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Airedale view, courtesy Mike
Clarke. |
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Hireboats on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal |
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 On a
Canal
Boat Cruises holiday on the Leeds & Liverpool canal there's
no rush! Luxury 6 & 8 berth boats based at Riley Green in the
idyllic Lancashire country side. |
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Hireboats on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal |
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 Our
Shire
Cruisers base is ideally situated for exploring all three
Pennine canals. We offer friendly, helpful, individual service, and
specially comprehensive training. Our boats are Quality Assured by
VisitBritain. |
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Boaters
eye view of Bingley 5 Rise. |
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Broad canal,
127 miles, 3 days, 93 locks, 2 tunnels, 2 weeks. |
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 With
a main line of 127¼ miles, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal is easily the
longest canal in Britain.
It links the north west seaport of Liverpool with the Aire and Calder
Navigation at Leeds, forming a through route between the Irish Sea and
the North Sea.
The Millennium Ribble Link now provides a link via the River Ribble to
the Lancaster Canal.
Extension
of the western end past Liverpool Pier Head to
join up with the main Dock system is now underway.
The
Leeds & Liverpool canal climbs away from the Lancashire plain
into the Pennine hills from Wigan, up the famous 21 locks, through the
once proud cotton towns of Blackburn and Burnley where Victorian mills
can still be seen. The summit level goes through some fine moorland
scenery over the 'backbone of England' , plunging through the mile long
Foulridge tunnel. It then begins to descend amidst remote and beautiful
countryside through the market town of Skipton into the Yorkshire Dales
and on towards the bustling city of Leeds and the heart of the West
Riding of Yorkshire. Allow at least a week to get from Liverpool to
Leeds.After Leeds, the Aire & Calder Navigation
opens up a fascinating range of Yorkshire waterways, some once
industrial, some very rural. The Yorkshire Ouse takes you to the ancient
cities of York and Ripon. The South Yorkshire Navigation leads to the
restored basin at the heart of the city of Sheffield. The recently
restored Rochdale Canal and Huddersfield Narrow Canal now open up two
fantastic 'Pennine Rings' for boaters with more time to spare.
The Leeds & Liverpool is a barge canal, built with
locks 60 feet long and 14 feet wide, reaching a height of 487½ feet
above sea level on the summit at Foulridge. The locks between Liverpool
and Wigan are longer at 72 feet, as are the 2 on the branch to Leigh,
where the junction with the Bridgewater Canal allows boats to reach the
narrow canals of central and southern England. A second branch links the
canal at Burscough with the River Ribble and now the Lancaster Canal via
the small port of Tarleton. The Liverpool end of the Leeds & Liverpool
Canal is being extended past the
Pier Head in Liverpool. |
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The 'Pennine
Ring' links to the
