the "union" of a number of canals, the canal from Nantwich to Chester was built to broad barge standards, and many miles of little used branches through Shropshire were abandoned earlier this century.

Little wonder the boatpeople did not like to moor in these cuttings.  There were numerous stories that the cuttings were haunted!

On the left a view from the Shropshire Union Canal towards the Welsh Marches with the long ridge called The Wrekin just visible in the distance.  People and buildings seem very few and far between yet you are little more than twenty miles from the heavily populated cities of Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

There are long vistas across open farmlands towards mid Wales and across to Cheshire and Staffordshire from the high canal embankments.

Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union Canal.

The Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union Canal starts at Barbridge which is just outside Nantwich and joins the Trent & Mersey Canal at Middewich. This allows access to attractions such as the Anderton Boat Lift.

Anderton Boat Lift

Built in 1875 the Anderton Boat Lift is a wonder of victorian canal engineering it is known as the "Cathedral of the Canals" and was the world's first narrowboat lift.

http://www.andertonboatlift.co.uk/

Ellesmere Port Boat Museum

Britain's canal history comes to life at the former canal port. The museum recreates what life was like at the turn of the century and has a collection of canal and river boats.

Visiting boaters are charged at the normal museum admission rates, which gives up to seven days moorings at The Museum.
The Museum does not have diesel or pump out facilities. Fresh water and refuse facilities are available.Having moored visitors should contact the Museum's reception, open 10am-5pm daily, to confirm where to moor if staying overnight.

http://www.boatmuseum.org.uk/

Nantwich

Just a few miles from Swanley Bridge Marina the Shropshire Union Canal passes through Nantwich on it's way South. Nantwich a market town offers a full range of services and is known for its picturesque streets and individual shops. The gateway to Nantwich, by car, is the aqueduct built in 1832 by Thomas Telford to carry the Shropshire Union Canal over Welsh Row .

Llangollen

Llangollen is most famous for the annual Llangollen International Eisteddfod, a week long event.

The canal is an important part of Llangollen's attraction as a holiday destination. A new marina, built at the end of the navigable section, allows more summer visitors to moor overnight in Llangollen

Llangollen on the River Dee is world famous for its white water Slalom canoeing and kayaking, being host to International and UK events.