The river Conway is navigable by boats that can lower their masts for nearly twelve miles up to Trefriw. The writer has sailed to a point just south of Dolgarrog, beyond which it would have to be at around high tide to actually get to Trefriw. Starting from Conway, the first pair of bridges to be negotiated would have a clearance of 16’ or less at h.w.s. The tide flows very strongly under these bridges, as all the water contained in the estuary must pass through them. It would be very difficult to pass under the bridges against the tide without a fairly powerful engine.

The main channel runs fairly close to the west shore, and this first mile and a half in the estuary would give good sailing as it is at least three-quarters of a mile wide at this point when the tide is in.

The next four miles, the estuary progressively narrows down until the road bridge at Penrhyd obstructs the river. Even with a south-westerly wind, it should be possible to sail up to this bridge, the only obstruction being overhead power lines about a mile and a half before the bridge. The estimated clearance beneath the cables in the centre of the span would be about 25’ at h.w.s. The bridge at Penrhyd has a probable clearance at h.w.s. of 10 - 12’.

Going upstream immediately to the left of the bridge, the ground is probably foul, as this is where we had trouble getting our anchor up. On the right-hand bank of the river is the Ferrybridge Hotel, which looks as if it has a landing stage, and should be a good spot to stop for a drink or a meal. The banks close in now for the next mile, and unless the wind and tide are favourable it would probably be necessary to use an engine on this part of the river. Three quarters of a mile above the bridge, the river narrows down even further, and at this point at certain stages of the tide, rapids are formed. It is not known how long either side of high tide this would be safely negotiable, but the east bank — that is the left hand side when going upstream — has the least obstructions in it, and certainly would be easily negotiated with a canoe at any state of tide.

Above the rapids, the river widens out, and the deep channel here winds considerably from bank to bank. There are sand-banks forming shallows in unpredictable spots, though it looks to be good holding ground for an anchor as the bottom is firm, dark coloured sand. After the rapids there are no further obstructions for two miles; the banks are heavily overgrown with tall grasses and woods. For anyone sailing in the upper reaches of this river, just after a small river on the right has been passed, an island will appear in the middle of the river. Both sides of this island can probably be negotiated safely, but the right-hand channel — that is, the west bank — is known to be navigable, as this was the one in which we went up the river. Just past this island there are further power lines, which are high, and no estimate of their height has been attempted. The next obstruction, a mile from the power lines, is a further road bridge, the height of which appears to be low, but has not been estimated. The river here begins to get rather shallow, and just under the bridge splits into a right and left fork; for those wanting to go up to Trefriw, the left fork should be taken. The map shows the river to be narrow beyond this bridge, and we hope to explore it at some future date.

One further point about the rapids is that it would be difficult to estimate the time that they would be safely negotiable either side of high tide, as it would depend on how much water was coming down the river. On the day that we were up there, high tide at Deganwy was 14.02 on Sunday, and the tide did not float us off the rapids until about 13.00. There is a likelihood of fouling the anchor immediately above and below this area, as the bottom is rocky.