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Valle Crucis and Dinas Bran from Llangollen

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Walk directions

Walk from the car park to the main street and go left over Llangollen Bridge. Turn right and then left, climbing to the canal and dropping onto the tow path by a café.

After about a mile (1.6km) the canal veers left. Leave the tow path just short of a motor museum, to cross the canal bridge. Turn right along the A542. Cross the road and take a stony farm track that heads north passing above Valle Crucis Abbey, its café and campsite. A footpath continues from the end of the track, along the left edge of a field.

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Location

Nearest postcode:

Additional information

Terrain - Tow path, farm tracks and field paths, several stiles

Landscape - Pastoral and wooded hillsides with limestone scenery

Dog friendliness - On lead on farmland and country lanes, can run free on canal tow path

Parking - Long-stay car park in East Street, just southwest of the bridge

Toilets en route - At short stay car park on Market Street (small fee)

Walks in Denbighshire Dog-friendly walks in Denbighshire

About the walk

The River Dee is never more attractive than in the Vale of Llangollen where it meanders around shapely hills, through forest and field, and beneath terraces of limestone. Llangollen town has prospered with all this beauty, and today is a bustling holiday resort based on an impressive five-arched... bridge over the Dee – one of the Seven Wonders of Wales. Watching over the town there’s a mysterious ruined castle: Dinas Bran, the fort of the crows. This walk explores the countryside around the town and starts with a stroll along the canal. Colourful barges still cruise down the waters where there are swans and hungry ducks to feed. When it’s time to leave them behind, you enter the little valley of the Eglwyseg. A short distance along this valley, the walk comes to the ruined abbey of Valle Crucis, a name that means simply valley of the cross. The cross concerned used to be on top of the Pillar of Eliseg, now sadly a rather degraded roadside relic, but once an elegant memorial to Eliseg, a ninthcentury Prince of Powys. Established in 1201 by Cistercian monks from Strata Marcella near Welshpool, Valle Crucis Abbey was beautifully sited in fertile pastures, where the monks could grow crops and tend sheep. A modern caravan sits next to the ruins, but the abbey is still impressive, with many original features surviving the ravages of time and the Reformation. The chapter house still has its impressive rib-vaulted roof, the windows of the east wall still reflect perfectly in the monks’ fish pond, and the west front still boasts an elaborate carved doorway and a beautiful rose window. The walk climbs out of the valley to a little country lane, which takes you alongside the foot of Creigiau Eglwyseg, as fine a parade of tiered limestone crags as you’ll see in any Yorkshire dale. But the best comes last, for facing those crags is Dinas Bran, that shapely hill with the fort on top. When you get to the top, the ruins are large and impressive. Unlike Conwy, Harlech and Caernarfon, this is a true Welsh castle, probably built for those same indigenous Princes of Powys. Built on the strategic site of an existing Iron Age fort – you can still see the old embankment – the castle never played a major role in battle. Its exact demise is unknown, but historians believe that the Welsh occupiers fled before the troops of Edward I laid waste to it. It’s a fine viewpoint too. The fields of Eglwyseg seem to have a green velvet quality, framed to perfection by those limestone crags, and there’s a bird’s-eye view of Llangollen, sitting snugly beneath the foothills of the Berwyn.

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About the area

The north-east Wales county of Denbighshire shares a name – though not the same borders – with one of Wales’s thirteen historic counties. It includes the seaside holiday towns of Rhyl and Prestatyn; the medieval county town of Denbigh; and the tiny cathedral town of St Asaph.

Route details

Difficulty:

Medium

Gradient:

Gentle

Distance:

6.75 miles (10.9kms)

Ascent:

1296ft (395m)

If you like this walk, you can try more routes in the area.

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Valle Crucis and Dinas Bran from Llangollen

Recommended by

Walk details

Difficulty:

Medium

Gradient:

Gentle

Distance:

6.75 miles (10.9kms)

Ascent:

1296ft (395m)

Walk directions

Walk from the car park to the main street and go left over Llangollen Bridge. Turn right and then left, climbing to the canal and dropping onto the tow path by a café.

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After crossing the stile at Abbey Cottage turn right for a few paces, then left to follow a well-defined track through woodland. Ignore a path joining from the right. When you get to Hendre farm continue over a stile leading past a new complex of stone cottages, after which the path is tarmaced, to a narrow lane at Tan-y-Fron.

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Turn right along the lane, heading towards the prominent cliffs of Eglwyseg, then right again, along the lane that hugs the foot of the cliffs.

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After about a quarter of a mile (400m), leave through the second of adjacent gates on the right. Follow the right edge of several fields, crossing a stile beyond farm sheds onto a track back through to the lane. Take the left fork at the next junction and continue ahead.

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When you reach a second junction take the right-hand fork for a few paces, then go through the gate on the right, onto a waymarked footpath leading to Castell Dinas Bran. Beyond the castle descend on a zigzag path. Go around the right-hand side of a little knoll at the bottom of the hill to join a track near a house called Tirionfa.

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At a crossroads of tracks go straight ahead past some cottages, then go through a kissing gate into a field. Trace the left-hand edge down to a narrow lane.

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Across this, the route continues along a contained path, passing a school before crossing a road and then the Llangollen Canal close to the start of the walk. Descend the road down to Llangollen Bridge before crossing back into the car park.

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Location

Starting point

Nearest postcode:

Additional information

Terrain - Tow path, farm tracks and field paths, several stiles

Landscape - Pastoral and wooded hillsides with limestone scenery

Dog friendliness - On lead on farmland and country lanes, can run free on canal tow path

Parking - Long-stay car park in East Street, just southwest of the bridge

Toilets en route - At short stay car park on Market Street (small fee)

Walks in Denbighshire Dog-friendly walks in Denbighshire

About the walk

Been on this walk?

Send us photos or a comment about this route. Or recommend a route of your own.

Find out more

Walking in Safety

Read our tips to look after yourself and the environment when following this walk.

Learn more

Get an AA guide

Explore our range of ‘50 Walks in’ guides - they’re the ideal companion for a ramble.

Learn more

Been on this walk?

Send us photos or a comment about this route. Or recommend a route of your own.

Find out more

Walking in Safety

Read our tips to look after yourself and the environment when following this walk.

Learn more

Get an AA guide

Explore our range of ‘50 Walks in’ guides - they’re the ideal companion for a ramble.

Learn more

About the area

Denbighshire

Valle Crucis and Dinas Bran from Llangollen

Been on this walk?

Walking in Safety

Get an AA guide

Been on this walk?

Walking in Safety

Get an AA guide

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Valle Crucis and Dinas Bran from Llangollen

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Walking in Safety

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