Walking the Canals in Britain

UK Travel: Canal Walking

Walking Britain's Canals

Jake Davies

Britain is a fantastic place for those who enjoy walking, no matter what style or level of physical effort you are into.

For those who hear the call of the wild and hanker for serious mountain hiking, the Highlands of Scotland, the peaks of the Lake District in northern England, and mountains of Snowdonia in North Wales all offer superlative experiences.

Waterways and canals in the UK.
Britain's waterways and canals provide some of the country's most scenic places to walk

For those who prefer long distance walking there are numerous trails and routes like the Southwest Coast Path, at 630 miles the longest in the U.K., the various paths that collectively make up the Wales Coast Route at 870 miles, or, if you prefer cross country there are various coast-to-coast walks like one in Scotland at 128 miles or the one in Northern England at 192 miles.

Some people even make the more than 1,000 mile walk from Lands End to John O' Groats, but for most people something less time consuming and strenuous is preferable, and for amblers and ramblers there is barely a corner of the country that is not crisscrossed by the untold thousands of public footpaths that exist.

Canal Towpaths

Even with all this choice there is yet another option for walkers that is gaining in popularity: walking canal towpaths. There are 2,000 miles of canal in the U.K., and while the first were constructed in Roman times, the vast majority were built to service the Industrial Revolution, transporting raw materials and goods before the advent of mechanized transport such as railways and later the motor car.

The canals managed to survive the competition from the railways and also that of the increasing road transport network but by the postwar period they were all but defunct and turned into little more than overgrown toxic dumps, but at the same time interest in the possible leisure use of Britain's canals began to grow and in the late twentieth century great effort was put into cleaning them up. The leisure boat activity on them nowadays is vast and continuing to grow.

Enjoy the peace and quiet of a walk along one of the many canals in the UK.
Enjoy the peace and quiet of a walk along one of the many canals in the UK

There are numerous advantages and benefits to choosing to walk canals, one being that they are flat. That is the nature of canals, other than the occasional lock which will change the elevation by a few feet, canals must be level, so they follow the contours of the land, sometimes in sweeping curves.

Sometimes they pass through long tunnels and over more than a few viaducts, but there is no climbing involved in trekking the towpaths. As a way to cross cities or urban sprawl canals offer a route that means encountering absolutely no traffic.

Swans are a common sight on canals in the UK.
Swans are a common sight on canals in the UK

Canal Basins

The canal basins in many cities such as Gas Street Basin in Birmingham have been redeveloped with the old warehouses converted into luxury condominiums or upscale offices, and trendy bistros and galleries can often be found.

Of course, one thing you will be sure to encounter along canals whether urban or rural is plenty of wildlife.

There are, of course, a lot of water birds, swans, ducks, etc but also plenty of aquatic mammals like water voles or otters as well as foxes, rabbits, squirrels and badgers.

The canal sides are teeming with plants and trees as well. In their day canals were the equivalent to motorways, so plenty of "service areas" existed, and many of these pubs and inns are still there, in fact it is hard to go more than a couple of miles without passing a canal side pub. Also there is a growing infrastructure to support the pleasure boating industry where food and drink can be had.

Roses & Castles is a unique form of folk art associated with canal narrowboats.
Roses & Castles is a unique form of folk art associated with canal narrow boats

Roses & Castles - Art on Britain's Canals

There is an unusual sight to be seen nowadays on Britain's canals, perhaps surprisingly, and that is art!

There is the art of the canal narrow boats themselves, brightly painted in a style known as Roses & Castles. No-one knows for sure where this folk art originated, though there is a passing resemblance to gypsy caravans.

There are a growing number of artists who decorate objects in this style and a number of canal side galleries displaying their work alongside paintings and drawings of canal scenes.

There are also a number of major art galleries on the canal banks like the Tate Modern in Liverpool or The Lowry in Manchester.

In some places the canal banks themselves have become galleries with public art and sculptures placed along them. Coventry Canal in the Midlands being a major example. As well as all these static art venues there is a growing number of mobile galleries and theater groups that travel the canals in narrow boats putting on displays and performances.

It is perhaps not so surprising that art figures so much on canals as the original group of people who campaigned for the canals to be saved and developed were primarily artists, writers, and actors, who went on to create the Inland Waterways Association.

There is plenty of industrial heritage along canals.
There is plenty of industrial heritage along the UK's canals

There are canals all over the U.K., but the bulk of them are in what was the industrial heartland of England, namely the north west of England including Manchester and Liverpool and the Midlands centered on Birmingham and the Potteries around Stoke-on-Trent.

There are now dozens of books, guides, and websites available offering maps and details on hundreds of specific walks on Britain's canals.

Some noted areas of scenic and architectural beauty on Britain's canals include Caen Hill Flight, a series of locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal near Devizes in Wiltshire, Bath Locks in Bath in Somerset, Dundas Aqueduct which carries the Kennet and Avon Canal over the River Avon near Limpley Stoke on the Somerset/Wiltshire border, Little Venice in west London, where the waters from the Grand Union and Regent's canals meet and form a scenic pool and Gloucester Docks, Britain's most inland port, where fifteen Victorian warehouses have been renovated and turned into offices, apartments and museums.

Thousands of people live on the canals in Britain.
Thousands of people live on the canal network in Britain

Canal Facts & Canal History

Britain's rivers were the first navigable waterways, used by the earliest inhabitants of Britain for transport and later by the Romans to invade the country. The Romans were the first canal builders in Britain.

Early work on rivers to improve them as waterways for vessels began in 1515 with the River Stour in Canterbury, Kent, followed by work on the River Exe near Exeter in Devon to create the Exeter Canal. In the early 17th century, the River Thames was "improved" between Oxford and Abingdon.

The Stamford Canal, now disused, was built in 1670 and is one of the earliest post-Roman period canals in England.

Urban canal side redevelopment, UK.
Urban canal side redevelopment

Other improvements to existing waterways included the Kennet Canal which opened in 1723, the Mersey and Irwell Canal in 1725, and the Bristol Avon Canal in 1727.

The great age of canal building in Britain took place from the early 18th century to the early 19th century as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace and Britain became the first nation in the world to develop an integrated network of canals.

The Bridgewater Canal, built by the the engineer James Brindley, is often cited as the first modern, totally artificial canal and was financed by the Duke of Bridgewater to link his coalfields to the city of Manchester. The Bridgewater Canal included a viaduct over the River Irwell.

Other important canals built in this period included the Oxford Canal, the Trent & Mersey Canal, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, the Grand Junction Canal, Regent's Canal in London, the Manchester Ship Canal, which opened in 1894 and was at the time the largest ship canal in the world, the Shropshire Union Canal, the Grand Union Canal and the Coventry Canal.

Britain's canals were built by labourers known as "navvies" or navigators, the majority of whom were English but with a sizeable Irish contingent. This army of navvies built both Britain's canal and railway networks.

Urban canal tunnels have increasingly been illuminated, UK.
Urban canal tunnels have increasingly been illuminated for both safety and aesthetic reasons

Boating Holidays on Britain's Waterways

Britain's Canals & Their Habitat

Hotels in the UK

England Hotels - Booking.com

London Hotels - Booking.com

Scotland Hotels - Booking.com

Wales Hotels - Booking.com

Northern Ireland Hotels - Booking.com

Hotels in Britain - Agoda.com

London Attractions Tickets - Tiqets.com

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