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The Llangollen canal, running from the river Dee at Llangollen in North Wales and joining the Shropshire Union Canal at Hurleston, over the border in England, features some of North Wales' premiere engineering marvels, one of which, the hugely impressive Pontcysyllte aqueduct near Wrexham, was granted UNESCO 'World Heritage' status ten years ago back in 2009.
To mark the anniversary, a three week lighting installation was commissioned in October 2019, with the aqueducts at Pontcysyllte and Chirk, plus Dinas Bran castle and the Horseshoe Falls at Llangollen all featuring in the show.
For the duration of the three weeks the weather was pretty damp, with cloud, mist and drizzle most evenings, but that didn't deter quite large crowds coming out to view the lights, my wife Liz and myself included.
In all we made four trips on different evenings, checking out the various lighting locations along the eleven mile stretch of canal, with me trying to photograph the attractions in the best possible way.
Not easy given the weather conditions and the fact that the lights on the two aqueducts ran on a programmed sequence, constantly changing in both intensity and colour.
But by the end of the three weeks I'd managed to get decent images of all the major sites except for Dinas Bran, as yomping up to the top of the hill on which the ruins are situated in the dark and rain was just a step too far!
This image shows the Pontcysyllte aqueduct in one of its most spectacular lighting patterns featuring a blue / red colour contrast that was most striking.
The fact that it was drizzling at the time also helped emphasise the lights, with beams from the blue coloured spotlights glowing in the saturated air.
Well worth a few evenings in the cold and damp to see such a great display.
Filename - pontcysyllte aqueduct 01
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 24mm
Exposure - 2 secs @ f5.6, ISO1600
Filters - None.
Location - Pontcysyllte Aqueduct near Wrexham, North Wales
Image enhancements - Adobe Lightroom
Comments - Tripod, remote release and mirror lockup used to prevent camera vibrations.
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.