A Brief History of Scottish Canals

Somewhere around 1773, a survey by James Watt signalled the start of the Caledonian Canal journey. Of course no-one would would think it odd to build a canal with a waterfall methodology.

It would take nearly 30 years before the first ground was broken, taking the small detail of an "Act of Parliament" to realise the dream. There were also a few issues with those unruly foreigners across the channel who were being a bit uppity.

So, the Royal navy was keen to see a canal built across the "Great Glen", which would allow ships to avoid the "Cape Wrath" trip around the North Scottish Coast. Luckily an engineer called Thomas Telford ( canal deep-ops ) was on hand to "have a go" ( this is Scotland after all ).

Initial costing of just under half a million pounds, and an estimated 7 years to complete was the target. The Government offered to fund the en-devour. The canal had quite some difficulties due to the terrain, and the indigenous population, prone to taking weeks off for the tattie ( oh, potatoes is you must ) harvest.

It completed some 12 years late ( 1822 ), nearly double the budget. During the construction, there of course was some "De-scoping" which caused the draught to shrink from 20 feet (6.1 m) to 15 feet (4.6 m), to save costs.

However, the shipbuilding technology had significantly advanced in the intervening 22 years, with the move from wooden sail ships to the iron-hulled steam powered. The ships draught consequently also became enlarged ( remember the de-scoping? ), which meant that many of the new ships were unable to use the canal. Additionally around 1815, the Restless Natives across the Channel were defeated at Waterloo, so the Navy lost is general interest in the canal, as the perceived threat was no longer militarily significant.