Llangollen Wharf Tour

In 2004 the winding hole was incorporated into a large modern Mooring Basin for 32 boats at a cost of £1.9 million. The moorings are just opposite the Llangollen International Eisteddfod site. Famous visitors who have taken a narrow boat holiday to visit the International Eisteddfod include Harrison Ford and his wife Calista Flockhart. However whilst they enjoyed travelling on the narrow boat during the day, they preferred to stay overnight in more roomy hotels!

The houses Number 1 and 2 Royal View reflect the magnificent views they have over the town of Llangollen. They were originally one property and were probably built shortly after the canal was constructed.

In 1901 a wealthy coal merchant Charles Williams lived here with his wife Mary and nine children, together with one of his employees. By 1911 Charles’s son, John, who was also a coal merchant, was head of the household at the age of 22, living with five of his sisters, one brother and one of his employees.

Lower Dee Mill was built as a cotton mill close to the River Dee by entrepreneurs Turner and Comber in 1805. This business lasted thirty years before it was bought by Robert Hughes for use as a woollen weaving mill to serve the prosperous wool trade. The business expanded into the Upper Dee Mill in 1855 and was the largest of several woollen mills that grew up in Llangollen after the canal was built. Both Mills remained in production until 1921.

Upper Dee Mill was later occupied by R & G Cuthberts seed merchants. In 1932 William Clayton Russon bought the company which grew plants and particularly roses. William excelled in marketing and by 1937 the firm was selling seeds in bright colour printed packets on Woolworths’ counters. The seed stocks and firm’s headquarters were moved to Wales on the Government’s instructions, as there was a fear of bombing in the Home Counties.

Eventually in 1942 William relocated the business to Llangollen, having tried relocating in two other places in North Wales. William soon developed the business into a thriving mail order business with a reputation for quantity and competitive prices. He was the first President of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod in 1947 and was knighted in 1968, just before his death.

Castell Dinas Brân stands on the site of an ancient Iron Age hillfort. The castle is thought to have been built by the Welsh Prince of Powys, Gruffudd ap Madog in the late 1260s.

The castle is rectangular in shape and you can see the remains of the characteristic D shaped ‘Welsh tower’. A closer look reveals traces of features such as wall plaster, fire places and even en-suite toilets, so originally it was a splendid, well defended fortress. The active life of the castle was very short, as the Welsh soldiers set fire to it in 1277 to prevent it being used by the invading English army of King Edward 1. The castle was briefly in the hands of the English soldiers but it was soon abandoned and left to the crows, where the popular local name Crow’s Fortress comes from.

A famous Welsh legend about Myfanwy is associated with the castle. The Welsh medieval poet Hywel ab Einion was inspired to write a poem Ode to Myfanwy Fychan of Castell Dinas Brân which tells the story of a poor bard who goes to the castle to sing and play to Myfanwy. He believes his love will return but instead she rejects him for a rich nobleman. In the 1800s the poet John ‘Ceiriog’ Hughes, the Robert Burns of Wales, was inspired to write another poem Myfanwy Fychan which was later set to music by Joseph Parry and now is a popular song in Wales.

Trevor Uchaf quarry was extensive with at least three faces being worked in the late 1800s. A series of limekilns were situated around the quarry site but were disused by 1912. There are remains of a railway winding house which stood at the top of a steep incline, one of the main inclines down to the Llangollen Canal, and later the railway line at Plas Ifan wharf.