Lochs, rifle stocks and two EPIC sea gates: Thomas Telford's Highland waterway

One small suggestion

In between Loch Lochy Lochyface and Loch Oich Get Orf my Land one needs a distillery and or brewery to break the monotony of gobsmacking countryside hidden by various forms of water.

Car, roads?

I'd have thought going by boat is the way to do it?

Very interesting.

Do they lock the locks between the lochs overnight?

Interesting article which slightly hurt my brain!

Wellington might have a different view...

"Napoleon was long gone, too – beaten twice over, forced to retreat from Russia and decisively beaten in Belgium in 1814"

Alternate facts say the decisive Battle of Waterloo took place in 1815.

Minimal disruption?

Opening and closing in a remarkably quick fashion, the [Muirtown] bridge operates in such a way as to cause minimal disruption to the road it bears.

Errr, no. Half-mile queues the length of Telford Street are the norm. Great article, though!

To think, 150 years after building the canal, Panama used the same dimensions (110 feet wide) for theirs, forever limited the US Navy to a specific size for their warships.

Been there...

We did most of it by boat (except the ends where hire boats aren't permitted) a few years ago. Fantastic scenery and we had glorious weather, too good in fact as there wasn't enough wind for sailing most of the time.

One downside is that as the bridges and locks are all keeper controlled you are stuck with their timings, if they decide lunch is at 12:30 it doesn't matter if you arrive at 12:28, you're gonna have to wait.

Another interesting article.

If you are in the UK, it's well worth checking out Channel 4's series "Great Canal Journeys" presented by Timothy West and Prunella Scales and available on demand on All4. They cruise the Caledonian in one episode, and the Crinan in the next.

Don't forget the official name of Loch Lochy

is Lochy McLochface

Great article - shame about the copyediting

... and the ill-advised use of metric units

When it was finally opened in 1822, the canal was more than a decade late and the budget had doubled.

Defining the model that we use for government projects today - Telford truly was ahead of his time.

shoot the subeditor (again)

" and it saw development of steam dredger - rare machine in Scotland at that time "

what kind of English is that

"the canal had a specification larger than others in the country at that time: a width of 33.5m (109.9ft) at the surface and 15.2m (49.8ft) at the bottom."

yet later you say

"the 29 gates it needed were then the world’s largest at 55m (180.4ft) long, 12.1m (39.6ft) wide and between 7.7m (25.2ft) and 6m (19.6ft) in depth."

while from Wiki

"Maximum boat beam 35 ft 0 in (10.7 m)"

Looks like someone has got feet and metres mixed up

"Thomas Telford was the project’s principal engineers......" Telford is plural???

"– and took nearly twice as long as forecast – 12 years rather than the initially calculated seven"

from wiki

"Date of act 1803 Date completed 1822"

I make that 19 years: i.e. it took an EXTRA 12 years

"Scotland, never mind Britain, have may locks - but few like this one. What’s more, following its course is easy."

Following the course of the lock? Surely following the course of the canal?

I remember...

...Sitting in traffic in front of the Tomnahurich swing bridge in Inverness for a good 10 minutes of my driving test (I passed).

Or you can walk the great glen

Had the author the time and/or money a boat journey is the best way of appreciating the canal. There is also the Great Glen Long Distance Path which, mostly, takes you along the canal side from Corpach to Fort Augustus then high up the south west side of Loch Ness to Inverness.

There are no longer any Loch Ness monster sightings

Because they built him a way to escape!

My honeymoon...

....started in a hotel by Loch Lomand, then another in Fort William, and finally in Inverness over two weeks. Wifey still thinks it was romantic with lots of wonderful scenery and and has no idea about all the wonderful engineering I experienced over those two weeks.

(The nights were energetic too! but didn't involve engineering!

A real user!

I used the Caledonian Canal for its intended purpose last April - I brought my boat through when taking it from the Clyde to a marina near Walton on the Naze. The complete passage from the Clyde to Walton was a bit of an epic ; we took 3 weeks (including rest days and the days when we decided the weather forecast was too bad!). We didn't use the other scenic canal - the Crinan Canal, while a very pleasant and scenic route is ridiculously expensive for what you get. Also, from most of the Clyde, it doesn't give a time advantage, so we went round the Mull of Kintyre.

The Caledonian Canal was very interesting, and we spent nearly a week on its waters, entering at Corpach and leaving at Clachnaharry, where the Clachnaharry Inn provides an excellent pint and a decent meal. Going up and down the staircases of locks was awe-inspiring, and even a little vertigo inducing when looking down a flight from the top! As a user of the canal, the only real inconvenience was that movement on the canal is prohibited after about 5.30 pm, and the last obstacle (the swing bridge carrying the road below the Muirtown locks) can't be used for about 2 hours before the canal shuts down for the night because rush hour traffic takes priority. Sadly the mooring above the Muirtown locks doesn't have much in the way of facilities, and at that time of the year we valued the availability of mains electricity!

668: The Neighbour of the Beast

Great article about a great subject. Having opted for the southern B852 route along Loch Ness, though, could perhaps have made time to give us an update on the state of Boleskine House after the fire?

De-metrification of previously metrified imperial specifications

Introduces error, and is a slur on the genius. The canal was designed to be 110 feet wide and 20 feet deep. NOW you can add metric equivalents in parentheses if needed.

Because it matters.

"As work on the canal got under way, it soon became apparent that Telford’s estimates of both time and money were dreadfully optimistic."

In modern parlance, I guess that makes Telford the equivalent of Longhorn-era Bill Gates?