River Dee

The River Dee (Welsh: Afon Dyfrdwy) flows 110 miles from it's source to Hilbre Island. Travelling through Wales and England and also forming part of the international border between them, the river rises in Snowdonia, flows north via Chester and discharges into an estuary between Wales and The Wirral. The lower reaches of the river are unusual in that comparatively little water occupies so large a basin. One theory of a contributory factor to the large basin is that once the River Mersey and/or the River Severn flowed into the Dee. A more recent theory, however, is that the estuary was not formed by water, but by ice being pushed southwards by the pressure of an icecap over the Irish Sea. The total catchment area of the River Dee up to Chester Weir is 1,816.8 square kilometres (701.5 sq mi). The average rainfall over the catchment is estimated to be 640 millimetres (25 in) yielding an average flow of 37 m³/s.

The history of the Dee has many interwoven layers. There is the geological record, from the Ordovician rocks at its source to the modern deposits in the estuary. There is a historical record starting with it's use as a trade route in pre-Roman times. A path of myth which places the young Arthur at it's source. And an industrial tale bringing gold, stone, wool and water downstream as the railways and canals crept ever upstream towards it's head. We make no apology for mashing-up these strands for the Dee is a river to be explored in its many moods on many levels.

We have divided the story of the river into three parts:

Upper Reaches
from the source of the river through Wales;

Middle Reaches
through England from the Welsh borders to Chester;

Lower Reaches
back in Wales, below Chester to Hilbre Islands and the sea;