Willie Shand hails the legacy of Scotland’s canal network
Willie Shand explores the waterways that once provided a vital link between communities.
THE golden age of Britain’s canal system was undoubtedly in the years between the mid-1700s and mid-1800s. Before lorries and trains, it was our network of canals that helped put the “great” in Great Britain.
Canals go back further than the 18th century. Irrigation canals in ancient Mesopotamia are said to have been used more than 6,000 years ago.
Scotland has a few famous canals, including the Forth and Clyde Canal, the Union Canal, Crinan Canal and Caledonian Canal.
While today’s canal traffic is mainly pleasure craft, the old waterways are still very much part of our transport network, albeit moving at a more civilised pace.
By linking the Atlantic with the North Sea, vessels could reduce long and dangerous sea voyages.
The earliest canal in Scotland is probably one built in the late 1400s by Admiral Sir Andrew Wood on his estate at Upper
Largo in Fife.
Although its line can still be traced, the canal no longer exists.
Sir Andrew’s success in Naval conflict had gained him the nickname “Terror of the English Navy”, and for his services the King granted him lands at Largo.
When the English King decided to remove this thorn from his side once and for all, little did he know that Sir Andrew would take prisoner his best captain and the crews of his three warships.
Sir Andrew soon found a use for his prisoners, as he set them to work digging a canal between his house and Largo Kirk.
What better way for the old sea-dog to go to church on a Sunday than by being rowed in his own boat?
In 1809, the Crinan Canal, linking Loch Fyne and the Sound of Jura, was opened for business.
At nine miles long this wee canal is known as Britain’s most beautiful shortcut.
There’s more to making a canal, though, than just cutting a deep trench.
Entrance and exit may both be at sea level, but the land in between might rise to a considerable height.
As water doesn’t flow uphill, vessels have to pass through controlled locks, raising or lowering them in incremental steps.
Climbing to nearly 64 feet above sea level, the Crinan Canal has 15 locks to negotiate. Not only that, there are seven bridges that need opened each time a boat sails through.
If you’re looking for an easy summer’s walk, follow the towpath between the basins at Crinan and Ardrishaig. Heavy horses used these towpaths to pull boats along the canal.
What a grand view you have of the Moine Mhor – the Great Moss of Crinan.
Along the way, and at either end, the basins are rarely without fantastic reflections.
To sail the Crinan Canal is to follow in royal footsteps.
In 1827, three horses dressed in scarlet pulled Queen Victoria’s decorated barge through the passage to meet the Victoria & Albert.
Henceforth this became known as the “Royal Route to the Hebrides”.
Mind you, I think Her Majesty found it all a bit tedious. This was also the route taken by countless puffers like the Maggie and Para Handy’s Vital Spark.
Clearly, in planning the route of any canal, the less hilly the terrain the better, so it comes as a surprise to find the highest mountains in Britain form a backdrop to the Caledonian Canal.
For over 60 miles this
canal runs between Inverness and Corpach, following the natural fault line of the Great Glen.
The first surveys for this major canal were in 1773, but centuries before that it was prophesised by the Brahan Seer.
The day would come, he said, when sailing ships would be seen passing beneath the hill of Tomnahurich at Inverness.
It must have come as no surprise to Mother Nature, either. Through massive lateral slip movements in the earth’s crust 400 million years ago, she’d already laid the foundation for the canal and had done more than half of the work.
Along the fault line she’d created several ribbon lochs, including Lochs Dochfour, Ness, Oich and Lochy, leaving only 22 miles of canal to be man-made.
With Loch Oich, the highest point on the canal, being 106 feet above sea level, boats sailing from one end to the other will need to pass through no fewer than 29 locks.
It’s relaxing to watch the boats climbing through the locks – favourite spots being at Fort Augustus, Laggan or Neptune’s Staircase at Banavie.
Thomas Telford’s canal took 19 years to build, but on October 23, 1822, history was made when the first ship sailed between Inverness and Fort William.
Watching boats pass through the locks might appear a slow process, but with the only alternative being the 230-mile sail around the coast and through the treacherous waters of the Pentland Firth, I know which voyage I would prefer!
From Fort Augustus, day-trip cruises set off into Loch Ness. The 24-milelong loch may be only a mile and a half wide, but it conceals its most impressive dimension – the fact it’s almost 900 feet deep.
This is one trip where you don’t want to forget the camera. Wouldn’t you kick yourself if Nessie happened to pop her head up and your camera was in the car!
All along the length of the Caledonian Canal there are places to stop off for a stroll along the towpath.
The more adventurous might consider walking the Great Glen Way, a challenging 73-mile hike from one end to the other.
As vessels grew in size, and as railways provided a speedier means of transporting goods, use of our canals declined.
This situation worsened when rail gave way to road and the thousands of lorries that now clog up our motorways.
When the 11 locks at Falkirk were infilled and the canal was severed several times in the construction of new motorways, its days as a through waterway looked pretty much over.
Today, however, the
Forth and Clyde and its sister, the Union Canal, are busier than ever – not least thanks to the ingenious Falkirk Wheel.
Replacing Falkirk’s lost locks, this amazing piece of engineering – the world’s first and only rotating boat lift – raises and lowers boats 115 feet in the space of just a few minutes.
The canal’s other great draw for visitors is the two gigantic horse heads of the Kelpies.
At close to 100 feet tall, they need to be seen to be believed and are no more dramatic than when standing beneath them.
One can marvel at the precise engineering of the Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel, but don’t let these feats overshadow the work of earlier engineers who designed and built the canals in horrendous conditions and with little more than picks, shovels, barrows and dynamite.
The Union Canal between Falkirk and Edinburgh had no locks and, following the contour of the land, was designed to run level.
Over a route of 31 miles, its engineer, Hugh Baird, achieved this to the remarkable tolerance of just one inch.
These once vital arteries to which we owe so much in helping create the British Empire have now found themselves a new, more leisurely clientele in cruisers and yachts.
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