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Canal Boat Hire Highlights

Canal boat hire can take you to some beautiful places. Cross breathtaking aqueducts and cruise through two hundred year old tunnels. Scale the biggest flight of locks or visit the prettiest canal town in Britain. Whatever your expectations for your canal boat hiring holiday, you won't be disappointed.

Here's a selection of some of the best sights, experiences, and challenges for narrow boaters on Britain's canals.

Standedge Tunnel At 3.5 miles long, Standedge Tunnel on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal is the longest of all Britain's navigable canal tunnels. It can also lay claim to being the highest and the deepest as it burrows through the Pennines at 196 Miles above sea level.

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct Arguably the most beautiful of Thomas Telford's creations, this Aqueduct on the Llangollen Canal lets you glide 35 metres above the ravine below.

Tardebigge Locks The longest lock flight in Britain! If you fancy the challenge then cruise to Tardebigge on the rural Worcester and Birmingham Canal, and make your way up a total of 36 locks - not for the faint hearted!

Harecastle Tunnel At 1 and a half miles, Harecastle Tunnel on the trent and Mersey is only half as long as Standedge. Yet what it lacks in length it makes up for in legend! Boaters of the 19th Century would avoid making the journey through this tunnel if at all possible due to its spooky reputation. A headless corpse was once found here and her ghost is well known to haunt the tunnel- make the journey if you dare!

Anderton Boat Lift Lifting canal boats 15 metres to the canal above, Anderton Boat Lift only reopened in 2002 having been shut since the 1980s. Hydraulics power this impressive feat of engineering on the trent and Mersey Canal.

Stoke Bruerne Known as Britain's prettiest Canal village! If you're in the area, it's not to be missed as a picturesque and traditional part of Canal life.

Falkirk Wheel Boat Lift Scotland's claim to Canal fame! A massively impressive structure connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal to the Union Canal.

Hatton 21 Known as 'The Stairway to Heaven', Hatton's 21 locks are a challenge and an achievement! Near Warwick on the Grand Union Canal, the thought of the award winning cafe at the top should help to keep you going!

Foxton Locks Not as challenging as some of its bigger brothers, Foxton has 10 locks to traverse on the Grand Union Canal. The remains of the famous 'inclined plane' can still be seen- built in 1900 to mechanically move narrow boats up the 75 foot rise and to ease the canal traffic of the industrial revolution. There's a chance it will reopen in the near future with a National Lottery Grant and plenty of engineering enthusiasts' campaigning.

If any of these sights take your fancy, came and have a look at our marinas. You'll find that canal boat hiring from any of our bases will take you to many of these unique and special places.

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