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River Dee Bikeraft - Packrafting Corwen Bridge to Horseshoe Falls

By Packrafting.cat

February 4^th, 2025

Spanish version

Have a look at original Spanish version:

Río Dee Bikeraft - Packrafting Puente de Corwen a Horseshoe Falls

River Dee

The River Dee (Welsh: Afon Dyfrdwy) is a British river running in north-east Wales and north-west England. The Dee is 112 kilometres long.

The Dee begins at an altitude of 200 metres at Bala Lake in the Welsh county of Gwynedd in the Snowdonia National Park.

In fact, as is often the case, the source of the River Dee depends a little on which source you consult. Other sources say that the River Dee rises on the slopes of Dduallt, above Llanuwchllyn, in the mountains of Snowdonia, in Meirionydd, Gwynedd, Wales.

One of its main tributaries flows into the River Dee near Bala, the River Tryweryn and is one of the best whitewater packrafting rivers in Wales:

River Dee Bikeraft - Packrafting Corwen Bridge to Horseshoe Falls

The first village along the Dee is Corwen, and this is precisely where the route explained in this post begins.

Later the river flows through Llangollen(Packrafting in Wales. River Dee Llangollen) and other Welsh towns such as Cefn Mawr and then crosses the border between Wales and the English county of Shropshire, and later gives its name to the village of Bangor on Dee. After Bangor, the Dee is also the border between Wales and the English county of Cheshire. It flows into its capital, Chester, the only city on its side.

The Dee flows back into Wales and has an estuary after the village of Connah's Quay in County Flintshire. It flows into the Irish Sea.

From Corwen to HorseShoe Falls at Llangollen

The section I did is the section from the A5 bridge before reaching Corwen (following the direction of flow of the water in the river). From here, the river passes the Iron Age hillfort of Caer Drewyn and enters the Clwydian Range and the Dee Valley AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). Through its wooded valley, the course takes it through Carrog, Glyndyfrdwy and Llantysilio.

At Berwyn, the river passes over the man-made Horseshoe Falls before accelerating downhill past the Chain Bridge Hotel and its historic footbridge. It is just before this weir that we end the tour because both the weir of the HorseShoe Falls dam (portageable) and the Serpent Falls rapids, although not impassable, would be for experienced bikers only.

The Chain Bridge Hotel footbridge, built in 1814 and refurbished by Henry Robertson in 1870, was considered a marvel of early suspension bridge design. In 1928, the original bridge was destroyed by a severe flood and was rebuilt in its present form from original parts in 1929.

Route map:

SHIPPING POINT

No tiene más secreto que aparcar cerca del puente de la carretera A5 (en el mapa podéis ver donde aparque yo) y os recomiendo embarcar en la orilla izquierda del río justo después del puente. Todo este tramo en sí no tiene ningún secreto, en mi caso justo la noche anterior llovió con ganas y el río iba con ganas, pero sin ninguna dificultad (ningún rápido supera la clase II). En el kilómetro 1.6 se llega al primer puente, precisamente del pueblo de Corwen.

After the Corwen bridge the river flows without anything remarkable up to the Carrog bridge at kilometre point 3, approximately one third of the total distance. On the map you can see how you could also take advantage of the railway, which I must say is very beautiful and has some lovely stations, especially the one at Llangollen I don't know but the timetables...

GLYNDYFRDWY

At kilometre 10.3 approximately halfway along the route we arrive at the village with the unpronounceable name of

GLYNDYFRDWY

not a single vowel!

Welsh (Cymraeg) is a language belonging to the Brythonic group of the Celtic language family. It is spoken in Wales, where approximately 857,600 people (28% of the Welsh population) use it as their main language, especially in the northern part of the country. It is also spoken in southern Argentina, more specifically in the province of Chubut, where the largest Welsh community outside the British Isles lives (see Patagonian Welsh).

At first glance it does not seem an easy language to learn.

At GLYNDYFRDWY there is another railway station. From here, although the route would be much shorter in a straight line, we are only half way along the route because it begins an area of great meanders with 180 degree turns in the river.

Un gran último y largo meandro nos lleva al punto final. ¡Horseshoe Falls! El entorno del valle del Dee es realmente bonito, por alguna razón esta zona ha sido nominada con el título de AONB, Área de Destacada Belleza Natural.

We are at km 20, I find a lot of rafting activity at the Horseshoe Falls dam, it seems that today they are going to take advantage of the rain to dothe classic section from Horseshoe Falls to Llangollen.

Here you can see how the Horseshoe dam was that day. On the left bank, where the photo is taken, there is the dam portage and the starting point and access to the car park. You have to climb a hill and there the bike was waiting for you, which I had previously chained up near the car park.

In this case I didn't do pure Bikerafting, but combined van and bike to solve the logistics. I left the bike parked and locked, slightly hidden in the landing area, went up with the van to the embarkation, down the river and finally went up the river with all the material by bike to recover the van.

Google My Map

Packrafting in Wales | Langollen | River Dee | Bala

Wikiloc Map

Río Dee Bikeraft - Packrafting Puente de Corwen a Horseshow Falls

Flow rates

There is a web gauge at Corwen, Dee at Corwen water levels. The photos correspond to the water level at Mile End Mill Island, near Llangollen, which corresponds to the day I did this route.

See you on the river! Roll Roll Wales!

The river is a living environment, changing and subject to permanent development. The publishers of the river sketches and the creators of this website cannot be held liable in any case of inaccuracy, omission or error in the river sketches. The topos editors and website creators disclaim all liability in case of any accident that may occur on the rivers described in this guide.