Dingwall Canal

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Dingwall Canal

legend

River Peffery

Tulloch Street bridge

Dingwall wharf

Railway bridge

Firing range

Cromarty Firth

The Dingwall Canal was a short canal running from the town of Dingwall to the Cromarty Firth in the county of Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. The canal is unique in that it is the most northerly canal in the UK. It was designed by Thomas Telford. The canal was to serve as the port for the town, enabling ships carrying grain, timber and coal to dock safely away from the mud flats. It was effectively a tidal basin. The canal was 1 mile and 1 furlong in length.

The canal was built and in operation in 1815. The railway arrived in Dingwall in 1863, after which most of the traffic was lost,^[1] and the canal was disused by 1890.

The route of the canal still forms a pleasant walk from the town to a picnic site on the Cromarty Firth, although there is a firing range nearby, which fires over the canal, and so there are red warning flags to indicate when it is unsafe to use this route.