Crinan Canal Travel Video Guide

Crinan Canal Travel Itinerary

• Maps and flag of Scotland
• Crinan Canal travel photos
• Crinan Canal travel forum
• Flights to Crinan Canal
• Hotels in Crinan Canal
• Hostels in Crinan Canal
• Buy the guide book!

In 1801 the nine-mile-long Crinan Canal opened, linking Loch Fyne, at Ardrishaig south of Lochgilphead, with the Sound of Jura, thus cutting out the long and treacherous journey around the Mull of Kintyre. John Rennie's original design, although an impressive engineering feat, had numerous faults, and by 1816 Thomas Telford was called in to take charge of the renovations. The canal runs parallel to the sea for quite some way before cutting across the bottom of Moine Mhor and hitting a flight of locks either side of CAIRNBAAN (there are fifteen in total); a walk along the towpath is both picturesque and pleasantly unstrenuous. A useful pit stop can be made at the Cairnbaan Hotel (tel 01546/603668; GBP90-110), an eighteenth-century coaching inn overlooking the canal.

There are usually one or two yachts passing through the locks, but the most relaxing place from which to view the canal in action is CRINAN , the pretty little fishing port at the western end of the canal. Crinan's tiny harbour is, for the moment at least, still home to a small fishing fleet. Every room in the Crinan Hotel (tel 01546/830261, ; over GBP200) looks across Loch Crinan to the Sound of Jura. If the Crinan is beyond your means, try the secluded B&B   Tigh-na-Glaic (tel 01546/830261; GBP50-60),

perched above the harbour, also with views out to sea. Bar meals at the Crinan are expensive, but utterly delicious, as is the hotel's even more expensive seafood restaurant, Lock 16 , on the top floor, which commands a panoramic view; there's only one sitting, at 8pm, so booking is advisable. Down on the lockside there is a cheaper, cheerful cafe called the Coffee Shop (Easter-Oct), serving mouthwatering home-made cakes and wonderful clootie dumplings..

Your Tips For Crinan Canal

• Lothians Scotland Travel Videos
  Scotland Travel Itinerary
  The wider rural hinterland of Edinburgh, known as the Lothians , mixes rolling countryside and attractive country towns with some dramatic historic ruins. - Scotland
  

• Orkney and Shetland Scotland Travel Videos
  Scotland Travel Itinerary
  Reaching up towards the Arctic Circle, and totally exposed to turbulent Atlantic weather systems, the Orkney and Shetland islands gather neatly into two distinct and very different clusters. - Scotland
  

• Highland region Scotland Travel Videos
  Scotland Travel Itinerary
  The Highland region of Scotland, covering the northern two-thirds of the country, holds much of the mainland's most spectacular scenery: a classic combination of mountains, glens, lochs and rivers surrounded on three sides by a magnificently pitted and rugged coastline. - Scotland
  

• Argyll Scotland Travel Videos
  Scotland Travel Itinerary
  Cut off for centuries from the rest of Scotland by the mountains and sea lochs that characterize the region, Argyll remains remote, its scatter of offshore islands forming part of the Inner Hebridean archipelago. - Scotland
  

• Southern Scotland Travel Videos
  Scotland Travel Itinerary
  Southern Scotland divides neatly into three distinct regions: the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, and Ayrshire. - Scotland
  

• Edinburgh Scotland Travel Videos
  Scotland Travel Itinerary
  Venerable, dramatic EDINBURGH , the showcase capital of Scotland, is a historic, cosmopolitan and cultured city. - Scotland
  

• Northeast Scotland Travel Videos
  Scotland Travel Itinerary
  A large triangle of land thrusting into the North Sea, northeast Scotland comprises the area east of a line drawn roughly from Perth north to the fringe of the Moray Firth at Forres. - Scotland
  

• Glasgow and the Clyde Scotland Travel Videos
  Scotland Travel Itinerary
  Rejuvenated, upbeat Glasgow , Scotland's largest city, has not traditionally enjoyed the best of reputations. - Scotland
  

• Skye and the Western Isles Scotland Travel Videos
  Scotland Travel Itinerary
  A procession of Hebridean islands, islets and reefs off the northwest shore of Scotland, Skye and the Western Isles between them boast some of the country's most alluring scenery. - Scotland
  

• Central Scotland Travel Videos
  Scotland Travel Itinerary
  Central Scotland , the strip of mainland north of the densely populated Glasgow-Edinburgh axis and south of the main swathe of Highlands, is an accessible, popular and richly varied region. - Scotland