River Dee, Wales
The River Dee is a 70 mile (110 km) long river, which rises in the hills above Llanuwchilyn in Merioneth (Gwynedd) Wales, then passes through Bala Lake, over the man-made Horseshoe Falls and through Llangollen.East of Llangollen, Thomas Telford's Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, of 1805, carries the Shropshire Union Canal 120 feet overhead.
At Farndon the river crosses into England and then passes through Chester. At Chester the river passes under the A55 dual carriageway and around the Earl's Eye meadows, a protected green space in between the Boughton and Handbridge suburbs of the city. The River is crossed by a ferry from Boughton to the meadows, and at the Groves, a Victorian riverside recreation area with a bandstand, benches and boat cruises, by two bridges. The first of which is the QueenÃÂÃÂs Park Suspension Bridge, which forms the only exclusively pedestrian footway across the river in Chester, and the second is the Old Dee Bridge, which is a road bridge and forms by far the oldest bridge in Chester, being built in about 1387 on the site of a series of wooden predecessors which dated originally from the Roman period.
Below the Old Dee Bridge, the river has a weir, which is now enjoyed by canoe enthusiasts but was built by Hugh Lupus to supply power to his corn mills with the help of a small generator building which is still visible today. A little further along the river stands the Grosvenor Bridge, which was opened in 1833 to ease congestion on the Old Dee Bridge. This bridge was opened by Princess Victoria five years before she became Queen. The other side of the Grosvenor Bridge is the Roodee, ChesterÃÂÃÂs race course and the oldest course in the country. This used to be the site of ChesterÃÂÃÂs harbour until, aided by the building of the weir, the River Dee silted up to become the size it is today. The only curiously remaining reminder of this siteÃÂÃÂs maritime past is a stone cross which stands in the middle of the Roodee which exhibits the marks of water ripples. To the end of the Roodee the river is crossed again by a second suspension bridge, now carrying the Chester ÃÂÃÂ Holyhead railway line, before leaving Chester.
Below Chester, the river flows along an artificial channel, excavated when Sealand and Shotton were reclaimed from the estuary.
This 'canalised' section runs in a straight line for five miles and passes beneath two road bridges at Queensferry. The first is a modern fixed cable-stayed bridge, the second, the Queen Victoria Jubilee Bridge, is of the rolling bascule type.
A mile further on is the Hawarden railway bridge, originally constructed as a swing bridge but now never opened, carries the Chester - Wrexham line over the river.
The River then opens out into its estuary, forming the north eastern tip of the North Wales coast and the southern coast of the Wirral. Towns along the coast include Flint, Prestatyn and Holywell on the Welsh side and Neston, Parkgate and West Kirby on the Wirral side.
The name derives from the Welsh name for the river (Afon Dyfrdwy).
It is one of three Rivers Dee in the UK.