The Llangollen Canal is a canal in England and Wales.
What is today known as the Llangollen Canal was originally the centre section of the Ellesmere Canal, and later became part of the Shropshire Union Canal network. Only with the increasing popularity of pleasure boats was it renamed the Llangollen Canal in an effort to attract more visitors.
Today, the canal links Llangollen in Denbighshire, north Wales, with Hurleston in south Cheshire, via the town of Ellesmere in north-west Shropshire.
The Ellesmere Canal was intended to link the River Mersey at Netherpool (now known as Ellesmere Port) with the River Dee, and from there via Overton (south of Wrexham) to the River Severn at Shrewsbury. This proposed canal would have branches, to the iron making and coal mining areas at Bersham between Wrexham and Ruabon, and to Llanymynech, where the end of the proposed Montgomeryshire Canal was. However, there were also suggestions that it would be better to take a more westerly route from the Dee to the Severn, passing directly through the Ruabon industrial area, and it was this proposal which was accepted. This route included a high level crossing over the Dee at Pontcysyllte, and a tunnel and aqueduct near Chirk.
The Ellesmere Canal was never finished as intended, and the central section was only built from Trevor to Weston Lullingfields, via Lower Frankton. Instead the centre section was extended westwards from Trevor, through Llangollen to Horseshoe Falls, a weir on the River Dee, as a navigable feeder. The canal was extended eastwards from Frankton Junction via Ellesmere and Whitchurch to Hurlestone Junction near Nantwich, on the then rival Chester Canal.
The Ellesmere Canal merged with the Chester Canal in 1813.
A merger with the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal in 1845 was followed in 1846 by the formation of the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company, making the canal part of the Shropshire Union Canal network.
In the late 20th century canal usage for leisure boating grew in popularity. The "Llangollen Branch of the Shropshire Union" became popular due to its aqueducts and scenery. The canal was renamed the "Llangollen Canal", and become the most popular canal for holidaymakers in Britain.
The canal's most notable features include the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, an aqueduct engineered by Thomas Telford to carry the canal over the valley of the River Dee east of Llangollen. Another aqueduct carries the canal over the River Ceiriog at Chirk, and there are tunnels nearby at Whitehouses, Chirk, and Ellesmere.
The canal also forms the boundary on two sides of the Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve.
