Velvet Hill Run, Llangollen (10.4 km)
A circular run over Velvet Hill from Llangollen via the canal — about 10.4 km of towpath, open hillside, and 325 metres of climbing.
· 2 min read
Velvet Hill stands two kilometres north-west of Llangollen in north Wales, above the ruins of Valle Crucis Abbey. This 10.4 km circular run puts the hill at five kilometres and gives you a flat three to get there: towpath along the Llangollen Canal, which runs east from town to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and west to where its water comes from. Velvet Hill climbs roughly 325 metres, and none of it is on the towpath.
The route
The loop goes clockwise: west along the canal, north over Velvet Hill, then east above the valley and down into town.
Route
Wales - Llangollen - Velvet Hill (via Canal)
- Distance
- 10 km
- Ascent
- 325 m
- Max altitude
- 231 m
Works in Komoot, AllTrails, Garmin & most hiking apps.
- Start and finish: Llangollen town centre
- Distance: About 10.4 km (6.5 miles)
- Ascent: Roughly 325 metres, from 81 m in the town to 231 m on Velvet Hill
- Terrain: Towpath, then open hillside with nothing made underfoot on the climb; field paths and a tarmac lane coming back. Grass and bracken up high, slick after rain
Out to Horseshoe Falls
The towpath runs west out of town dead level and holds that for three kilometres, past moored narrowboats and under trees, with the Dee somewhere below on the left. Horseshoe Falls ends it: Thomas Telford’s weir swings 140 metres across the river to keep the Llangollen Canal supplied, and about twelve million gallons a day still get pulled out of the Dee here. It is also the western end of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal World Heritage Site.
Over Velvet Hill
Then the route turns and gains 160 metres in the 1.8 kilometres from the falls to the summit, which is where the run is decided. There is no made path for much of it — Velvet Hill is National Trust ground, grazed grass and bracken, and the line up is whichever one looks least steep. The summit is 231 metres, which is nothing much in Wales and still enough to drop the whole Dee Valley below you. Castell Dinas Bran sits two kilometres east on its own cone, ninety metres higher and worth a separate evening.
Valle Crucis Abbey and the return
The far side of Velvet Hill drops 125 metres in a kilometre and lands at Valle Crucis Abbey, the Cistercian house founded in 1201 by Madog ap Gruffydd. The route passes it at six kilometres, and the ruins are unstaffed and free to enter, so stopping costs nothing but the cooling down. Then the return climbs about ninety metres again on field paths above the valley before a lane drops back into town. One climb, one summit, an abbey at the foot of the descent, and never more than three kilometres from the town.