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Broad canal,
127 miles, 3 days, 93 locks, 2 tunnels, 2 weeks. |
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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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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.
The western end
has now been extended passing Liverpool Pier Head to
join up with the main Dock system.
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, since 2002, with the Lancaster Canal via
the small port of Tarleton and the River Douglas. The tricky crossing of
the tidal River Ribble can only be made on certain tides so the number
of passages available is limited, and there is great demand. Passages
have to be booked through British Waterways on 01942 405700. Boats
normally travel in convoy for safety, being swept out into the Irish sea
because of engine failure is not a pleasant prospect!
The Liverpool end of the Leeds & Liverpool
Canal has been extended past the
Pier Head in Liverpool. The new 1½-mile Liverpool Link canal was
officially opened on Wednesday 25 March 2009 when the first private
boats passed through. It re-establishes an historic connection between
the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and the national waterway network and the
city’s currently underused South Docks; including the tourist and museum
area around Albert Dock. £22 million has been spent on the Link’s
construction and the canal’s course passes through the Pier Head World
Heritage Site in front of the famous Three Graces – the Liver, Cunard
and Port of Liverpool buildings. It is expected to generate 200,000
extra visitors annually to Liverpool’s docks and an additional yearly
tourism spend of £1.9 million. The previous connection from the Leeds &
Liverpool Canal to the South Docks was abandoned in the early 20th
century when the Three Graces were built over a dock. Boaters must book
passages through the Link. |
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