Canal Maps For Your Narrow Boat Holiday
Help plan your holiday hire cruise with these informative interactive canal maps. Click on your preferred canal route below to view the map.
- The Llangollen Canal and Montgomery Canal (from Chirk Marina)
- The Four Counties Ring (from Festival Park Marina)
- The Caldon and Leek Canals (from Festival Park Marina)
- Chester and Return - Shropshire Union Canal (from Chirk Marina)
- Whaley Bridge and Return - Macclesfield Canal (from Festival Park Marina)
NOTE: Canal maps will continually be updated with relevant information and images. If you have any recommendations of things to do and places to eat along The Llangollen, Shropshire Union, Trent & Mersey, Caldon or Macclesfield Canals then please do get in touch and we will add it to our maps! info@crestnarrowboats.co.uk
THE LLANGOLLEN CANAL MAP
Leaving from Chirk a trip along the full length of the Llangollen Canal covers 88 miles and 42 locks. Travelling towards Hurleston you cross the Chirk Aqueduct and down the first two locks. After passing Ellesmere and its meres, you come to the less hilly Whixall Moss to Whitchurch. Undulating countryside sprinkled with locks takes you down to Hurleston with its resevoir, which provides drinking water for Chester. Retracing your steps cross the World Heritage Site centrepiece, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, and up the Dee Valley into Llangollen. Also available to cruise subject to booking is The Montgomery Canal, a totally different canal from the Llangollen Canal and, to cruise its length, is akin to turning off the motorway and taking to the country lanes instead.
THE FOUR COUNTIES RING MAP
An active route from our Festival Park Marina base in Staffordshire the Four Counties Ring covers 111 miles and 94 locks. You may travel southwards from the marina past the Wedgwood Factory and through the canal town of Stone to Great Haywood, where you meet the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal at Autherley. The Shropshire Union Canal with its impressive architecture, banks and cuttings, carries you northwards to the Middlewich Arm, where you rejoin the Trent & Mersey Canal which carries you back to Stoke-on-Trent through a number of locks and the Harecastle Tunnel.
THE CALDON AND LEEK CANAL MAP
At 42 miles with 34 locks, this is a gentle week down one of the most beautiful and quiet canals of them all. From the junction near Festival Park Marina, you progress up the locks to the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent via factories and parks. Here you encounter progressively more picturesque countryside as you enter the Churnet Valley. The Leek branch contains no locks Hazelhurst Junction, whereas the Froghall branch descends to the River Churnet, running alongside the river and railway.
CHESTER AND RETURN MAP
Leaving from Chirk Marina this is a more challenging route, covering 112 miles and 70 locks. You should not be disapointed if you do not reach Chester. Travelling down the canal you pass through Ellesmere and Whitchurch to Grindley Brook with its staircase of three locks. From here the locks become more frequent, taking you down through lovely countryside to the Shropshire Union Canal. The rural atmosphere continues through to Chester. You should remember that the Llangollen Canal flows so it will take longer to return.
WHALEY BRIDGE AND RETURN MAP
An easy week from Festival Park Marina covering 82 miles and 26 locks this route takes you into the Peak District to the end of the Peak Forest Canal at Whaley Bridge. Travelling north through the Harecastle Tunnel, you join the Macclesfield Canal at Hardings Wood. The Maccesfield Canal skirts the edges of the Peak District through the towns of Congleton, Macclesfield and Marple, before turning onto the Peak Forest Canal to Whaley Bridge.
Images used within maps are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Using images obtained at geograph.org.uk.
