Caledonian Canal
Caledonian Canal is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 56.89°, -5.03°
About Caledonian Canal
The Caledonian Canal connects the Scottish east coast at Inverness with the west coast at Corpach near Fort William in Scotland. The canal was constructed in the early nineteenth century by Scottish engineer Thomas Telford.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Caledonian Canal (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Caledonian Canal in Depth
History
In 1620, a Highland prophet called the Brahan Seer predicted that full-rigged ships would one day be sailing round the back of Tomnahurich, near Inverness, at a time when the only navigable route near the location was the River Ness, on the other side of Tomnahurich.
Engineers started to look at the feasibility of a canal to connect Loch Linnhe near Fort William to the Moray Firth near Inverness in the 18th century, with Captain Edward Burt rejecting the idea in 1726, as he thought the mountains would channel the wind and make navigation too precarious.
The Commissioners of Forfeited Estates had originally been set up to handle the seizure and sale of land previously owned by those who had been convicted of treason following the Jacobite rising of 1715.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Caledonian Canal (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Caledonian Canal: Quick Answers
- Where is Caledonian Canal?
- Caledonian Canal is located in United Kingdom, at 56.8898° N, 5.0281° W.
- Are there dams on the Caledonian Canal?
- No dam on the Caledonian Canal is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.