Chiell two

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Walked as part of National Parks Challenge 2026. This isn’t a review for the route, but recognising the access issue plus the abundance of road walking, I chose to continue the canal route from Chirk. It can be picked up at Chirk Bank and continues to Ellesmere - the ‘shortcut’ from Lower Frankton reduces total mileage, although may not be available depending on crops. It’s a great combo with the route from Llangollen to a total of c17 miles.

Unfortunately the condition of the central section of this walk was inaccessible which meant that we were unable to complete the route. The majority of the walk, after leaving the built up area of Ellesmere is on country lanes, although with very little traffic these are quite acceptable. Also the section of walking from England into Wales is fine. However the section of off road path that passes through Rhos-y-llan wood - after negotiating over a wooden barrier and some now disintegrated steps - was completely blocked off by shrub and tree growth (much greater than the to be expected from just the usual summer growth). This then requires significant backtracking and roadside walking to re-join the route. The other issue is the crossing of the Morlas brook (at the west side of the wood). It looks as if there may have been a bridge here at some time, but with this gone the only option would be to ford the stream, which even after a dry summer was too deep to considered safely crossable.

A potentially better Chiell route could be to follow the towpath of the Llangollen canal throughout, although this would be a much longer connection.

A mostly good walk with a short but highly tricky section. There' was a bit of a scramble on the steep path out of Wales down the hill from Chirk but this was soon forgotten as I crossed the Ceiriog into England and followed the lane up to the towpath of the Llangollen Canal. The canal runs above the valley, the gardens which back on to it are all well tended and it was a gorgeous place to be. Sadly, I had to leave it in seemingly no time and cross the Chirk Road to a series of well marked footpaths which took me across flat farmland and then a lane. Here's where it got tricky. I entered the woodland which crosses the ancient Saxon fortification of Wat's Dyke. I was able to follow the right of way down as far as the stream, which I had to ford. The water was clear enough for me to see how shallow it was, there were "stepping stones", partially submerged and an overhanging branch that I was able to hold for part of the crossing, for balance. On the other side I followed the path until it seemed to disappear. I was navigating using the OS App so I could see where I was and where I needed to get to. After a short while I rediscovered the path which seems to have been running to the north of where I had been. I retraced it to see where I had gone wrong but instead it took me somewhere to another place where the path disappeared. So I headed on and about 20m from the exit of the woods, the path became seemingly impassable and worked my way around it. After a bit of scrambling I made it to the stile and was relieved to be on a track by a farm. St Martins is the only settlement of any size and it has a pub, which is not visible from the route, so you need to know it's there. The rest of the route was almost exclusively spent walking along very quiet country lanes. This might seem dull to some, but I'd had all the excitement I needed at Wat's Dyke and was happy to take in the occasional lateral views across the Shropshire countryside. This route certainly ticks the direct and safe boxes but I can't help thinking that if you used more of the canal and joined this route further east, bypassing Wat's Dyke it could be a 4 or maybe 5 star walk. Public transport wise there are trains to Chirk from Chester, Shrewsbury, Holyhead and Birmingham and buses from Wrexham. Ellesmere links up by bus with Oswestry and Shrewsbury. There are buses from St Martins to Wrexham. Steps, stiles, a ford and scrambles.

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