Chirk, Chirk Castle and Two Tunnels 7th July 2021

Fran's photo showing Wendy and David about to emerge from Chirk Tunnel.

Emerging from the first of the tunnels on the south west side of Chirk.

Narrow boats queuing up to get through the tunnel on the way to Llangollen.

The Ceiriog Vaalley loking towards Llangollen, taken from the aquaduct through the arches of the viaduct.

Taken from the same spot, but Fran's photo is looking in the opposiite direction.

Heading down to the Ceiriog Valley.

Good views of Chirk Castle.

Ponies that totally ignored us, obviously happy to be in the shade of the trees.

Sorry no more photos, my camera must have gone to sleep after lunch!

At our Chirk Castle Grounds lunch spot.

Distance: 10.9 miles. Climb: 1060'.

Time: 5 hours 47 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.2 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.9 m.p.h.
Beaufort Wind Force: 0 - 1.Calm to light air.
Temperature: Max: 24.2 Celsius.
Group: Martyn, David S., Mike, Fran and Wendy.

The weather today was probably better than the forecast suggested, we only had a couple of real shower when my umbrella came out and we certaily had more sunshine than we expected.

In the past we have only walked through one of the Chirk Canal Tunnels, but today I decided that we would go through both of them. Not everyone's cup of tea, especially when you forget to gt your head torch out and my GPSs didn't like the experience.

After a couple of deviations from the planned route, one enforced because of a path closure that resulted in more climbing, we eventually arrived at our lunch spot in the grounds of Chirk Castle, where strategically placed felled tree trunks provided us with suitable spaced seats for all that needed them.

The final part of the wal along the Llangollen Canal always seems much longer than we expect, but at least today we had the distraction of the heavy narrow boat traffic on the canal. We found out that every company offering narrow boats for hire were currently fully booked.

Birds seen or heard today included: Mallard, Common buzzard, Moorhen, Common blackbird, Song thrush, Jackdaw, Rook, Carion crow, Barn swallow, House martin, Goldfinch and Black billed magpie.

Overall, a good and varied walk, perhaps  little longer than some of us woud ideally like, but we all survived. 

We decided to celebrate this fact in the Hand at Chirk, but as they had no real ale, we decided to go to The Stanton House instead.  Initially as we enteted we weren't impressed, but at least tey had one beer on hand pump, we decided to stay.  After engaging with the ar person, her friendly cheerful manner, change our minds and the excellent Hydes beer that we sampled helped as well!