IWA in Scotland

Unlike their Lowland counterparts abandoned during the 1960s, both Highland Canals have been in continuous use since their completion: the Crinan in 1809 and the Caley (as it is affectionately known locally) in 1822.

Once the domain of Clyde Puffers, fishing boats and passenger steamers, the Crinan Canal today plays host to the occasional workboat and to yachts from all over Europe and beyond. Its 15 locks and seven moveable bridges are self-operated by their crew, although it is possible to engage the services of ‘pilots’ to assist: a rôle that would have been fulfilled by ‘hobblers’ on waterways south of the border.

The eastern end of the canal joins Loch Gilp (a modest inlet on the west coast of Loch Fyne) at the small port of Ardrishaig, established to support the 19th century herring fishery, and now an important outlet for local timber. In 2017 part of the pier collapsed, threatening the timber-based economy.  IWA campaigned for its repair, ultimately helping to persuade Transport Scotland to part with £1.7 million to return it to use 18 months later.

The interconnected Forth & Clyde and Union Canals were reopened in 2002, supported by a £100 million National Lottery funded Millennium grant. The Falkirk Wheel, replacing the 11 locks that had originally joined the two waterways, is the undoubted jewel in the crown of the restoration and, as the only rotating boat lift in the world, is justifiably one of Scotland’s foremost tourist attractions.

A shortfall of £18 million in the total estimated sum required to fully complete the restoration meant that shortcuts were taken and reclaimed materials were sometimes used in place of new. Whilst this means that many lock gates, for instance, are now due for replacement it doesn’t explain why key targets, underpinning the rationale for reopening these two waterways, have never been met.

Amongst other things, it was projected that there would be a total of 600 boats across the two canals and that the Forth & Clyde would resume its role as a transit canal, connecting the two eponymous firths, with upwards of 300 passages a year. Twenty years later, the reality is that there are half that number of boats moored on the two navigations – and from a high of around 200 transits per year, soon after the reopening, numbers have steadily declined and are now into single figures.

This was followed in short order by a moorings price review (Scottish Canals has a virtual monopoly of all the moorings available on the Lowland Canals) with the outcome disputed by boaters on the two canals, resulting in a petition being lodged with the Scottish Parliament’s Public Petitions Committee. It soon became apparent to the Committee that mooring issues were but the tip of the iceberg and IWA was asked to contribute a report outlining the situation as they saw it.

IWA gave evidence of significant shortcomings in the administration of the navigations which led, indirectly, to the forming of Scottish Waterways for All – www.swfa.co.uk, introducing a formal point of contact between Scottish Canals and their stakeholders. IWA now holds a seat on the SWfA management committee and has even lent its castoff 1990s slogan!

A perception (and ultimately a problem) common to all the waterways under the aegis of Scottish Canal is their unreliability in both commercial and leisure applications, something that seriously undermines confidence in their potential use. Lack of dredging, excessive weed growth and, in the case of the Forth & Clyde Canal, badly leaking lock gates (alongside other unreliable infrastructure) means that yacht skippers opt to use the Caley – or even the Pentland Firth – to navigate from one side of Scotland to the other, rather than risk becoming trapped between the Firths of Forth and Clyde.

In its current Asset Management Strategy for the Lowland Canals, Scottish Canals acknowledges that there is now an accumulation of over £70 million worth of outstanding work with the most vulnerable section of the waterway being the heavily-locked, western end of the Forth & Clyde Canal, spanning the nine miles of Locks 21 ­– 38: Maryhill to Bowling. In the event of a funding shortfall, it makes it clear that this is the first length of waterway it will abandon which would, of course, make a total nonsense of reopening the Forth & Clyde as a transit canal. The outstanding work is now believed to be over £112 million (2023 figure).

There are no opportunities to hire a boat on the Crinan Canal but this is more than made up for on the Caledonian Canal. Caley Cruisers – www.caleycruisers.com – operates from Inverness, while Le Boat – www.leboat.co.uk/boating-holidays/scotland/caledonian-canal-loch-ness/laggan –  hires out cruisers from Laggan Locks. Yachts can be chartered from www.nessandmorayyachtcharters.co.uk which is based in Seaport Marina, on the canal in Inverness.

On the Lowland Canals, the navigation authority is effectively the franchisee for three of the national narrowboat hire firms and they operate 19 narrowboats and one widebeam from a base beside the Falkirk Wheel – www.scottishcanals.co.uk/activities/holidays/boating-holidays/forth-clyde-union-canals.

Alongside the IWA’s presence in Scotland, and very much complementary, is the Lowland Canal Association – www.lowlandcanalsassociation.org ­– which provides a hands-on interface between boaters and Scottish Canals, looking after navigation, safety and day by day boating issues. It was amongst the earliest of the local organisations to champion boaters’ interests and was instrumental in taking the complaint over the original mooring review to the Public Petitions Committee.

RYA Scotland – www.rya.org.uk/gbni/scotland – also holds a watching brief over the Scottish Canals, especially those used as transit routes by blue water boaters. They are represented on the RYA Inland Navigation Panel which meets twice a year in London, with oversight of all matters to do with navigation on the inland waterways of Great Britain.

As Scottish Canals does little to encourage boats onto the system, it is generally best for potential new moorers (especially those keen to bring their craft up from England) to work through the local IWA representative [email protected].  It is usually less expensive and easier to launch boats on to the rivers Clyde or Carron than directly on to the lowland canals – there are details and navigation tips covering the practicalities of this on the River Clyde and River Forth (which includes the River Carron) pages.