Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Exploring Denbighshire & the Borderlands
The attractive little market town of
Llangollen
has retained much of its Victorian
character—the High Street straddling the River Dee is a pleasant place to stroll. It's
easy to see why the so-called “Ladies of Llangollen,” Miss Sarah Ponsonby (1755-
1832) and Lady Eleanor Butler (1739-1829), loved their house and gardens at
Plas
Newydd,
Hill Street (
&
01978/862834
), perched on a hill above the town. The
enviable location is complemented by the eccentric Tudor-Gothic house rich in
stained glass and carved oak, in which they lived for nearly 50 years, beginning in
1778. Admission to the house costs £5.50 for adults, £4.50 for seniors and children.
It's open between April and October Wednesday through Sunday 10am to 5pm.
The canal boat was the air freight of the Industrial Revolution—and 3
1
⁄
2
miles east
of Llangollen at Trevor, engineer Thomas Telford built the spectacular
Pontcysyllte
Aqueduct
between 1795 and 1805 to carry the Ellesmere (now Llangollen) Canal
across the Dee Valley. Standing 39m (126 ft.) above the river, it's the tallest navigable
aqueduct ever constructed; walk across it to get a sense of the dizzying height of its
18 piers, and drive the road below armed with a good camera. The aqueduct is still
used to carry drinking water to Cheshire, across the border in England.
The most scenic Denbighshire drive follows the B4500 from Chirk up the idyllic,
seemingly forgotten
Ceiriog Valley
, as far as the
Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall,
4 miles northwest of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant. At 74m (240 ft.) high, it's the tallest
single-drop waterfall in the U.K., and a good jumping off point for woodland and hill
walking in the Berwyn Mountains.
Chirk Castle
CASTLE Perched majestically and strategically on a knoll over-
looking the lower Ceiriog Valley, the marcher fortress of Chirk was built around 1300
by Roger Mortimer (1287-1330), under the patronage (like so many castles in North
Wales) of English King Edward I. Mortimer was a key player in the betrayal and kill-
ing of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd—still the only native Prince of Wales—in 1282, and
Chirk was one of his rewards. The dungeon and Adam Tower date to this period,
although the rest of the castle and courtyard have the genteel feel of an Oxford quad-
rangle, converted as it was to serve as the Myddleton family home for 400 years.
Views back to the castle from the manicured formal gardens with box-cut yews are
sublime.
Chirk (11 miles south of Wrexham).
&
01691/777701.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk. Admission castle,
gardens, and tower: £8.70 adults, £4.35 children 5-16, £22 family; gardens and tower only: £6.15 adults,
£3 children, £15 family. July-Oct daily 11am-5pm, mid-Mar-June Wed-Sun 11am-5pm; gardens and
tower only also open Nov-mid-Dec and 3 weeks in Feb Sat-Sun 10am-4pm. Bus: 2 from Wrexham (45
min.). Train: Chirk.
Erddig
HISTORIC SITE A chance to glimpse how the other half—or, more
precisely, the lower 95%—lived is the principal attraction of this stately Georgian
home. Built in the 1680s, Erddig was the understated residence of the Yorke family
for 2
1
⁄
2
centuries from the 1720s, before being rescued from (literally) the brink of
collapse by the National Trust. The restored outbuildings house the Yorke's 19th-
century carriages, their 1907 family Rover motor-car, and a smithy, sawmill, and even
working shire-horse stables—all of which were put to use during a massive restora-
tion project in the 1970s that used only traditional materials and processes. Electric-
ity never arrived at Erddig; it's as if the 20th-century didn't happen in the house's
“below stairs” servants' area, with intact kitchen, pantry, scullery, and social rooms. Yet
more unusual are portraits commissioned by the Yorke family (first paintings, later
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