Crinan Canal

The Crinan Canal is a nine-mile navigable waterway in Argyll and Bute, west Scotland. It links Ardrishaig on Loch Gilp with Crinan on the Sound of Jura, cutting the journey between the Firth of Clyde and the Inner Hebrides. Opened in 1801, it was designed by John Rennie to shorten the route for commercial and fishing boats. Nearly 2,000 leisure craft use the canal each year and the towpath forms part of National Cycle Route 78. Loch a’ Bharain, a feeder reservoir, is also protected as a scheduled monument. The canal’s history is marked by engineering challenges and royal interest. Queen Victoria travelled along it in 1847, turning it into a tourist route advertised as the ‘Royal route’. Passenger numbers rose quickly, reaching over 44,000 a year by 1857. Storms and reservoir bursts caused repeated damage, requiring repairs and redesigns. Steam-powered passenger boats replaced horse-drawn vessels in 1866, and new sea locks were built in the 1930s. Visitors find a canal with fifteen locks and seven bridges, including a rare retractable bridge at Lock 11. The east reach rises 32 feet above sea level, the summit reach reaches 64 feet, and the west reach sits 18 feet above sea level. The canal is ten feet deep but restricts vessel draught to 2.5 metres. Stone for the locks came from Mull, Arran and Morvern. The towpaths run the full length, once used by horses towing unpowered craft until 1959.