Caledonian Canal

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Caledonian Canal

legend Beauly Firth Clachnaharry Sea Lock railway swing bridge Clachnaharry Works Lock Muirtown Basin A862 Muirtown Swing Bridge Muirtown Locks (4) A82 Tomnahurich Swing Bridge Dochgarroch Lock weir and River Ness Loch Dochfour Loch Ness River Oich A82 swing bridge Fort Augustus Locks (5) Kytra Lock Cullochy Lock A82 Aberchalder swing bridge weir and River Oich Loch Oich Laggan Locks (2) Loch Lochy River Lochy Gairlochy Top Lock B8004 swing bridge Gairlochy Bottom Lock (left open) Loy aqueduct Muirshearlich aqueduct Sheangain aqueduct Mount Alexander aqueduct River Lochy Banavie Locks (Neptune's Staircase) (8) A830 Banavie Swing Bridge railway swing bridge Corpach Double Locks (2) Corpach Sea Lock Loch Linnhe

The Caledonian Canal in Scotland connects the Scottish east coast at Inverness with the west coast at Corpach near Fort William.

It runs some 62 miles (100 kilometres) from northeast to southwest. Only one third of the entire length is man-made, the rest being formed by Loch Dochfour, Loch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy. These lochs are part of the Great Glen, a geological fault in the Earth's crust. There are 29 locks (including eight at Neptune's Staircase, Banavie), four aqueducts and 10 bridges in the course of the canal.

The canal was designed by engineer Thomas Telford ably supported by William Jessop and built between 1803 and 1822 at a cost of £840,000, but was never a great commercial success. As the canal was originally built too shallow and suffered from poor construction in places, most traffic still used the sea route. It was not deepened until 1847 (work designed by Telford's close associate, James Walker) by which time most ships were too large, and Inverness was soon connected to the Lowlands by railway. The canal is now mainly used by pleasure craft. It is maintained and operated by British Waterways, a governmental organisation.

The canal has several names in Scottish Gaelic including, "Amar-Uisge/Seòlaid a' Ghlinne Mhòir" (Waterway of the Great Glen) and a literal translation "Sligh'-Uisge na h-Alba".

[edit] See also

• Canals of Great Britain
• History of the British canal system

[edit] Bibliography

• Cameron, A.D. (2005). The Caledonian Canal. Edinburgh: Birlinn. ISBN 1-84158-403-7.
• Hadfield, Charles and Skempton, A.W. (1979). William Jessop, Engineer. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-7603-9
• Hutton, Guthrie [n.d.]. Getting to know... The Caledonian Canal, privately published.
• Hutton, Guthrie (1998). The Caledonian Canal: Lochs, Locks and Pleasure Steamers. Ochiltree: Stenlake Publishing. ISBN 1-84033-033-3.
• Lindsay, Jean (1968). The Canals of Scotland. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, ISBN 0-7153-4240-1.

[edit] External links

• scottishcanals.co.uk