[1] You can access the canal towpath from the north side of the car park (SJ210426). Turn right alongside it towards Llangollen. When you reach the Wharf, leave the canal and cross the bridge over it to a T-junction. Continue ahead up the steps (note the Llangollen History Trail waymark). Follow the enclosed path heading uphill, crossing a drive en route. The path is easy to follow, being clearly signed for Castell Dinas Brân. On reaching a lane, carry straight on up the track to go through a metal kissing gate. Fork right and continue on up to an information panel, and then up the zigzag path to the top and the picturesque ruins of Castell Dinas Brân – a medieval castle sited within an Iron Age hillfort. There are wonderful views from here of Llangollen and the Dee Valley, the Llantysilio range, Berwyn Mountains and Eglwyseg escarpment.
[2] At the far end of the hill you’ll find some steps down. Descend the open slopes to a gate and down more steps. The footpath leads down to a lane where you turn left to a T-junction and the route of the Offa’s Dyke Path.
[3] Turn left again and follow the quiet lane beneath the Eglwyseg cliffs. Ignore the first turning on the left and carry on past Rock Farm (or take the more direct footpath) to the next junction where there’s an information panel about the area. Turn left.
[4] When the road starts to bear right and drop downhill, keep ahead along a drive with a no-through road sign. It’s signed for Valle Crucis Abbey and you’ll see a Clwydian Way waymark, the white disc featuring the buzzard. The drive leads past houses on the left and continues as a track along the hillside and then through trees beside a fenced plantation on the right. At a fork, bear right then go right over a stile and left over another stile. Continue along the field edge and then a track until you reach a gate on the right and a sign for Abbey Farm Tea Room. Turn right, go down the steps and cross the footbridge. Keep ahead through the caravan park to Valle Crucis Abbey (open 1 April–31 October). Fork right past the Tea Room up to the main road (A542). Eliseg’s Pillar is a short distance along the road on the right.
[5] Cross the road and turn right to a stile. Cross and bear left up the path for a short distance, then turn right and climb steeply up the smooth grassy slopes to the top of Velvet Hill. Turn left along the ridge, descending to the road. Bear left at the fork and soon go down steps on the left to the Chainbridge Hotel and canal. A brief detour right leads to the Horseshoe Falls, designed by Thomas Telford in 1806 to supply water to the canal.
[6] Follow the canal towpath back to the start.