Neptune's Staircase Locks and bobtail bridges on Caledonian Canal near Fort William, Scotland

(Satellite, 7,716 photos)

AtlasObscura, AEROID / CC BY-SA 3.0

For  the love of Narrowboats posted

Neptune's Staircase...

Neptune's Staircase  is a staircase lock comprising eight locks on the Caledonian Canal.

Built by Thomas Telford between 1803 and 1822, it is the longest staircase lock in Britain. The system was originally hand-powered but has been converted to hydraulic operation.

The current lock gates weigh 22 tons each, and require a team of at least three lock-keepers to operate the staircase. They usually operate on an "efficiency basis"; that is, they try either to fill each cut with ascending boats or with descending boats, or to allow for passing, i.e. a dropping craft to pass a rising craft on the same fill/empty cycle.

image credit... Pierre Lesage

Satellite

BritainExpress
"Neptune's Staircase is a series of 8 locks on the Caledonian Canal...The locks were designed by the famous Scottish engineer Thomas Telford and made to handle a change in elevation of 64 feet (19.5m). It is the longest staircase lock in Britain at over a quarter-mile in length (447m) and takes boats about 90 minutes to navigate from top to bottom (or vice-versa). The Staircase took 19 years to build, starting in 1803 and ending in 1822....Telford's design called for a depth of 20 feet (9m) but in the name of cutting costs, the actual finished depth was just 14 feet (roughly 4.5m). This cost-cutting proved shortsighted, as the shallow depth meant that the canal was unusable by most of the large ships being built when the canal was opened....The Caledonian Canal spans the Great Glen, linking Fort William to Inverness. It was designed by Telford to ease boat transport at a time when the Napoleonic Wars threatened British shipping. By travelling up the Canal boats could forego the dangerous trip around the north of Scotland."

A view looking down the staircase. It is near the southern end of the canal.

ScottishCanals

Street View, Jun 2017

The above street view was taken from a bobtail bridge. Note that the railroad bridge is also a bobtail bridge.

Satellite

A video of that bridge opening up.

barry watt, Oct 2023

The railroad bridge is also worth noting.

Street View, Mar 2023

I'm goint to "park" this 2;59 video about the Great Glen fault here for now. I assume this is the "straight line" on which the Caledonian Canal was built.