Crinan Canal

Mataji

Mataji

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 Jul 2012
Messages
420
Location
Plymouth
Visit site
Can we not get back to our regular topics on these forums? What’s happening on the canal? Are the lock gates rotting away? Will they ever move again? Come on Quandary, tell us what it’s like up there. Even better, post some pics.
 
awol said:
Are you really encouraging the poor old soul to break house arrest simply for your titillation? The answers to your questions are (or should be) a) nothing b) yes c) yes, with difficulty.
Click to expand...
If the cops see him taking pictures he can run away, thereby getting (a) exercise and, as a result, (b) an unshakeable defence.
 
There is upgrade plans underway - we were contacted recently by a Glasgow engineering consultant working on Crinan Canal upgrade schemes - seems the canal engineers are specifically looking for FRP Lock gates rather than timber for longer life. My company does not do these, but we were able to point them to a Netherlands based FRP company who does.
 
This year they were surveying the locks with a plan to replace all the gates with fancy Dutch grp ones starting next winter. The divers got as far as Cairnbaan before the lockdown. I have some reservations about how quickly things might progress when this is over, the canal is listed and Historic Scotland may interfere though I would hope they have already been in touch. Good news, if and when it happens, we are promised that the money is available, The Scottish government, for some reason prefers to allocate large sums for capital projects while keeping the maintenance and operation budgets very tight, I suppose it looks better if you are a politician and easier to understand.?
Current situation, Canal is closed with staff 'working from home' . A yacht made it through the week before it locked down.
My current exercise regime is focused on a domestic roof reslating project, up and down ladders, just managed to get all the stuff together in time, On days I am not on the roof I am cycling along the towpath but not much to see other than the wildlife.
Despite my decrepitude as Awol described so kindly above, I plan to continue with the 'pilot' work , It is why I am in the prime shape that you see me in today.
I have been co-opted on to a pressure group called SWfA as the Crinan's representative which in normal times meets in Falkirk roughly monthly and I suspect the plans for new gates may have been helped by a report on the risks posed to users by the cessation of maintenance which I submitted last year. RYA are represented there too so you can use them to voice any concerns if you prefer.
 
Quandary said:
The Scottish government, for some reason prefers to allocate large sums for capital projects while keeping the maintenance and operation budgets very tight, I suppose it looks better if you are a politician and easier to understand.?
Click to expand...
The press scream "waste" over things like operations and maintenance, but let big ticket repairs off fairly easy. To a politician, that is no choice at all. The press hates the idea of regular payments to things, but one off costs they don't care so much about for some reason. I suppose it is harder to criticise vital repairs, than it is something to prevent repairs being needed. When you think about it, "we fixed this thing that was broken" is more justifiable than "we spent a lot of money making sure this thing didn't break, to no visible effect except the lack of breakage". I wonder if that attitude in the press is applicable to anything else? Ah, well.
 
Sir Peter Scott, Tom Rolt and others got the South Stratford Canal restored and adopted by the National trust, finished, IIRC, in the early 60's.

First mate and I navigated it in 1972, it was nearly derelict again, lock walls bulging inwards trapping full size boats, balance beams missing, paddle gear in appalling condition. Without ongoing and constant maintenance canals go backwards very quickly.

Worse thing we came across was a bottom gate refusing to fully open, not allowing us to leave the lock.

Much heaving and straining with an extra long pole dislodged a long dead full grown sheep from behind the gate.

Very smelly............................
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
Where will the swallows nest now?
Click to expand...

An interesting question but one perhaps better not asked, if the RSPB get wind that wildlife might be displaced the project will never go ahead. They nest in about four of the sets of gates that I know off and usually seem to manage two broods each summer. However it is not an ideal home, every few years exceptional summer rain can wash them out. Building up under the steel channel of the top frame would be a difficult arrangement to replicate. Imagine flying all the way back from southern Africa to find your ancestral home gone and no suitable alternative?
 
Quandary said:
An interesting question but one perhaps better not asked, if the RSPB get wind that wildlife might be displaced the project will never go ahead. They nest in about four of the sets of gates that I know off and usually seem to manage two broods each summer. However it is not an ideal home, every few years exceptional summer rain can wash them out. Building up under the steel channel of the top frame would be a difficult arrangement to replicate. Imagine flying all the way back from southern Africa to find your ancestral home gone and no suitable alternative?
Click to expand...
I always find wildlife fascinating , I remember joining the WWF when 7 and was a bird twitcher in my early days ,
So fascinated by the swallows never knew they nested in the canal gates
I take it they nest under the girders , and will not he new gates have the same set up ,
But it is good news that they are taking the canal repairs seriously and moving forward with it, but as said are the gates themselves listed , and here's is a wee rabbit in the hole
Not my View I never signed it I promise :), Just though it was interesting , might not apply to Scottish Law as it will be different , anyways its just a petition found it when researching the Swallows
Archived Petition: Grant legal protection to Swallow, Swift and Martin nest sites not just nests.
 
As birds go, I have a lot more sympathy for swallows than I have for geese, the latter because of their depredations on the islands and a memory of being regularly subject to vicious unprovoked attacks by two ganders when trying to collect my future wife from her family farmyard.
I would presume the proposed replacement gates will have buoyancy chambers like those on the Cally, some of the steel gates on the Crinan have steel chambers but these have long since filled with water, hence the difficulty with lock 5. If they are moulded as a hollow matrix to give adequate stiffness they may not have the type of space the swallows favour for building.
When I moved here I built a double garage with a storage loft/ workshop above it. A couple of the canal swallows immediately took possession of the spaces in the web of the central steel beam supporting the floor over, I was happy enough though they did shit on the cars but Building Control insisted the loft was a habitable room and therefore the steel and timber floor had to have a ceiling to increase the escape time, so I had to persuade the swallows to quit. Brave wee things, they were determined not to go, tried all sorts of noises, lights etc. in the middle of the night, even showed them a neighbours cat but I had to wait for winter to do the job.
I will try and persuade Scottish Canals to provide suitable ledges somewhere, perhaps on the flank walls below the locks, it will deny the swallows the regular excitement of swinging back and forward as the gates are used. not a big expense in a budget of this scale.
 
Last edited:
Off thread, I know, but the house martins at Largs Marina amuse me, as they build their nests at the top of the mobile hoist and so they have a mobile home at it trundles around the boatyard. The youngsters even have a change of scenery whilst they are growing up. They will be a bit puzzled this year as it is not moving as there are no boat movements. Birds quickly find new nest sites. Whilst Portavadie Marina was being developed there was a huge pile of spoil that had been half dug away; A flock of sand martins saw it and adopted it as their home for that year, but by the next year it had all been used up.

It would be good if something was done on the Crinan. Will they have a sensible priority programme, like working on the sea locks early to cut down on water loss. It would be interested to know how much of the water feeding the canal is actually used for boat movements and how much is lost through leakage.
 
More than half, if the constant leak feed coming over Lock 3 stops I wake up, baffled by the strange silence. It leaks even more at the Crinan end, that is why they have to run water full blast at Dunardry for up to three hours each morning. While the obvious loss is through the locks there is also considerable seepage through the banks above the River Add.
 
Kukri said:
What’s the practical depth?
Click to expand...

Down to 2.1 metres these days, but if you give notice they can top it up to take 2.4m though that usually means running water at Dunardry to raise the western reach until close to mid-day so a late start if you are coming from Crinan. Going west they usually have enough by the time you get there. There are stories of a couple of shallow spots or obstructions but not everyone seems to find them, and some of the landings are hard to get on to.
 
Quandary said:
Down to 2.1 metres these days, but if you give notice they can top it up to take 2.4m though that usually means running water at Dunardry to raise the western reach until close to mid-day so a late start if you are coming from Crinan. Going west they usually have enough by the time you get there. There are stories of a couple of shallow spots or obstructions but not everyone seems to find them, and some of the landings are hard to get on to.
Click to expand...

Thanks.
 
Quandary said:
Down to 2.1 metres these days, but if you give notice they can top it up to take 2.4m though that usually means running water at Dunardry to raise the western reach until close to mid-day so a late start if you are coming from Crinan. Going west they usually have enough by the time you get there. There are stories of a couple of shallow spots or obstructions but not everyone seems to find them, and some of the landings are hard to get on to.
Click to expand...
I draw 1.6m and hit an obstruction near one if the landing stages at the Crinan end of the canal - I forget where. That was back in 2010 or 11.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top