Llangollen Canal

Llangollen Canal
Llangollen canal: The final narrows before Llangollen
Specifications
Maximum boat length	70 ft 0 in (21.34 m)
Maximum boat beam	6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) (Fenders must be raised in locks – warning shown at Hurleston)
Locks	21
Maximum height above sea level	230 ft (70 m)
Status	Open
Navigation authority	Canal & River Trust
Geography
Start point	Hurleston Junction (Junction with Shropshire Union Canal)
End point	Llangollen (Unnavigable canal continues to Horseshoe Falls)
Branch(es)	Montgomery Canal, Prees Branch, Ellesmere Arm, Whitchurch Arm, Trevor Basin

The Llangollen Canal (Welsh: Camlas Llangollen) is a navigable canal crossing the border between England and Wales. The waterway links Llangollen in Denbighshire, north Wales, with Hurleston in south Cheshire, via the town of Ellesmere, Shropshire. In 2009 an eleven-mile section of the canal from Gledrid Bridge near Rhoswiel through to the Horseshoe Falls, which includes Chirk Aqueduct and Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO.

The waterway, from which the modern canal takes it name, was built when work to complete the Ellesmere Canal was halted in the early 19th century. The Ellesmere Canal was to be a commercial waterway that linked the Port of Liverpool to the West Midlands. However, due to a variety of problems, such as rising costs and rival competition, the scheme was never finished as intended. As the waterway never reached its proposed main source of water at Moss Valley, Wrexham, a feeder channel was constructed along the side of the Vale of Llangollen to the River Dee; the work created the Horseshoe Falls at Llantysilio.

The Llangollen line became the primary water source from the River Dee for the central section of the incomplete Ellesmere Canal. As such it was not built as a broad-gauge waterway but as a navigable feeder branch. Eventually the Ellesmere Canal became part of the Shropshire Union network in 1846.