Sunday, October 17, 2010

Crinan canal

whilst on holiday we visited Crinan Canal. It was opened in1801and runs from Crinan to Ardrishaig basin and is 9 miles long and was made as a short cut for sailors and fishermen to avoid the treacherous journey around the Mull pf Kintyre. James Watt surveyed the route in 1771 with backing from the Duke of Argyll and work started in 1794. With a few problems in 1811 Thomas Telford suggested a number of improvement and was then completed 6 years later.600 men blasted and cut the canal out of the land.
200 years the canal was the workplace and the home for hundreds of people. 100 people worked near or on the canal. Queen Victoria passed in 1847 and and big boats with tourists became popular.

Robert with Tommy it was a hard job to keep him out of the water but the sides of the canal were strait and he would not have been able to clime out and hes a bit heavy to heave out.

Some of the fishing boats

The first lock or the last if you come from the other way, we sat outside the cafe and the nice lady came and gave Tommy some bacon bits and a drink of water. People stopped to talk to us because of the dog. Tom is a good subject to get people talking.

The house like this one was home to children along the canal who would open the locks and bridges. The would make and sell lemonade and milk to hungry visitors and would swap homegrown vegetables from the gardens for coal from the passing boats.

This is the other end and as you can see by the sky its another day we walked for a mile or so and by the time we walked back the sun had come out and was a plesent evening.

Posted by Bob :: 4:35 pm :: 1 Comments:

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