The Cefn Viaduct, also known as the Newbridge Viaduct after the village described in The Newbridge, carries the railway across the River Dee between Cefn and Chirk. It was designed by Henry Robertson, chief engineer of the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway, and completed in 1848 as part of the same railway-building boom that later gave Ruabon its own station.
The viaduct stands some 44.8 metres (147 feet) above the valley floor, an imposing height that made it one of the great engineering statements of the early railway age in this part of Wales. It is Grade II* listed, recognition both of its structural achievement and of its role in linking the once heavily industrial Cefn Mawr district to the wider British rail network.
The viaduct remains in daily use carrying passenger trains on the Wrexham–Shrewsbury line, and offers one of the most striking views in the Dee Valley, visible in turn from paths around the nearby Pontcysyllte Aqueduct — two very different pieces of Victorian engineering within sight of one another across the same valley.
The viaduct is best viewed from public footpaths around Cefn Mawr and along the Dee Valley rather than up close, as it remains a working railway structure with no public access onto the structure itself. There is no charge to view it from the surrounding footpaths, which form part of the wider walking network described in Walks & Outdoor Ruabon.
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