The Tollgate cottage, now a café, is situated in a lay-by on the A5 a few miles outside of Glyndyfrdwy, on the busy Llangollen to Corwen road. Back in the day, it would have collected the tolls of traffic travelling along the road.
The road itself would have had a large spiked gate - to prevent horses leaping over it - that would be raised on payment of the tolls. The money would have been used to keep the road in good condition.
I wonder if they had huge potholes in the roads back in those days? A toll keeper would have lived in the well-preserved cottage just to the east of the café.
You can see the angled windows, on each side of the front door, where the keeper could watch for approaching vehicles whilst staying warm and sheltered inside. Nowadays, it is a more hospitable site with a “Bikers Welcome” sign and a couple of flags fluttering in the wind.
The menu even has a biker’s theme, with burgers named after classic bikes such as Harley beefburger, Triumph cheeseburger and a Kawasaki egg and bacon burger for around the £5 price mark. Plenty of breakfast items were on the menu with an all-day breakfast starting at £7.50 and rising to £9.90.
Breakfast rolls were fairly priced from about £3.60 to £5.00. The small eating area is in a covered outdoor setting with superb views across the green valley.
The Corwen to Llangollen heritage train was steaming past and hooting its whistle as we sat on a wooden type picnic table. A recent thunderstorm had knocked the internet off so it was cash-only for a few hours.
![Victoria sponge with a filling of raspberry jam and clotted cream](https://i2-prod.dailypost.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/article27430511.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_DEAI6423jpeg.jpg)
As I scramble around in my pockets for a bit of loose change, someone from the next table gracefully offers to pay. A huge act of kindness, which we of course turned down, but were touched by all the same.
We order a Victoria slice that had a light-as-a-feather sponge, which paired up nicely with the thin layer of fruity raspberry jam and thick white clotted cream in the middle. There was a sweet dusting of sugar on the top which made it perfect to go along a steaming cup of cha.
![A mocha with a soft and chewy syrupy flapjack](https://i2-prod.dailypost.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/article27430520.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_IMG_4934jpeg.jpg)
I also had a very impressive-looking mocha that had a thick head of milky froth on top of a delicious chocolate caffeine mixture. I had a soft and chewy syrupy flapjack on the side, which I dipped into coffee as I am a man of style and substance.
The delicious smell of bacon wafts through the air as the countryside peace is briefly broken up by cars, trucks and bikers roaring down the road where once the clip-clop of horses would have drawn the attention of the turnpike keeper. Back in the day, tollgates were generally entrepreneurial sites that were often seen by the local population as a means of robbing them of their hard-earned money.
![Gorgeous views from a layby off the A5](https://i2-prod.dailypost.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/article27430518.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_IMG_4936jpeg.jpg)
Luckily for us, this much friendlier Tollgate café exchanged coffee and cake for our loose change and this is welcome news for the weary travellers of the A5.
Tollgate Cafe - The Facts
Cake x 2 £2.90
Flapjack £1.50
Mocha £3.25
Tea x 2 £2.20
Total £14.95
Opening Times:
8.00am to 3.00pm
Atmosphere - Hospitable and very welcoming
Car Parking - Busy layby
Disabled Access - Outside eating area with ramped path
Service - Order at the kiosk shutter
Overall - The Tollgate café that doesn’t cause a riot
Tollgate Cafe, Y Bwythyn, Glyndyfrdwy, LL21 9HW 01490 430398