The Crinan Canal

[nigheandonn]

I'd come up with the idea of walking the Crinan Canal after reading a book about its construction - it's only about 9 miles long, so a good length for walking. It's only possible to get a bus back from Crinan at lunchtime, so the start meant getting the 7:30 bus up from Tarbert to Ardrishaig, still in the early morning light.

The pier at Ardrishaig still has its old steamer terminal building, although it's served several purposes since then and is now a cafe - I like the pragmatic doors which recognise that passengers come in as a trickle and out as a rush!

Old ferry terminal

The breakwater dates from the building of the canal, and was extended a few years later to make it easier for boats to get in and out - there was never any real harbour at Ardrishaig, only a tiny bay which was used for the canal entrance.

Inside the breakwater

I have prowled around the sealock and the basin at this end before, and the bridge over the canal was one of the great excitements of my childhood - I always hoped it would be open with a boat coming through!

The start of the canal

The first section of the canal runs very close to the shore, and the houses of Ardrishaig have spread around both sides of it - there's really much more up behind than the bit you see along the seafront coming through by road.

Through Ardrishaig

This was after the long spell of good weather had broken, at least in the west, but it was turning out to be a perfect day anyway. But it was also the first day that I noticed the turn from summer to late summer - something about a deeper green in the plants, and a deeper blue in the water.

The first real landmark of the canal is the bridge at Oakfield, just before Lochgilphead, with its old house and a little cluster of moored boats.

Oakfield bridge

Not long afterwards I met the first boat on the move. It's an odd feeling to have someone coming past you on the water - do you say hello to them since they're close, like walkers and cyclists, or are they like people in cars, who you don't speak to even if they have the window or the roof down, because they're existing in another element? I decided on the latter, because none of them seemed to think I was in their world, but I was never quite sure.

Meeting the first boat

I had left the shore behind now and was walking with the Oban road over on my right, and the last scattering of buildings of Lochgilphead - much more unfamiliar territory, although I have been up that way a few times.

A sharp bend marks a place where the banks burst only a few years after the construction - originally the route had gone straight across flat but unstable ground, and when it was repaired a new route was taken much closer to the higher rockier ground to the west.

Rerouted canal

Round another bend Cairnbaan came into sight - the main road curves off to the north here, but a minor road crosses the canal and runs on to Crinan and Tayvallich.

Cairnbaan

I went into the hotel to look for some elevenses, only find it deserted - I'd started so early that it definitely felt like elevenses time to me, but it was really only five to 10! So I came back out and waited until 10 o'clock to make it more decent, and then went back in and this time found someone who found me coffee (in a breakfast cafetiere, I think) and some very good shortbread - for a very reasonable price, too!

Cairnbaan is another place strung out along both sides of the canal, with the tiny lock bridges acting as links between the two sides of the village - an attractive little spot, mostly painted white.

Over on the far side was another late summer sight, a field that I wouldn't have expected to be quite so golden at this point in the year.

Golden fields

At Dunardry I had pools on both sides of me - Loch a' Bharain, which is one of the reservoirs supplying the canal, on the right, and a series of little basins between the locks on the left.

Loch a' Bharain

I met my first boat in a lock here, waiting patiently as it filled.

Boat in a lock

Dunardry has an unusual bridge, not the usual swing bridge, but one which rolls back on rails - although it has been broken for a few years now after being damaged by a car, which seems to be a local grievance.

Dunardry bridge

Beyond the locks at Dunardry, where the canal comes back down to the flat, the great expanse of the Moine Mor opens out on the right. Still tinged with brown from the dry early summer, and with occasional trees rising, I found it oddly reminiscent of pictures of African plains!

Moine Mhor

A great variety of ground was found underlying the canal, leading to great variety in the construction techniques, and I passed a nice visible sign of it further on, with a bank hewn from rock giving way to a bank built up from stone and mortar.

Different edgings

From the bridge at Islandadd, where another minor road crosses the canal, the canal is running parallel to the shore again, a great shallow bay out to Crinan Ferry.

Islandadd Bridge

Bellanoch is possibly the prettiest spot on the canal, a basin with a tiny village clustered behind and the church perched on the hill in the background.

Bellanoch

The bay narrows again as the little rocky headland of Crinan Ferry comes in from the north - the ferry linking the two sides of the bay apparently ran until the 1960s.

Looking to Crinan Ferry

I'd passed a few houses along the canal, but this was the most unusual, apparently perching in the canal itself - and home to a man who was singing loudly and cheerfully, 'The Copydex has come, the Copydex has come...'.

House in the water

Crinan Bridge is a road end, with the main road into the village swinging round the other side of the hill, and the site of another attractive white house.

Crinan bridge

I knew I was almost there, but with the canal curving away round the edge of the headland there's no sign of Crinan itself until you're right on it. Across the water a rocky island stood up quite surprisingly from the broad flat bay.

Rocky island

There were more tiny basins and landing stages along this section, and more boats moored - this pair were a nice contrast of old and new.

Tiny basins

Across the water now was Duntrune Castle, originally considered as an alternative end point for the canal - which would have avoided ongoing problems with the locks at Dunardy in the early days, but I don't suppose there was any guarantee that the Moine Mor would be any more stable than the section which collapsed in the moss at Craigglass.

Duntrune Castle

Finally I was coming into Crinan itself, boats moored around two basins and the sealock and a cluster of old buildings around the basin and the shore - another very pretty spot.

Coming into Crinan

Crinan sealock

Crinan basin

Crinan is the site of possibly my oldest memory, aged about three and a half - a thunderstorm which took out the electricity (Kintyre was always having power cuts in those days) so that my dad was roped in to help open or close a lock manually, and I 'helped' him by holding onto something or other, while my mum and gramma and great-aunt and baby sister sheltered in the hotel! I'm not sure I'd been back since I was fairly young, though - it was just familiar and no more.

I had time for a bit of a prowl around, and to sit in the sunshine and eat an ice lolly, before the bus turned up to take me back to Lochgilphead, where I had a good hour and a half before the next Tarbert bus arrived, so walked back down to Ardrishaig to have my lunch in the cafe at the steamer pier - it seemed appropriate, and was very tasty.

A very nice walk for a very nice day - all good towpath and more or less flat, which made for very pleasant going, and a bit of a change to be in Knapdale rather than Kintyre.

[iangpark]

Great to see a report of here. Despite having a caravan in Tayvallich, we have never actually walked the whole canal - only cycled it when I was around 8/9ish. Have never seen that unusual floating house before - must ask my mother if she's has either as she'll be very intrigued! Excellent report on an excellent day I must add.

[bargee]

Great report and pictures.

As to your query of say Hello to boaters, I would advise a hello is nearly always appreciated, as a long time boater on the english canals, we are mostly friendly, and appreciate a wave and a chat as we pass through, but the same as any walker some will talk and acknowledge your effort and others will blank you and think you are mad